 Soon after the fall of France, Free France was but a government in exile based in England, with no land of its own to speak of and very few land or sea forces.In an attempt to establish his authority on an important French territory, General de Gaulle attempted to rally French West Africa by personally sailing to Dakar with a British fleet which included a few Free French units; at the same time, a cruiser force had been sent by Vichy France to reclaim African territories which had already announced their support to De Gaulle (notably Chad).The resulting Battle of Dakar ended on a Vichist victory.