Yankee Fighter

A rare and vivid firsthand account, written by one of the very first Americans to join the Free French Forces, as early as 1940.

The son of a Massachusetts industrialist, Hasey discovered France at the age of twenty, in 1937, going there to learn the language, but, captivated by Parisian life, decided to settle there and found a position with the jeweler Cartier. In August 1939, he enlisted in the American Field Service ambulance corps to support Finland against the USSR. Severely wounded, he returned to the United States, where he campaigned for the Allied cause and decided to travel to London to join Étienne Bellenger, director of Cartier, who introduced him to Charles de Gaulle. He then decided to enlist in the Free French Forces: assigned to the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion, he fought in Africa alongside Gaullist forces. John “Jack” F. Hasey took part in the Eritrean campaign and then the Syrian campaign, and was severely wounded at Bir Hakeim in 1941, during the attack on the Mezzeh position. He lost part of his jaw and underwent lengthy reconstructive surgery. His courage impressed General de Gaulle, who personally decorated him with the Croix de la Libération on 28 August 1941, an extremely rare distinction for a non-French citizen.

Only six American citizens hold the Croix de la Libération, among the 1,038 Compagnons de la Libération. Four received it as an honorary distinction, in recognition of their military or diplomatic role in the liberation of France, but without direct engagement in the FFL: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, decorated on 18 June 1945; Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, decorated posthumously in 1945; George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, decorated in 1945; and Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander in the Pacific, decorated honorarily in 1945.

Two were decorated on a personal, non-honorary basis, that is, for direct combat engagement in the Free French Forces: John F. Hasey, as early as 28 August 1941, and William G. Capitain, a pilot in the Free French Air Forces, killed in action in 1944 and decorated posthumously in 1945.

John Hasey is the only American honored as a Compagnon de la Libération during the war itself.

After a long convalescence, and unfit for combat, John Hasey became military attaché at the French Embassy in Washington, appointed directly by de Gaulle, whom he served as an informal ambassador between London and the American authorities, notably to secure recognition of the legitimacy of Free France.

It was in 1942 that he published Yankee Fighter: The Story of an American in the Free French Foreign Legion, recounting his enlistment and his devotion to the French cause. This account — published while the war was still raging — was praised for its honesty, intensity and fidelity to Gaullist ideals, and helped raise American public awareness of the Free French cause at a time when de Gaulle’s position was still precarious.

John Hasey later became a military instructor in the West Indies, then joined General Koenig’s staff in 1944; he followed him to Paris “when the latter was appointed military governor in August 1944. Demobilized in 1945, he returned to his position at Cartier. In 1949, he chose to return to his native country and joined the CIA, where he worked until his retirement in 1974” (Vladimir Trouplin, John Hasey, un américain au service de la France libre, catalogue Un Exil Combattant, Gallimard, 2025).

The recent exhibition at the Hôtel national des Invalides, at the Musée de l’Armée (Un Exil Combattant, February–June 2025), devotes an entire display case to him, exhibiting his officer’s tunic and a copy — lacking its dust jacket — of this rare first edition.