Philippe Pétain
Marshal Philippe Pétain became a national hero during the Great War, but chose to collaborate with the Nazis during World War II, forming the figurehead of the Vichy regime
A hero of the First World War, the old general’s Nazi puppet government earned him universal shame
On 23 July 1951, Henri Philippe Pétain died in exile on the windswept Île d’yeu south of the Brittany peninsula. It was an ignominious end for the old warrior, Marshal of France, hero of Verdun and the nation’s foremost soldier of the Great War.
During World War II Pétain had become his country’s chief collaborationist as France was crushed under the heel of Nazi occupation. At the age of 84, he led a defeatist faction that sought an armistice with the invaders rather than continuing the fight in the spring of 1940. He offered his people “the gift of his person” and pledged to remain in France rather than flee to Great Britain or safety in the colonies of North Africa.
Shame of collaboration
Seeking to preserve what he could for the French people, Pétain cooperated with Adolf Hitler, accepting the post as head of state in the puppet Vichy government just days after an armistice was signed and the humiliation of France was complete. Pétain established an authoritarian state, enacting right-wing laws, and allowing French slave labourers to be shipped off to work in the Third Reich. He sanctioned the repression of French Jews and turned a blind eye as non-french Jews were over time rounded up and deported to concentration camps.
Under Pétain, Vichy France adopted the slogan “Work, Family, Country” and the leader told his people that he sought “national revival”. In the spring of 1942, Pétain brought his deputy, Pierre Laval, to the forefront of Vichy politics, and the latter’s pro-nazi stance was unveiled for all to see.
Pétain later reasoned that he had walked a fine line, playing the “double game” of collaboration while hoping to dissuade the
Nazis from excesses in France. However, the extent of his cooperation with the occupiers was undeniable, and when he was tried and convicted for treason in the summer of 1945, the sentence was death.
Victory at Verdun
The drama of Pétain’s military and political career began in 1876 when, at the age of 20, he joined the French Army. He graduated from the prestigious military academy at Saint-cyr, ranking 403rd in a class of 412. Prior to World War I he held a succession of postings, but his career was unremarkable.
When war broke out, he was a 58-yearold colonel commanding an infantry brigade. However, his theories on firepower and the use of heavy artillery gained notoriety, and soon regular promotion came – partially because many other officers had sought glory with outmoded tactics, leading their soldiers into the teeth of enemy machine-gun fire and paying with their lives.
Elevated to division, corps and then army command, Pétain came to Verdun in February 1916. In an hour of desperation for France, he stabilised the situation, ordering up heavy guns and deploying them to more favourable positions, and implementing a policy of ‘Noria’, rotating soldiers from the front on a regular schedule to ensure that fresh troops were available in the trenches. He also visited combat areas to improve soldiers’ morale and reassure them that he would not throw their lives away in futile attacks.
Pétain retained command of French forces through to the end of the Great War but was subordinate to Marshal Ferdinand Foch, supreme commander of Allied forces. Nevertheless, in the inter-war period he was perhaps the best-known soldier in France, a national hero. Sometimes criticised as a pessimist, Pétain remained an influential figure as the military prepared to fight the next war. He contributed to the design and location of Maginot Line fortifications and served as minister of war in the 1930s.
As the Germans rolled across France in the spring of 1940, he served as deputy prime minister and then prime minister prior to the establishment of the Vichy regime.
Pathetic postscript
After the war, Pétain faced trial, but asserted that he was not answerable to the tribunal. In uniform, he stated: “The High Court, as constituted, does not represent the French people, and it is to them alone that the Marshal of France, Head of State, will address himself.”
The accused spent the rest of the proceedings in silence, and the evidence mounted. When the sentence of death was pronounced, General Charles de Gaulle, de facto leader of post-war France and Pétain’s one-time protégé, stepped in to commute the punishment to life in prison. Pétain was stripped of all military honours and ranks except the title of Marshal of France, his great contributions overshadowed by the shame of collaboration.
So it was that the old man descended into senility on the Île d’yeu, where he died and was buried. His last wish, to be interred with his soldiers who had perished at Verdun, was denied.