Battle of Gabon
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The Battle of Gabon or the Battle of Libreville was part of the West African Campaign of World War II fought in November 1940. The battle resulted in the Free French forces under General Charles de Gaulle taking Libreville, Gabon, and liberating all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy French forces.
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[edit] Background
On 8 October 1940, General de Gaulle arrived in Douala. On 12 October, he authorized plans for the invasion of Gabon. De Gaulle also wanted to use French Equatorial Africa as a base to launch attacks into Axis-controlled Libya. For this reason, he personally left to survey the situation in Chad to the north. Chad shares a border with Libya.[1]
On 27 October, Free French forces crossed into Gabon and took the town of Mitzic. On 5 November, the Vichy garrison at Lambarene capitulated. Meanwhile the main Free French forces under General Philippe Leclerc and General Marie Pierre Koenig departed from Douala, French Cameroon. Their goal was to take Libreville, Gabon.[1]
[edit] Course of battle
On 8 November 1940, HMS Milford sunk the Vichy submarine Poncelet.[2] Koenig's force landed at Pointe La Mondah. His forces included French Legionnaires (including the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade), Senegalese, and Cameroonian troops.[1]
On 9 November, Lysander aircraft operating out of Douala bombed the Libreville aerodrome. Koenig's force met stiff resistance approaching the city. But eventually he took the aerodrome. Free French naval forces, including the colonial sloop Savorgnan de Brazza attacked and sank the Vichy colonial sloop Bougainville. The Bougainville was the sister ship to the Savorgnan de Brazza.[1] [2]
On 12 November, the final Vichy forces capitulated at Port Gentil. Governor Masson, despairing of his actions, committed suicide. [1]
[edit] Aftermath
On November 15, de Gaulle's personal appeal failed to persuade most of the captured Vichy soldiers, who, along with General Tetu, were interned as prisoners of war in Brazzaville, Congo for the duration of the war.[1]
