As Bastille Day approached, the creased, oily, white-tied lawyer who steers Vichy-france toward the New Order made ready to go through a mummery with the old Marshal who is no longer strong enough to steer. Pierre Laval and Marshal Pétain would stand at salute while buglers sounded taps before Vichy's memorial to the 1,300,000 Frenchmen who died under the banner of liberté, égalité, fraternité in World War I.
In Paris the Nazis had nothing to gain by any such theatrical display. On the eve of Bastille Day they simply announced that if any Frenchman who committed sabotage or attacked Germans did...
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