In February 1916, in the second year of World War I, the German Army launched its attack on the fortress of Verdun. Although forced to yield ground, 59-year-old General Henri Philippe Pétain held Verdun and the German drive collapsed. Last week Germany found Marshal Pétain, now 84, the same stubborn tactician.
There were vast differences between Verdun of 1916 and Vichy of 1941. Behind Verdun was an Allied Army of hundreds of thousands; behind Vichy is an ill-supplied North African Army and a badly damaged French Fleet. The France of 1916 could draw on the resources of the British Empire; the France of 1941 is, officially, not even friends with Great Britain. France of 1916 was fighting for dominance of Europe; 1941 France is fighting for its life as a nation.
But Henri Philippe Pétain stood in the same position: squarely in the path of Germany's ambition. When Super-Politician Adolf Hitler dictated his-armistice terms to a shattered France last June he undoubtedly planned to proceed by the rule he laid down in Mein Kampf: "A shrewd conqueror will always enforce his exactions on the conquered only by stages. Then he may expect that a people who have lost all strength of character will not find in any of these acts of oppression . . . sufficient grounds for taking up arms again." This time, however, Adolf Hitler found at the head of the conquered nation, not a politician of the sort he had been used to dealing with, but a soldier.
And that soldier was determined to recreate in his people precisely the thing Hitler was determined to break down: strength of character. In eight months the Marshal has achieved a good deal of success. His people see him as the personification of patriarchical strength of character. The Church, both Catholic and Protestant, supports him for his endorsement of religion. And last week Chief of State Henri Philippe Pétain felt strong enough to stand against the Germans again as he had done 25 years ago at Verdun.
Strategic Retreat. The crisis in Franco-German relations had come at last. It had been brewing since December, when the Marshal dismissed Pierre Laval—a politician of the sort that Adolf Hitler can deal with. The Marshal's trusted aide, Admiral Jean Darlan, was in Paris conferring with Laval and with Hitler's Ambassador, Otto Abetz. Admiral Darlan was empowered to offer Laval reinstatement in the Government on an equal footing with himself and War Minister General Charles Huntziger, the Marshal retaining supreme authority. That was the Marshal's strategic withdrawal to positions he had previously prepared.
Laval wanted more. As on the night of his dismissal, he demanded authority for himself, with the Marshal as a figurehead. To back up his demand he offered tempting concessions on the part of the German conqueror. More war prisoners would be released. The cost of occupation would be reduced from $8,000,000 to $3,600,000 a day. The boundaries of unoccupied France might be extended, possibly to include Paris. Admiral Darlan took a train back to Vichy, half won over to Laval's cause.