Tag Archives: Petain

This week in the War, 21–27 December 1942: Vichy’s Admiral Francois Darlan is assassinated in Algiers

Admiral François Darlan, the one-time right-hand man of Vichy head-of-state, Maréchal Philippe Pétain, was assassinated in Algiers this week in the war, on 24 December 1942. At the time of the Operation Torch landings in North Africa, Darlan had switched his allegiance from … Continue reading

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This week in the War, 20–26 October 1941: Assassination in Nantes

This week in the war, around 7.30am on 20 October 1941, the Feldkommandant (German military governor) of Nantes, Lieutenant Colonel Karl Hotz, was assassinated by the French Resistance. The assassination took place at the rue du Roi Albert, close to … Continue reading

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This week in the War, 13–19 October 1941: Falling stars in Tokyo and Vichy

This week in the war, on 16 October 1941, Vichy head of state Maréchal Philippe Pétain pronounced prison sentences upon those he saw as responsible for the fall of France. He condemned former prime ministers, Léon Blum and Édouard Daladier, and … Continue reading

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This week in the War, 11–17 August 1941: The evil wind

On 12 August 1941, Vichy’s head of state Marshal Philippe Pétain made a radio broadcast to the people of France. He had felt an evil wind (vent mauvais) blowing across many areas of France, he told them. He said that the … Continue reading

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This week in the War, 9–15 December 1940: Laval dismissed

On 13 December 1940, Pétain fired vice-président du Conseil Pierre Laval from the number 2 spot in Vichy France. (They are pictured to the left). It served the scruffy 80-a-day chain-smoking anti-Semitic Laval right for blowing smoke in the Maréchal’s face once … Continue reading

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This week in the War, 21–27 October 1940: Entering the path of collaboration

This week in the war, on Thursday 24 October, Adolf Hitler and Maréchal Philippe Pétain, the leader of Vichy France, met at Montoire-sur-le-Loire. In most respects, the two men were remarkably different. Hitler spent his early life as an aspiring, though … Continue reading

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This week in the war, 1–7 July 1940: England’s Last War Against France

England’s last war against France—as recounted in Colin Smith’s book of that very title—was not fought in Napoleonic times. We are not talking Wellington versus Bonaparte at Waterloo. Rather: Winston Churchill versus Marshal Philip Petain, leader of Vichy France. Their war … Continue reading

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