The Marshal in the Great War
At the beginning of 1916, Pétain was sixty years old and he was appointed to defend Verdun. After he was finally found in Paris, in the company of Eugénie Hardon, his regular, he moved with his staff to the town hall of Souilly. There, he is appreciated by the soldiers, because he favors life over heroism, unlike Joffre who was ready to sacrifice thousands of men to recover a few meters of trenches. Pétain wanted to improve the living conditions of the soldiers, which was far from being the priority of the other officers, but he was recognized as having a sense of command.
On March 4, 1916, the front definitely need reinforcement. As it becomes difficult to use motor vehicles on the land ravaged by bombardments, horses and stagecoaches are used to bring in reinforcements. Thus, the readings remain regular. Later, Pétain will receive the title of "savior of Verdun".
On April 10, the Marshal's famous line arrives:“Courage… we'll get them! which will appear in all the newspapers of France, after the English and the French have broken all the assaults of the Kronprinz. The propaganda will use these words of encouragement so that they are addressed to all the French people. And the mutineers, for their part, will reformulate them in the following way:“Our leaders, we will have them! »
The Vichy regime
The armistice of June 22 succeeded the phoney war that began on September 3, 1939. Pétain's speech to the French insisted on the importance not only of "putting an end to hostilities. “, but also to obtain certain concessions from the Third Reich. “It is with a heavy heart that I tell you today that the fight must be stopped. » (June 17, 1940) Then follows the call of June 18 from General de Gaulle, inviting the French to resist. But the reputation of the Marshal (based on his victories during the Great War) and the recognition of the fatherland earned him the confidence of the French.
I have been with you in the glory days. Head of government, I am and I will remain with you in the dark days. Be by my side. The fight remains the same. It is about France, its soil, its sons. (June 20, 1940)
The armistice will be applied three days after its signing. France enters into collaboration on October 30, and the Vichy regime governs the country. France is then divided:the zone occupied by the Wehrmacht in the north and the free zone in the south. Another division operates between the Pétainists and the Gaullists, but also between Jews and non-Jews. The Vél d'Hiv (winter velodrome) roundup, still famous for having been the work of the French police, was the first deportation of women and children to Paris sanctioned by the Vichy regime.