The armed forces rallied to Free France were called Free French Forces (FFL).
Their emblem was the cross of Lorraine. We distinguish within the FFL, the Free French Air Force (FAFL) and the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL), the Land Forces of Free France having no other name than FFL. The insignia of these land forces is a red sword between two blue wings and a laurel wreath with the inscription France Libre[1] at the top. Even after the war, General de Gaulle still wore this insignia when he was in uniform.
One of their main military successes was the battle of Bir Hakeim, from May 26 to June 11, 1942, in Libya, where the 1st Free French Brigade, under the command of General Kœnig, halted the rush of the Afrika Korps towards Suez, thus giving the routed British 8th Army time to regroup on the fortified line of El Alamein, and halt Rommel's advance towards the canal there definitively. This victory showed our allies that the French army had just been reborn. Indeed during these 14 days, 3700 soldiers will resist the 40,000 men of ROMMEL. Even with their tanks, their planes and a numerical superiority, they did not succeed in passing. Of these 3700, there were 800 deaths.
A lesser-known battle was the war waged in Syria and Lebanon against Vichy forces in June and July 1941.
These forces were made up of volunteers from all walks of life who refused the armistice signed by the traitors of the Vichy government. The following anecdote, told by Pierre Clostermann (in A life like no other, ed. Flammarion (2005)) gives an idea of the state of mind of the time; to a commander who reproached a comrade of Clostermann for having yellow socks and a yellow sweater under his uniform, the said comrade replied:My Commander, I am a civilian who comes voluntarily to make the war that the military does not want to do!
The FFL ceased to exist on August 1, 1943 following their merger with the African Army commanded by Henri Giraud.