Nice grid but De Gaulle hid in London rather than stay in France and lead.

definitely not easy but inventive and good red herrings, cheers

Three very well made groups. Homophones were reallly ridiculous.
As to yve, it's easy to talk 80 years down the line. Why, if you are going to editorialize, did you omit LeClerc? Or the soldiers that accompanied them? May as well add Sikorski and PIlsudski, who, in your view of history, should have just stayed put, undermanned and underequipped against the foe/foes and be slaughtered along with their troops. You are a total idiot without any historic perspective or grasp of the reality of the history. The work the governments and military in exile were essential in bringing down Germany by being in safe havens and receiving the intelligence, disseminating it for analysis, and getting the job done. You're a moron.

It was a good grid until that homophones group. That is probably the worst grouping I've ever seen on this website. Other than that well done man, but seriously wow!!