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And, paradoxically, it was bad news for the people of Germany too. At any time in the past 16 months Hitler could have forced his tough servant Laval into power in Vichy, but he had chosen to follow the safer course of accepting the senile collaboration of old Marshal Petain. The change in Hitler's policy toward France must have meant that Hitler wanted something from the Government at Vichy which he had not needed before, something for which he would risk placing in Vichy's seat of power the most hated man in France.
Great events are brewing today in Western Europe. Perhaps Hitler himself is planning a surprise drive to the West (see p. 23. Perhaps Hitler fears an Anglo-American attempt to set up a second front in the West. News came last week that Germany's brilliant Field Marshal Karl von Rundstedt, hero of the Nazi drive into the Ukraine, had been shifted to the Western Front, whether for offense or defense, and placed in command of Germany's coastal forces from Norway's far North Cape to Hendaye on the Spanish border.
But whether Hitler drove west or defensively feared the west, in this crucial spring he would want all the help he could get from France both inside France and wherever French forces might profitably go into action. Pierre Laval was the man willing to deliver that help, whether he found himself a shield & buckler for the Führer or a cushion for Hitler's backside.
The Value of Petain. In the beginning, Marshal Petain had been a natural for Hitler. The old man was a totalitarian and a collaborationist who was also known to many Frenchmen as a French patriot. With his help the French Fleet and the French African bases were neutralized, forming a buffer between Britain and Axis operations in the Mediterranean. With his help democrats were purged from the French Navy, Army and police — a purge which Laval may find very handy.
The old Marshal also countenanced certain outright military aid to the Axis. French Indo-China was yielded to the Japanese, with the catastrophic results visible since Dec. 7. Last year Axis planes used Syrian airports en route to Iraq. Recently Vichy shipped gasoline and other supplies to the Axis Libyan armies from French North Africa. Rumors that Axis submarines work out of Dakar have constantly been heard, if as constantly denied.
Meanwhile, and perhaps most important of all, the Petain Government approved full economic collaboration with Germany. French production of planes, tanks, artillery and munitions for Germany has increased, despite sabotage by slowdown and sometimes by violence. France has shipped to Germany 14,000 head of cattle a month, huge quantities of cheese, potatoes, sugar beets, wheat, fruit, champagne and wine reserves. Some 100,000 French skilled workers have been moved to Germany.
The Trouble with Retain. Despite this torrential milking of France, Marshal Petain's collaboration was never 100% satisfactory to the Nazis. Even a year ago the Nazi-kept Les Nouveaux Temps was howling: "Collaboration must be expanded from the economic to the political plane to be really productive. It can be accomplished only by Laval."