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Marshal Pétain

Philippe Pétain (1856-1951) Trained at the Saint-Cyr military school, a young general at the start of the 1914-18 war, Pétain organized the defense of Verdun in 1916. Commander-in-chief of the French armies in 1917, he was elevated to the rank of Marshal of France in 1918. After restoring the situation during the Rif War in Morocco (1925), he was appointed Minister of War (1934) then French Ambassador to Madrid (1939). At the same time, his influence remained great within the French general staff: there he defended defensive positional warfare (France's strategy when the Second World War broke out). After the French debacle, Pétain was called to the presidency of the Council on June 16, 1940. He requested an armistice and on July 10, 1940, obtained full powers from the Parliament, meeting in Vichy. He then founded the 'French State' and committed France to a policy of collaboration with Germany. At the Liberation, he was tried and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by General de Gaulle. He died on the Ile d'Yeu where he was imprisoned after his trial.