18 June 1940 · BBC, London
De Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June
The setting
Six weeks after Germany attacked in the west, its armies had broken the French front and entered Paris, and Marshal Philippe Pétain, the new head of government, announced that France must seek an armistice. Charles de Gaulle, a junior general and under-secretary for war, flew to London and, with Churchill's support, spoke to France over the BBC the next evening.
Key passage
Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not and shall not die.
Broadcast on the BBC, 18 June 1940, translated from the French. Few heard it, and no recording was made. Quoted briefly: the full text is still under copyright.
What followed
Pétain signed the armistice four days later and set up the collaborating regime at Vichy, which had de Gaulle condemned to death in his absence. From London de Gaulle built Free France and rallied the resistance, and in August 1944 he walked down the Champs-Élysées in liberated Paris as head of the provisional government.