Charles de-Gaulle joined the army in 1913 and fought with distinction in World War I. He was promoted to the staff of the supreme war council in 1925 and later on in 1940 he was promoted to brigadier general and served briefly as undersecretary of state for defense under Paul Reynaud. After the fall of France to the Germans, he left for England and initiated the Free French movement. Devoted to France and dedicated to its liberation, he moved to Algiers in 1943 and became president of the French Committee of National Liberation, at first jointly with Henri-Honoré Giraud. After the liberation of Paris, he returned and headed two provisional governments, then resigned in 1946. de-Gaulle opposed the Fourth Republic, and in 1947 formed the Rally of the French People (RPF), but severed his connections with it in 1953. He then went on to retire from public life and began writing his memoirs. When an insurrection in Algeria threatened to bring civil war to France, he returned to power in 1958 as prime minister with authority to reform the constitution. That same year he was elected president of the new Fifth Republic, which ensured a strong presidency. He ended the Algerian War and transformed France’s African territories into 12 independent states.
De Gaulle wrote three books on military tactics, Edge of the Sword (1932; translated 1960); The Army of the Future (1934; translated 1941); and France and Its Army (1938; translated 1945); and of War Memoirs (3 volumes, 1954-1959; translated 1955-1960) and Memoirs of Hope: Renewal and Endeavor (2 volumes, 1970-1971; translated 1972).