 Complete the following phrase:  As the war escalated, geopolitical boundaries and relationships in West Africa were shifting and uncertain. France surrendered to Germany, signing the Armistice of 22 June 1940, whereas Winston Churchill and Jean Monnet had contemplated the creation of a single Franco-British citizenship, uniting the two nations. Combat missions in Africa fired up, with Britain and its African colonies providing support to Charles de Gaulles Free France movement in the form of fices, communications, supplies, aircraft, and other resources, with the immediate goal of protecting Nigerian borders. Although the pro-Nazi, Vichy-controlled territory of French West Africa was threatening Nigerias northern border, de Gaulle gained control of Chad and the port of Libreville, Gabon by August and Cameroon by September. Oke underscored Britains support for de Gaulle and the value of Bathurst The Gambia to Free France when he hosted a delegation of Free French Officers who were waylaid there in early August. Clyde, a Short Empire S.30 series flying boat on which the officers were travelling, had been damaged on take-off from Lisbon, Portugal and was undergoing repairs in Bathurst. The delegation went on to Leopoldville, Congo and negotiated with French officers from Brazzaville in an effort to convince them to join Free France. Regional morale was further stressed in September 1940 by de Gaulles failure to secure a French West African strategic port during the 