Dakar, West Africa, 1940
After the fall of France, Charles De Gaulle, self-appointed head of the Free French forces opposing the Vichy government and the Germans, convinced Winston Churchill that the French troops and colonial forces in French West Africa could be persuaded to join the British. A joint British and Free French task force was dispatched to Dakar, de Gaulle with them commanding French troops, to convince the garrison there to join the fight against the Germans. De Gaulle, who believed his presence would suffice to persuade the French to join him found himself fired upon by the French defenders of Dakar, which also held the gold reserves of the Bank of France and the Polish government in exile.
The Vichy forces, including several ships and submarines of the French Navy, defended the colony against the British and Free French for several days, refusing to surrender or change sides. De Gaulle attempted to land troops, failed, and then decided that French fighting against French was an exercise in futility and called off the attack. The British battlecruiser Resolution was heavily damaged, and had to be taken under tow to Cape Town for repairs. The British and French forces finally withdrew when they were unable to take the port, leaving de Gaulle humiliated and West Africa in the hands of the Vichy government.