days before setting out for Spain. He managed to obtain a visa on the second attempt, being refused the first time for carrying too much money with him. Once in Spain he took a train to Madrid, and then to Lisbon, where he went to the British embassy, which arranged his passage to Britain on a merchant ship, the SS Hillary. Africa Leclerc arrived in London on 25 July 1940, and met with de Gaulle, who announced that he was promoting him to Chef d'escadrons (major). He also encountered his cousin Pierre de Hauteclocque, Xavier's brother, who was serving with the 13e Demi-Brigade de Légion Étrangère (13e DBLE, an infantry regiment of the French Foreign Legion). This was the largest unit that had joined the Free French Forces. After participating in the Battles of Narvik, it had found itself in Britain when France surrendered. Formed after the war began, it contained many men who had fought for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War, and many refugees from Nazi and Fascist countries. Leclerc then offered his own services to the unit, but its commander, Colonel Raoul Magrin-Vernerey, rejected his offer on the grounds that he was high-born, over-qualified and a cavalryman. Instead, in August 1940, de Gaulle ordered Leclerc to French Equatorial Africa, where the local leaders had declared themselves for Free France, as the governor of French Cameroon. At this time he adopted Leclerc as his nom de guerre, so that Thérèse and their children would not be put at risk if his name appeared in the papers. He quickly secured the Free French grip on Cameroon. He then led a force consisting of the 13e DBLE and Senegalese Tirailleurs against Gabon, whose local leader supported Vichy France. The Battle of Gabon lasted from 12 October to 12 November 1940, and ended with 20 dead and Gabon in Free French hands. Vichy prisoners were held as hostages in case Vichy France tried to retaliate against the families of Free Frenchmen. When Louis-Michel-François Tardy, the Bishop of Libreville, refused to conduct a mass to celebrate the victory, Leclerc had him arrested. Capitaine de corvette Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu conducted the service in his capacity as a Carmelite priest. With Gabon in hand, de Gaulle sent Leclerc to Chad, the only Free French territory that shared a border with territory controlled by Axis Powers, along its Sahara Desert border with Italian-controlled