Maxime Weygand

Maxime Weygand (January 21st 1867 - January 28th 1965) is a general officer French, member of the French Academy. He played an important role at the time of the two world wars.

Origins

Weygand was born the January 21st 1867 with Brussels, in Belgium. According to certain sources, he would have been the illegitimate son of the Charlotte empress of Mexico. Weygand always refused to confirm or cancel this rumor.

According to Charles Fouvez who published in 1967 the Mystery Weygand with the editions of the Roundtable, Weygand would be the illegitimate son of the king Léopold II of Belgium. Although the formal evidences are not brought, there would exist according to him a forming beam of indices of the quasi-proofs. In the periodical History for all number 100 of August 1968, the author confirms his conviction on the basis of mail received by him after the publication of its book. Moreover, according to him, the mother of Weygand would be the countess Kosakowska, wife of noble of Lithuanian, but Russian origin in 1867.

It was high with Marseilles by the Cohen Jewish family of Leon. But curiously, its Mémoires remains completely quiet on his/her parents of adoption, whereas it lengthily pays homage to its controlling and the chaplain of its college which insufflated its catholic faith to him.

Military beginnings

Under the name of Maxime de Nimal, it is received in 1885 with the Military academy of Saint-Cyr military school as raises on a purely foreign basis (Belgian). Received with the contest of exit in 1887, it chooses the Cavalerie. It is then adopted, by a Mr Weygand, accountant of Mr Cohen of Leon, of which it takes the name, and is naturalized French.

At the time of the Business Dreyfus, it is announced as antidreyfusard while subscribing in favor of the widow of colonel Henry who had committed suicide when its falsification of the form showing was revealed Dreyfus.

Once Captain, Weygand chooses not to prepare the École of War, by calling upon its will to remain in contact with its men. He becomes however instructor with the school of cavalry of Saumur of 1902 to 1907, and 1910 to 1912. In 1913, it enters in the Center of the high military studies, where the general Joffre notices it.

First World War

At the beginning of First World War, Weygand is lieutenant-colonel with the 5th regiment of hussards to Nancy. It takes part in the battle of Morhange but is quickly named with the staff. Indeed, following the reorganization of the French command, wanted by the general Joffre to avoid a probable rout, it is affected as of the August 28th 1914, like Lieutenant-colonel, near the general Foch. It is named chief of staff of the general. Promoted Brigadier general in 1916 Major general, and temporarily in 1917, it is this title and this function which it always occupies when Foch is named Généralissime of the allied armies in March 1918. Foch, very satisfied with his/her collaborator, helps the career of Maxime Weygand. It is a rare example in the history of the French Army of the rise to the more high degrees of the hierarchy of an officer not having ordered with the face, which will be ironically underlined by the general de Gaulle in her Mémoires . In 1918, Weygand Foch second with the negotiations of armistice and give reading to the Germans of the conditions of armistice, with Compiegne, in the coach of Rethondes.

Between the two wars

Poland

In 1920, the Weygand general is named in Poland to advise Józef Piłsudski. It orders a group of French officers there, under the name of “French military Mission”, to come to assistance of the Poles in rout vis-a-vis the Russian forces. Indeed, Polish, after being itself committed in 1918 in the war against the Russia Bolshevik, was about to be beaten by the Soviet forces of Toukhatchevski.

The French intervention helped the Poles to gain the Bataille of Warsaw, after which they annexed Ukrainian and Belorusse territories.

The exact importance of the French military Mission is discussed. Certain Polish officers affirmed that the Bataille of Warsaw had been gained by them only, before the French mission could not write and send his report/ratio, point of view shared for example by the historian Norman Davies. Nevertheless, the French historians stress that the many French officers of its “mission”, broken with the combat, framed and informed a great part of the Polish army and contributed to its reorganization. Without speaking about the Polish aviation, of which number of pilots were French or American.

In times of peace

Weygand is made lieutenant-general of army in 1920 and general in 1923. It succeeds in Syria the general Gouraud, with the car of High-Commissioner of France. In 1924, it enters to the Superior council of the War. In 1925, it directs the Center of the high military studies. It is promoted chief of general Staff in 1930. In 1931, it is elected with the French Academy with the armchair of Joffre. Until 1935, he is vice-president of the Superior council of the war, and for this reason, denounces the danger hitlérien and condemns disarmament. It withdraws on January 21st 1935, leaving room to the general Gamelin, but is maintained in unbounded activity of age. In 1938, it expresses its optimism on the capacity of the French Army to overcome in the event of conflict.

