IWM (HU 109715)
Polish troops of the 4th Infantry Division standing in an assembly point in Ancenis, before their evacuation. The evacuation of that particular unit began on 16 June 1940 in Ancenis till 19 June 1940 when they reached La Rochelle to be evacuated on the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool. Note their uniforms of the French mountain infantry, the famed “Blue Devils” of the Chasseurs Alpins. The French had already equipped a similar outfit, the newly formed Polish Independent Podhalan Rifles Brigade (Samodzielna Brygada Strzelców Podhalańskich) under Brig. Gen Zygmunt Szyszko-Bohusz, which fought in Norway. IWM (HU 109715)