Philippe Pétain
Known as “le sauveur de la France” (“the Savior of France”), Philippe Pétain is one of those rare historical figures whose life you can split cleanly into two halves: the good and the bad. As Charles de Gaulle—first his protégé, later his adversary—would posthumously comment, Pétain’s life had been “glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre.” And it was during France’s darkest days of the Great War that Philippe Pétain could count his most glorious days.
Philippe Pétain rose from relative obscurity. A 58-year-old colonel commanding an infantry brigade, his organizational prowess, keen eye for detail and reliance on artillery swiftly propelled him through the ranks of the French military. By June 1915 he’d taken command of the Second Army and, despite the French failure to break through German lines at Champagne in September of that year, he was able to pinpoint specific strategic failings that could be put right in the future.
His moment of glory, though, came during his command of the Second Army at Verdun between February and May 1916. Pétain adopted the German tactic of rotating men from the frontline on a biweekly basis, and applied a principle he’d learned at the École de Guerre (College of War) to great effect: “Le feu tue“—”Firepower kills”. To illustrate the extent to which he meant it, over 15 million French shells devastated the Germans in the first five months of the battle. And his willingness to favor shell over soldier and to shy away from needlessly sending men on suicidal sorties earned him his soldiers’ trust and fierce respect.
History has judged Pétain kindly for his heroism at Verdun. It’s been less forgiving, however, for his postwar conduct. Riding the wave of his reputation into French politics, Pétain established himself as a nationalist republican. He harnessed (rather too strongly) the support of the far right, cozied up to Franco’s Fascist regime and upon the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, figuratively got into bed with Hitler: shaking hands with him at Montoire on October 24, 1940.
Pétain’s apologists cite his patriotism as the driving force behind his actions. But this does nothing to exculpate him from some of the more heinous deeds he was involved in. In July 1940, as Chief of State, he signed anti-Semitic orders, refused asylum in the face of Nazi persecutions, banned the formation of democratic movements and branded fighters of the Resistance “terrorists”.
Pétain was tried in August 1945, found guilty and sentenced to death. Charles de Gaulle, however, decided to commute his sentence: firstly to imprisonment at Fort du Portalet in the Pyrenees and then to exile on the Île d’Yeu. It was there, on July 25, 1951, that Pétain died, senile and in public disgrace. The final blow to his legacy was the government’s refusal to grant his request that his body be buried beside his men at Verdun; instead, they had it interred in a graveyard on Île d’Yeu.