Second world war

The Funny of war

On its request, Weygand is recalled to the active service by the president Edouard Daladier in August 1939 to direct the French forces to the the Middle East. It is asked to him to take again the place of High-Commissioner with Raising and to ensure it the French presence with limited manpower available. He prepares there an offensive against Soviet oils of the the Caucasus, the the USSR being then related to Germany by the pact germano-Soviet.

The defeat

In May 1940, the military situation in France east if compromised that the supreme commander, the general Maurice Gamelin, considered to be too passive, is isolated. Weygand is then called the May 17th by Paul Reynaud to replace it. At the same date, the marshal Pétain enters to the government. German armor-plated divisions, having bored since May 10th the face with Sedan, continue their race in the west and divided the French Army in two, locking up part of this one as well as the British troops in Belgium.

Weygand arrives to France the May 19th. The making of command with the Gamelin general lasts a few hours, during which this one gives to him an account of the extent of the defeat and informs him of the absence of reserves. Being unaware of the exact situation of the armies of North, Weygand cancels the last orders of Gamelin envisaging a counter-offensive. The communications with the armies of North being very difficult, it decides to go itself on the spot. May 21st, it arrives by plane at Ypres, where it meets the king of the Belgians Léopold III and the chief of the French Armies in Belgium, the general Billotte. Weygand then decides to take up the idea of a counter-offensive to cut the advanced German armor-plated columns. But it is too late: the infiltrated enemy tanks were followed the large one of the German forces. Furthermore, the Billotte general, in charge of the implementation of this counter-offensive dies accidentally the following day. The general Blanchard who succeeds to him did not attend the conference of Ypres, not more than the chief of the British task force Lord Gort, which had arrived too late at the meeting. In addition, this last refuses to engage two divisions and starts a movement of retirement of the British forces towards Arras, then Dunkirk. May 24th, Weygand must give up any offensive. The Franco-British armies, locked up in Belgium, must seek safety by Dunkirk.

May 25th, a council of war proceeds with the Elysium, joining together the president of the Republic Albert Lebrun, the president of the council Paul Reynaud, Philippe Pétain, César Campinchi, Minister for the navy, and Weygand. It is with this meeting that the assumption of an armistice is posed for the first time. In the days which follow, Paul Reynaud considers the creation of a Breton tiny room, option considered to be unrealistic by Weygand.

The conference of Briare

After the evacuation of 340.000 Franco-British with Dunkirk (May 31st/June 3rd 1940), the Wehrmacht lance an offensive the June 5th against a very weakened French Army, because much of material was lost in Belgium and in the Flandres. The colonel de Gaulle, promoted brigadier general, enters to the government as under-secretary of State to the war. The June 10th, the French government leaves the declared capital open city. On this same date, Italy enters in war against France.

June 11th, proceeds with Briare a supreme council free-ally in which takes part Churchill and Eden. During this council, it will appear tensions between French and English, but also of the fractures between the French soldiers and political directors. The French ask for the massive intervention of RAF only likely to change the course of the battle. In front of the refusal of Churchill which has a need for these 25 escadrilles of hunting for the later defense of the the United Kingdom, Franco-English alliance breaks, Churchill obtaining nevertheless Paul Reynaud the insurance which no definite decision of the French government would be made without referring to the British about it, and promising to him that the victorious United Kingdom will restore France “in her dignity and greatness”. Paul Reynaud is in favor of the continuation of the war. The idea of the Breton tiny room being given up, it considers the continuation of the combat in the Empire, whereas the marshal Pétain and the Weygand general are in favor of a fast armistice to avoid the destruction and the total occupation of the country. Paul Reynaud reminds Weygand that the decision of an armistice is of a political nature and does not raise of the généralissime.

Churchill notices that the only member French government not to be sunk in total pessimism, is the very recent general de Gaulle. Like Churchill, this one reasons in planetary term and does not limit this conflict, which it conceives world, with a simple Franco-German stake. Weygand believes on the contrary to attend only one new episode of the cycle started in 1870, and, like the Pétain marshal, it does not understand that the stake of 1940 (national constraint with perpetuity in nazifiée Europe) has nothing to do with that of 1870 (loss of three departments) or of 1914. As well Winston Churchill as the Général de Gaulle will describe in their memories Weygand defaitist, anglophobe and antirépublicain.

