25 Years After Verdun

In February 1916, in the second year of World War I, the German Army launched its attack on the fortress of Verdun. Although forced to yield ground, 59-year-old General Henri Philippe Petain held Verdun and the German drive collapsed. Last week Germany found Marshal Petain, now 84, the same stubborn tactician.

There were vast differences between Verdun of 1916 and Vichy of 1941. Behind Verdun was an Allied Army of hundreds of thousands; behind Vichy is an ill-supplied North African Army and a badly damaged French Fleet. The France of 1916 could draw on the resources of the British Empire; the France of 1941 is, officially, not even friends with Great Britain. France of 1916 was fighting for dominance of Europe; 1941 France is fighting for its life as a nation.

But Henri Philippe Petain stood in the same position: squarely in the path of Germany's ambition. When Super-Politician Adolf Hitler dictated his-armistice terms to a shattered France last June he undoubtedly planned to proceed by the rule he laid down in Mein Kampf: "A shrewd conqueror will always enforce his exactions on the conquered only by stages. Then he may expect that a people who have lost all strength of character will not find in any of these acts of oppression . . . sufficient grounds for taking up arms again." This time, however, Adolf Hitler found at the head of the conquered nation, not a politician of the sort he had been used to dealing with, but a soldier.

And that soldier was determined to recreate in his people precisely the thing Hitler was determined to break down: strength of character. In eight months the Marshal has achieved a good deal of success. His people see him as the personification of patriarchical strength of character. The Church, both Catholic and Protestant, supports him for his endorsement of religion. And last week Chief of State Henri Philippe Petain felt strong enough to stand against the Germans again as he had done 25 years ago at Verdun.

Strategic Retreat. The crisis in Franco-German relations had come at last. It had been brewing since December, when the Marshal dismissed Pierre Laval--a politician of the sort that Adolf Hitler can deal with. The Marshal's trusted aide, Admiral Jean Darlan, was in Paris conferring with Laval and with Hitler's Ambassador, Otto Abetz. Admiral Darlan was empowered to offer Laval reinstatement in the Government on an equal footing with himself and War Minister General Charles Huntziger, the Marshal retaining supreme authority. That was the Marshal's strategic withdrawal to positions he had previously prepared.

Laval wanted more. As on the night of his dismissal, he demanded authority for himself, with the Marshal as a figurehead. To back up his demand he offered tempting concessions on the part of the German conqueror. More war prisoners would be released. The cost of occupation would be reduced from $8,000,000 to $3,600,000 a day. The boundaries of unoccupied France might be extended, possibly to include Paris. Admiral Darlan took a train back to Vichy, half won over to Laval's cause.

In Vichy U. S. Ambassador William Daniel Leahy held a conference with the Marshal and told him that the British had agreed to let more food shipments into France. Since Laval and the British despise one another, the Ambassador did not have to stipulate that the British would undoubtedly change their minds if Laval got supreme power. From North Africa General Maxime Weygand proclaimed that France would never agree to the occupation of Bizerte or any other part of Tunisia, and from farther east came news of the British capture of Bengasi (see p. 36). These things helped to keep the Marshal's spine stiff in the face of an enemy who had conquered France and might be expected to take what he wanted instead of dickering about it.

Day earlier the Marshal had called Admiral Darlan. General Huntziger and Foreign Minister Pierre Etienne Flandin together for a meeting of his Ministerial Council. Flandin opposed and Darlan got into an argument over the extent of collaboration that should be offered to Germany. The Marshal held to his stand that collaboration should be offered, but that it must be within the terms of the Armistice. On Laval's demands he was obdurate. Laval might return to a "Ministry of State as a member of a committee"--nothing more. Admiral Darlan went back to Paris with this offer in his pocket.

In Paris he talked to Hitler's Abetz again. He talked to Laval and to Fernand de Brinon, Vichy's Ambassador to Paris and Laval's man. Laval, playing for all or nothing, flatly refused the Marshal's offer. If he had expected the Germans to force him on Vichy, he was disappointed. Admiral Darlan had apparently persuaded Herr Abetz of his own worth as a collaborator, and he returned again to Vichy with the blessing of Herr Abetz and his boss. The Paris radio began praising Darlan and the German radio complimented Marshal Petain on his "spirit of comprehension."

Next Move? The old Marshal still held the fortress. He had forced Adolf Hitler to accept his own man as working chief of the Government, had retained supreme authority for himself. The French Fleet and Empire remained French. Foreign Minister Flandin resigned and Admiral Darlan became France's new strong man: Vice Premier, Foreign Minister, Navy Minister and Petain's successor-designate. For the moment tension was eased. How long it would be before Adolf Hitler began pressing new demands, no one knew.

In the midst of the tension a strange story had been broadcast to the world. The story: Marshal Petain and Admiral Darlan had flown to North Africa and rioting was going on in Vichy. The story originated in Bern, was broadcast by the German radio, picked up and repeated by the British radio. Germany claimed that its radio had broadcast a denial with the story, that the British radio had left out the denial and repeated the story to stir up bad feeling between France and Germany. Maybe this was true. Or maybe Germany just wanted to tell France what could happen if the new collaborators didn't collaborate.

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