We all know the photo, I got curious about who the man was so had a quick look on google.
The best info is here :
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/who-was-frenchman-who-cried.html
Apparently it is a photo of a certain M. Jerôme Barzetti and is part of a film sequence taken in Marseilles on 20 Feb 1941. The occasion was General de Gaulle and some Free French boarding some ships bound for Africa with some of the remaining standards of the French Army.
How did the Krauts let Vichy France let de Gaulle just walk out of Marseille? :huh:
The article says owt about De Gaulle, just that some regimental colors are being moved to Africa.
He's on the film about 50 minutes in. But watching it again I think the de Gaulle bit and the standards bit are indeed two separate incidents.
So that means it was the Vichy French who moved the standards to Africa? :unsure:
Yes, nothing to do with De Gaulle, who is in London at the time. These were the standards of the Levant, the colonial troops, that had fought in France in 1940. Many of the Senegalese prisoners were massacred by German troops, and most of the regiments were dissolved at the armistice. The standards were returning to North Africa.
Yes, apologies for the inadvertent misinformation.