The armistice

At the time of the Councils of the ministers who are held in the days which follow, Weygand reiterates officially the need for an armistice, as well for military reasons as civic. With the rout of the French Armies, accompanied by the exodus of the Belgian and French populations, Weygand fears that the disorder is not spread in the totality of the country. The armistice appears the essential condition to him to maintain the order. Being based on false information which it did not check, it calls upon the installation in the Elysium of the communist chief Maurice Thorez, which would have returned from the USSR in the vans of Wehrmacht. The President of the council Paul Reynaud opposes to him political arguments, the danger of the Nazism, the agreements with England. Philippe Pétain supports Weygand, calling upon the ignorance of the civilians as for the questions of a military nature. The government divides.

The 15, with Bordeaux, Paul Reynaud, supported by Georges Mandel evokes a possibility of continuing the fight at the sides of the Great Britain: the army would capitulate in metropolis while government and Parlement would gain the North Africa. Weygand violently refuses this solution which he considers dishonouring for the army because it would have implied the only military authorities. Only the armistice appears honourable to him. It puts its resignation out of balance. Like Pétain, he judges also inconceivable that the government leaves the territory of the metropolis. Part of the government supports the proposal of Camille Chautemps consistent to enquérir conditions of a possible armistice. Isolated more and more, Paul Reynaud resigns on June 16th, leaving the place to Philippe Pétain. This one announces on June 17th that a request for armistice is deposited. The same day, Weygand is named Minister for National defense.

Although Weygand does not believe in a victory of the United Kingdom, from now on insulated in its fight against Germany, it however orders the transfer to the profit of the Great Britain of all the contracts of armament signed by France near American industries of armament, as well as the delivery in the British ports of all the armaments in the course of routing, whereas the French ports were under German control. This fact is attested by Jean Monnet in his Mémoires .

Weygand also refuses the dissidence of the general de Gaulle, and, on June 19th, it orders to him to return from London, being unaware of the invitation with pousuivre the combat that this last addresses to him. A little later it retrogresses de Gaulle with the rank of colonel, then convenes successively two military tribunals: Finding insufficient the sanctions imposed by the first court, he convenes of it a second who will condemn to dead the chief of Free France on August 2nd, 1940.

The Mode of Vichy

Weygand occupies the station of Minister for national defense in the Vichy government, for three months (June 1940 with September 1940), then is named Acting general in French Africa. There, it gets busy to prevent the young officers from joining the dissidence of de Gaulle. Hostile with the republican government, it shares the project of national Révolution of Philippe Pétain and its social project, and applies the policy of Vichy in all its rigor in North Africa.

In particular, it makes apply the racial laws decided by the Vichy government, in particular those which exclude the Jews from the public office, almost all the private activities and the university, and which places their goods under sequestration (see: Laws on the statute of the Jews). But it further goes than Vichy, by excluding, without any law, the Jewish children of the schools and colleges, with the support of the vice-chancellor Georges Hardy: It founds indeed, by a simple memorandum n°343QJ of September 30th, 1941, a school “numerus clausus” excluding the near total from the Jewish children of the public corporations of teaching, including elementary schools, “by analogy with the legislation of Higher education”, which did not arrive in metropolis.

It prohibits freemasonry, and locks up, with the support of the admiral Abrial, in prison camps of the south of the Algérie and Morocco, the volunteers foreign of the Foreign legion, the opponents with the mode, realities or supposed, and foreign refugees without work contract (although regularly entered to France).

The United Kingdom having resisted victoriously, contrary to its initial forecasts, it persisted in thinking, with the Pétain marshal, that, even if the United Kingdom were not going to be beaten, it was unable to gain the war. Weygand, like Pétain, thus considers a final agreement with Germany, with, if possible, the mediation of the United States (Robert O. Paxton, the Army of Vichy , p. 240). Weygand makes dissimulate certain manpower and armaments at the armistice Councils Italian and German. He also makes an effort, after the attacks of Mers-El-Kébir and Dakar, to reinforce the French Army of armistice in Africa, and gives his agreement to Rene Carmille for the punched card equipment of the offices of recruitment. He also makes pass certain colonial units for simple police force, and tries remobiliser the spirits, with in particular the creation of the “Chantiers of French youth” (created by the Général of the Door of Theil), which, in a strict marechalism, try to accustom youth to a new moral order. But when he learned, following a denouncement, that some officers of its entourage (the commander Faye, the commander Dartois, and the Beauffre captain) prepared with its intention a plan of re-entry in war with an American military aid, he made them stop and deliver to the courts, while saying: “It is not at my age that one becomes a rebel. ”

He negotiates however with the Americans of the conditions of supply, leading to an agreement signed with Robert Murphy on February 26th, 1941.

