When Charles de Gaulle boarded the small plane that took him from war-torn France to London on 17 June 1940, even he could not have foreseen the way in which he was launching himself on to the world stage. He was a little-known figure, a recently promoted two-star general acting in opposition to his country's legal government in the midst of catastrophic defeat. But that flight marked the start of a trajectory which would see him save his country twice and found a republic that endures to this day, marking him out as a truly unique figure fulfilling an intense sense of manifest destiny.
- From The General: Charles de Gaulle and the France He Saved by Jonathan Fenby
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