It is impossible for the government to abandon French soil without emigrating, without deserting. Consideration has been given to removing the sidewalk ribbon denoting the parade for Pétain, given his role with the Nazis in World War II. [68], His sometime protégé Charles de Gaulle later wrote that Pétain’s life was "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre". [45] At midnight on 15 June 1940, Baudouin asked the Spanish Ambassador to submit to Germany a request to cease hostilities at once and for Germany to make known its peace terms. Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain. [57] Pétain was made a marshal of France in November 1918 and was subsequently appointed to the highest military offices (vice president of the Supreme War Council and inspector general of the army). Pétain was born in Cauchy-à-la-Tour (in the Pas-de-Calais département in Northern France) in 1856. Philippe Pétain, in full Henri-Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain, (born April 24, 1856, Cauchy-à-la-Tour, France—died July 23, 1951, Île d’Yeu), French general who was a national hero for his victory at the Battle of Verdun in World War I but was discredited as chief of state of … [29] Although Le Petit Journal was conservative, Pétain's high reputation was bipartisan; socialist Léon Blum called him "the most human of our military commanders". In the southern part of France, left free by the armistice agreement, he set up a paternalistic regime the motto of which was “Work, Family, and Fatherland.” Reactionary by temperament and education, he allowed his government to promulgate a law dissolving the Masonic lodges and excluding Jews from certain professions. However, on his birthday almost three weeks later, he was taken to the Swiss border. On 10 June, the government left Paris for Tours. Updates? Acting heads of state are denoted by an asterisk. He said that France had lost faith in her destiny. During a cabinet meeting that day, Reynaud argued that before asking for an armistice, France would have to get Britain's permission to be relieved from their accord of March 1940 not to sign a separate cease-fire. Colonel de Villelume subsequently stated before a parliamentary commission of inquiry in 1951 that Reynaud, as Premier of France, said to Pétain on that day that they must seek an armistice. Pétain came first, with 47,000, ahead of Pierre Laval's 31,000 votes. Born April 24, 1856 at Cauchy-à-la-Tour, France, Philippe Pétain was the son of a farmer. He would not forget that the Radical leader, Édouard Daladier, even voted against the whole package, on the grounds that the Army was still too large.[20]. [6], Unlike many French officers, Pétain served mainly in mainland France, never French Indochina or any of the African colonies, although he participated in the Rif campaign in Morocco. Select from premium Marshal Philippe Pétain of the highest quality. Pétain, amongst others, took exception to the use of the term "revolution" to describe what he believed to be an essentially conservative movement, but otherwise participated in the transformation of French society from "Republic" to "State." He was imprisoned in a fortress on the Île d’Yeu off the Atlantic coast, where he died at the age of 95. Corrections? His job as Commander-in-Chief came to an end with peace and demobilisation, and with Foch out of favour after his quarrel with the French government over the peace terms, it was Petain who, in January 1920, was appointed Vice-Chairman of the revived Conseil supérieur de la Guerre (Supreme War Council). He was originally sentenced to death, but due to his age and World War I service his sentence was commuted to life in prison. He was told, in addition, by Maurice Gamelin, that if the plebiscite in the Territory of the Saar Basin went for Germany it would be a serious military error for the French Army to intervene. Still, the handshake he offered to Hitler caused much uproar in London, and probably influenced Britain's decision to lend the Free French naval support for their operations at Gabon. Police retrieved the coffin a few days later, and it was ceremoniously reburied with a presidential wreath in the Île d'Yeu as before.[70]. [11], Pétain ended the war regarded "without a doubt, the most accomplished defensive tactician of any army" and "one of France's greatest military heroes" and was presented with his baton of Marshal of France at a public ceremony at Metz by President Raymond Poincaré on 8 December 1918. [57] The latter wrote a sarcastic reply, telling Pétain that he should have "thought of this before". His views were later proved to be correct during the First World War. Eight were initially undecided but swung towards an armistice. Pétain was invited, on 8 February, to join the new French cabinet as Minister of War, which he only reluctantly accepted after many representations. [32] Pétain was now in his 80th year. [23] His first report on air defence, submitted in July that year, advocated increased expenditure. After it was concluded, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, meeting in Vichy, conferred upon him almost absolute powers as “chief of state.”