By its protests near the government Vichy, it ruins the protocols of Paris of the May 28th 1941 signed by Darlan, and in particular attribution with the enemy of bases to Bizerte and Dakar, as well as a military collaboration with the Axe, in the event of allied response. But, it was especially a question for him of not losing the face with respect to the natives. Indeed, he actively collaborated in writing pad with the enemy when the 4th Office of its General delegation delivered to the Afrika Korps of Rommel, 1.200 French trucks and other vehicles of stocks of the French Army (Dankworth contract in 1941), as well as a certain number of pieces of artillery heavy, accompanied by 1.000 shells per part.

Nevertheless Hitler, not being satisfied with a partial collaboration, exerted pressures on the Vichy government in order to obtain the reference of Weygand, which led to its recall in metropolis in November 1941. In November 1942, after the allied invasion of and total occupation North Africa of the metropolis, the Germans placed Weygand under house arrest in Germany, with the castle of Itter, depending administratively on Dachau. It finds there Paul Reynaud, Edouard Daladier and Maurice Gamelin, with which the reports/ratios will be tended. In May 1945, the prisoners are released by the Americans and conduits at the general headquarter of Ière French Army. At the time when the general of Lattre accommodates them, this last receives the order to stop the personalities having had functions near the Vichy government, order which relates to Weygand and Jean Borotra. Returned to France, Weygand is initially interned like defendant of collaboration to the Valley-of-Grace, then finally released in May 1946 and released from any responsibility in 1948, while profiting from a Non-lieu on all the counts of indictment by the High Court of justice.

It militates until its death for the rehabilitation of the marshal Pétain and its memory. With its death in 1965, the general de Gaulle will refuse that a solemn ceremony is held with the Invalides.

Sources and bibliography

Biography

François Weygand, Weygand, my father
Bernard Destremau, Weygand , Paris, Perrin, 1989 (foreword of Jean Guitton), and several later editions.

Weygand in Poland

Edgar Vincent d' Abernon, the eighteenth decisive battle of the world: Warsaw, 1920 , Pressure of Hyperion, 1977, ISBN 0883554291.
Piotr Wandycz, the Weygand General and the battle of Warsaw , Newspaper of Businesses of the Central Europe, 1960
Norman Davies, White Eagle, Red Star: the war polono-Soviet, 1919-20, Pimlico, 2003, ISBN 0712606947.

Weygand during the Second world war

Henri Michel, Vichy, the Forty , Robert Laffont, Paris, 1967.
Jean-Pierre Azéma and François Bédarida, Vichy and the French , Paris, Beech, 1996.
Yves Maxime Danan, Political life in Algiers, of 1940 to 1944 , general Bookstore of Right and Jurisprudence, Paris, 1963.
William Langer, American play in Vichy , Plon, Paris 1948.
General Albert Merglen, November 1942: The year of Shame , Harmattan, Paris 1993.
Georges Hirtz, Weygand, Years 1940-1965 , Georges Hirtz, 2003.
Robert O. Paxton, the Army of Vichy , ED. Tallandier, 2004
François-Georges Dreyfus, History of Vichy .

Works

the Marshal Foch : 1929.
Turenne . Paris: Flammarion, 1930.
on November 11th : 1932
military History of Méhémet-Ali and his sons , 2 vol.: 1936
How to raise our sons : 1937
History of the French Army . Paris: Is Flammarion, 1938.
France defended? : 1937
Foch : 1947
the general Brother : 1949
Memories , 1950-1957, Flammarion, 598 p.

T.1: Ideal lived
T.2: Mirages and realities
T.3: Recalled to the service

Forces of France : 1951
And which France lives! : 1953
By reading the memories of General de Gaulle , 1955, ED Flammarion, 234 p.
the Triumphal arch of the Star : 1960
History of the French Army , 1961, ED Flammarion, 493 p.
the Army with the Academy : 1962
the Chinese , unfinished uncle: 1962
new Letters relating to the wills of Their Majesties the king Louis XVI and the queen Marie-Antoinette : 1965

Random links: