Secret files have revealed the astonishing level of ingratitude shown towards the British by Charles de Gaulle for defeating the Nazis and liberating France. Details of General de Gaulle’s attitude emerge in files released by the National Archives relating to the strange case of a French admiral called Emile Muselier.
di James Slack dal Daily Mail del 28 febbraio 2014 
In 1940, the admiral was the most senior French officer to join de Gaulle in London, where he was running a government in exile against France’s Vichy regime.
Muselier was arrested by the British for allegedly passing secrets to the Vichy government.
The evidence against him had been forged by the deputy head of de Gaulle’s own intelligence service, the Deuxieme Bureau.
Winston Churchill personally apologised for the arrest, but de Gaulle blamed the British. MI5 papers say he became ‘incurably suspicious’ of his British allies.
In May 1945, shortly after V E Day, de Gaulle – by then head of the provisional Government in Paris – summoned the British ambassador.
He told him: ‘We are not in a position at present to open hostilities against you, but you have insulted France and betrayed the West. This cannot be forgotten’.
The extraordinary secret papers released today also revealed that a lone MI5 agent went undercover to neutralise hundreds of Nazi sympathisers living in Britain during the Second World War.
The officer, given the alias Jack King, was sent to infiltrate groups of traitors by security chiefs alarmed at the strength of support for Hitler.
By posing as an undercover Gestapo officer, King was able to control groups of ‘Fifth Columnists’ who were trying to aid the Fascist cause.
The Nazi sympathisers believed they were successfully passing secrets to Berlin – but all the while the information was being handed straight to MI5.
