The designation ceased to exist in when the Free French Forces merged with General Giraud 's forces. The name was still in common use however, until the liberation of France in , when they became the French Air Army. Martial Henri Valin commanded them from to , then stayed on to command the Air Army.
A contingent of volunteers from South American countries such as Uruguay , Argentina and Chile was also created, as Free French officials recruited there personally. From a strength of in July , the ranks of the FAFL grew to by , including flyers [ clarification needed ]. A total of of these flyers were stationed in England , and were stationed in overseas theaters of operation. Valin was at the French military mission in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil at the time of his appointment and he had to complete his assignment there by February It took him 45 days to get to London to see de Gaulle and it was not until 9 July that Valin formally took office, taking over from the caretaker commander, Admiral Emile Muselier.
All FAFL aircraft were identified differently from those of the Vichy French air force, which continued to use the pre-war tricolor roundel. In order to distinguish their allegiance from that of Vichy France, the Cross of Lorraine - a cross with two parallel horizontal arms, with the lower arm slightly longer than the upper one - was the symbol of Free France chosen by Charles de Gaulle. The cross could be seen in the same places on FAFL aircraft where the roundels had been on all French military aircraft, that is, on the fuselage and upper and lower surfaces of the wings.
One of its first jobs was to try to persuade the governors-general of colonies in French West Africa to not submit to the orders of the Vichy government , and instead join the Free French in their fight against the Axis Powers.
Operation Menace was an Allied plan to either persuade Dakar to join the Allied cause, or capture it by force. De Gaulle believed this was possible. The Battle of Dakar was a failure, however. The port remained in Vichy hands, the FAFL envoys were arrested and imprisoned at Dakar by the Vichy authorities, and de Gaulle's standing was damaged. But Gabon remained loyal to Vichy, so, in mid- to late October , FAFL squadrons set out on photo-reconnaissance and leaflet-dropping missions.
