In the last week of November 1940, De Gaulle and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in London to discuss a proposed operation to take French Somaliland. Three Free French battalions, including Foreign Legionnaires, under Legentilhomme would establish themselves near the French Somali border and begin disseminating pro-Gaullist propaganda, seeking to justify the British action at Mers-el-Kébir, the attack on Dakar and the war in Syria. This was labelled Operation Marie. The Royal Navy was to ferry the Free French troops to East Africa. The French plan was enthusiastically approved by Churchill, but it was not implemented until the naval assets became available in February 1941. Nonetheless, in November a certain Major Hamilton went to Aden to begin preparing a "Mobile Force" for blowing up the railway from Djibouti to Dire Dawa. In the end, this plan was dropped, since it was not considered politic to upset the Vichyites at that moment.
