Chad, Gabon, and the Free France Dakar might have created

After Dakar, Free French success shifted toward Chad and Gabon under figures including Philippe Leclerc and Governor Félix Éboué. The passage singles out Éboué as an exceptionally able Black colonial administrator and one of the very few political leaders of African descent exercising major wartime authority. It then asks what might have happened if Boisson, Landriau, and Dakar's other senior officials had joined Free France. Their recognized administrative and naval rank could have forced de Gaulle to form a broader cabinet and surrender some of his preeminence. The movement would also have gained Richelieu, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, so the military reward would have come with a major political cost for de Gaulle. Mers-el-Kébir had made such a defection harder by deepening French mistrust of Britain without decisively intimidating the remaining Vichy fleet.