In 1940 Chad became internationally prominent when its lieutenant governor, Félix Eboué, led the rest of the French Equatorial African (AEF) federation to support Free France under Charles de Gaulle rather than the government of Vichy France. Chad became the base for Colonel Jacques Leclerc's conquest of the Fezzan (1940–1943), and the entire episode became the basis of an enduring sentimental bond between Chad and the France of de Gaulle's generation. More funds and attention flowed to Chad than ever before, and Eboué became the governor general of the entire AEF in November 1940.