In Frejus Teisseire attempted to convince the men to join the Free French Forces but without success. Instead, he was sent to West Africa where after many vicissitudes, he escaped from Dahomey to Lagos. Once there, a British administrator helped him to join the Free French Army in Chad. He was assigned to the 1st Company of the Regiment of Senegalese soldiers of Chad and in February 1942 was promoted to Adjutant. While training in Morocco, his regiment was evacuated to England. From there he took part in the D-Day landings and went on to fight German tank and infantry divisions in the Forêt d'Écouves. Badly wounded in a battle on the outskirts of Paris, he was discharged and sent to a hospital from which he escaped and hitch-hiked to Paris to rejoin his unit. He then fought with them in a series of battles at Andelot, Hourcourt, and Châtel-sur-Moselle. For his role in establishing the bridgehead across the Moselle, he was promoted to sub-lieutenant in September 1944. In November, he was again wounded (so seriously this time that he was given the Last Rites), but recovered and rejoined his unit to fight in the Ardennes-Alsace Campaign and eventually in Germany at Berchtesgaden.