. [48] Nearly all French historians, as well as all postwar French governments, consider this vote to be illegal; not only were several deputies and senators not present, but the constitution explicitly stated that the republican form of government could not be changed, though it could be argued that a republican dictatorship was installed. His father, Omer-Venant, was a farmer. – was actually uttered by Robert Nivelle who succeeded him in command of the Second Army at Verdun in May 1916. Hero of Verdun: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain - Warfare History Network Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain disdained election as president, but became chief of Vichy France anyway. French commander-in-chief Maxime Weygand expressed his fury at British retreats and the unfulfilled promise of British fighter aircraft. On 26 October 1931, Pétain was honored with a ticker-tape parade down Manhattan's Canyon of Heroes. On 5 December 1925, after the Locarno Treaty, the Conseil demanded immediate action on a line of fortifications along the eastern frontier to counter the already proposed decline in manpower. He secretly sent an emissary to London, met with the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, whom he urged to refuse free passage of Adolf Hitler’s army to North Africa, and maintained a cordial relationship with Admiral William Leahy, the U.S. ambassador to Vichy until 1942. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. After lunch, Churchill’s telegram arrived agreeing to an armistice provided the French fleet was moved to British ports, a suggestion which was not acceptable to Darlan, who argued that it would leave France defenceless. Von der Goltz, Anna, and Robert Gildea. [citation needed] Summer maneuvers in 1932 and 1933 were cancelled due to lack of funds, and recruitment to the armed forces fell off. The regime organised a "Légion Française des Combattants," which included "Friends of the Legion" and "Cadets of the Legion", groups of those who had never fought but were politically attached to the new regime. The government later transferred him to the Fort de Pierre-Levée citadel on the Île d'Yeu, a small island off the French Atlantic coast. He was a distinguished veteran of World War I and in particular the battle of Verdun. However, aged 58 and having been told he would never become a general, Pétain had bought a villa for retirement.[7]. Pétain proved a capable opponent of the Germans both in defence and through counter-attack. "The enthusiasm of the country for the Maréchal was tremendous. His important success that year was in getting Daladier's previous proposal to reduce the number of officers repealed. Pétain championed a rural, Catholic France that spurned internationalism. Philippe Pétain, "La securité de la France aux cours des années creuses", Learn how and when to remove this template message, Provisional Government of the French Republic, 1914–1918 Inter-Allied Victory medal (France), 1914–1918 Commemorative war medal (France), "Birth certificate of Pétain, Henri Philippe Benoni Omer", « Cachet de la sous-préfecture de Dinan, 6 décembre 1943, État français (Régime de Vichy) », Un homme d’influence à Vichy : Henry du Moulin de Labarthète, Pétain et la fin de la collaboration: Sigmaringen, 1944–1945, "Armée active: nominations et promotions", "Armée active: promotions et nominations", "Le president de la Republique Francaise", "Tableaux de concours pour la Legion d'Honneur 1901", "Marshal Pétain and French nationalism: The interwar years and Vichy", Adolf Hitler's Letter to Marshal Petain Announcing Complete German Occupation of France, Adolf Hitler's Letter to Marshal Petain Announcing Decision to Occupy Toulon, Article on Philippe Pétain by the Académie française, Newspaper clippings about Philippe Pétain, Vice President of the Superior War Council, Claude Louis Hector de Villars, Duke of Villars, Honoré Armand de Villars, Duke of Villars, Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation, Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Déportation, Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France, Franco-Spanish conquest of Morocco (1844–1932), Fédération d'action nationale et européenne, Association for the Defence of the Memory of Marshal Pétain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Philippe_Pétain&oldid=1000718575, École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr alumni, Expelled members of the Académie Française, Foreign recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States), Heads of government convicted of war crimes, Heads of government who were later imprisoned, Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, Knights Grand Commander (Senangapati) of the Order of Rama, People convicted of treason against France, Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army), Recipients of the Order of Karađorđe's Star, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from July 2017, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2018, Articles needing additional references from July 2020, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from July 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2013, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2011, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Léonore identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Yet his short period of total responsibility could not reverse 15 years of inactivity and constant cutbacks. Pétain commanded the Second Army at the start of the Battle of Verdun in February 1916. As to French artillery it had, basically, not been modernised since 1918. A ‘snap decision’ was made to put Philippe Pétain in command (Horne 1962, p.129). [30] Fascistic and revolutionary conservative factions within the new government used the opportunity to launch an ambitious programme known as the "National Revolution", which rejected much of the former Third Republic's secular and liberal traditions in favour of an authoritarian, paternalist, Catholic society. By May, Pétain required constant nursing care, and he was often suffering from hallucinations, e.g. The written text is submitted to Pétain: "The Reich Government instructs the transfer of the Head of State, even against his will". Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Philippe-Petain, The History Learning Site - Biography of Marshal Philippe Pétain, Spartacus Educational - Biography of Henri Philippe Petain, Philippe Pétain - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Philippe Pétain - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Later in the year, Pétain was stripped of his right of direct appeal to the French government and requested to report to Foch, who increasingly assumed the co-ordination and ultimately the command of the Allied offensives. "When Goering returned to Germany he spoke admiringly of Pétain, describing him as a 'man of honour'". Then, in June of 1940, a new prime minister was elected to head the newly incorporated French Vichy government, a Nazi puppet entity: Maréchal (Marshal) Philippe Pétain. Neither Pétain nor his successive deputies, Laval, Pierre-Étienne Flandin, or Admiral François Darlan, gave significant resistance to requests by the Germans to indirectly aid the Axis Powers. The Vichy regime was ultra-conservative, anti-democratic, anti-semitic, and strongly authoritarian, with the 84-year old Petain at the top. The others did not, seeing the offer as insulting and a device to make France subservient to Great Britain, as a kind of extra Dominion. Pétain, who was 84 years old in 1940, ranks as France's oldest head of state. The Conseil had no option in the straitened circumstances but to agree. [42] The outcome of the meeting is uncertain. He then became Commander-in-Chief of the entire French army, replacing General Nivelle, whose Chemin des Dames offensive failed in April 1917, thereby provoking widespread mutinies in the French Army. [21] Pétain had based his strong support for the Maginot Line on his own experience of the role played by the forts during the Battle of Verdun in 1916. De Gaulle, who was President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic at the end of the war, commuted the sentence to life imprisonment due to Pétain's age and his military contributions in World War I. Theirs was the last street in France named for the white-mustachioed Marshal Philippe Pétain, hero of Verdun in the Great War. Philippe Petain joined the French Army and then attended the St Cyr Military School. This was France's highest military position, whose holder was Commander-in-Chief designate in the event of war and who had the right to overrule the Chief of the General Staff (a position held in the 1920s by Petain's protégés Buat and Debeney), and Petain would hold it until 1931. Rather than resigning, he maintained in a letter to the French the fiction that "I am, and remain morally, your leader". Pétain's government acquiesced to the Axis forces demands for large supplies of manufactured goods and foodstuffs, and also ordered French troops in France's colonial empire (in Dakar, Syria, Madagascar, Oran and Morocco) to defend sovereign French territory against any aggressors, Allied or otherwise. In effect, he applied the basic principle that was a mainstay of his teachings at the École de Guerre (War College) before World War I: "le feu tue!" Vichy France, formally French State, French État Français, (July 1940–September 1944), France under the regime of Marshal Philippe Pétain from the Nazi German defeat of France to the Allied liberation in World War II. Pétain eventually came to the aid of the British and secured the front with forty French divisions. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). On the naval front, France had purposely overlooked building modern aircraft carriers and focused instead on four new conventional battleships, not unlike the German Navy. [13][14] Pétain was encouraged by friends to go into politics, although he protested that he had little interest in running for an elected position. While the latter favoured the offensive at all costs, Pétain held that a well-organized defensive was sometimes called for and that before any attack the commander must be sure of the superiority of his fire power. He even allegedly named his eldest son after the Marshal, although it is more likely that he named his son after his family ancestor Jean Baptiste Philippe de Gaulle,[22] before finally falling out over the authorship of a book he had said he had ghost-written for Pétain. Pétain turned a potential disaster for France into what some saw as a victory - at least, it was argued, Verdun did not fall to the Germans. Philippe Pétain was a French general who was declared a national hero in World War I but was later discredited and sentenced to death. De Gaulle later conceded that Pétain was right about that much at least.[38]. The October 1940 draft law shows the personal intervention of Vichy leader Marshal Philippe Pétain in closing a provision that was meant to spare French Jews from restrictions aimed at foreign Jews only. After having requested the Swiss ambassador Walter Stucki [fr] to bear witness to the Germans' blackmail, Pétain submitted. But the armistice was signed at Compiègne, in the same railway car used…, Most high-ranking Vichy officials (including Pétain and Laval) had moved eastward with the Germans; at the castle of Sigmaringen in Germany they adopted the posture of a government-in-exile.…. Chautemps then proposed a fudge proposal, an inquiry about terms. Battle of Britain. On 18 June, Édouard Herriot (who would later be a prosecution witness at Pétain's trial) and Jeanneney, the presidents of the two Chambers of Parliament, as well as Lebrun said they wanted to go.