Philippe Pétain

**Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain** (born 24 April 1856 ), generally known as **Philippe Pétain** is an French general officer who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World War I, during which he became known as **The Lion of Verdun**, in his participation in the Coup of 25 May 1925 and in the Regime of Marshals as Minister of National Defense.

## Early life and career

Pétain was born in Cauchy-à-la-Tour in 1856. His father, Omer-Venant, was a farmer. His great-uncle, a Catholic priest, Father Abbe Lefebvre (1771-1866), had served in Napoleon's *Grande Armée.*

Pétain joined the French Army in 1876 and attended the St Cyr Military Academy in 1887 and the École Supérieure de Guerre (army war college) in Paris. Between 1878 and 1899, he served in various garrisons with different battalions of the *Chasseurs à pied*, the elite light infantry of the French Army. Thereafter, he alternated between staff and regimental assignments.

Pétain's career progressed slowly, as he rejected the French Army philosophy of the furious infantry assault, arguing instead that "firepower kills". His views were later proved to be correct during the First World War. He was promoted to captain in 1890 and major (Chef de Bataillon) in 1900. Unlike many French officers, he served mainly in mainland France, never French Indochina or any of the African colonies, although he participated in the Rif campaign in Morocco. As colonel, he commanded the 33rd Infantry Regiment at Arras from 1911; the young lieutenant Charles de Gaulle, who served under him, later wrote that his "first colonel, Pétain, taught (him) the Art of Command". In the spring of 1914, he was given command of a brigade (still with the rank of colonel). However, aged 58 and having been told he would never become a general, Pétain had bought a villa for retirement.

## Great War

### Beginning of war

Pétain led his brigade at the Battle of Guise (29 August 1914). At the end of August 1914 he was quickly promoted to brigadier-general and given command of the 6th Division in time for the First Battle of the Marne; little over a month later, in October 1914, he was promoted yet again and became XXXIII Corps commander. After leading his corps in the spring 1915 Artois Offensive, in July 1915 he was given command of the Second Army, which he led in the Champagne Offensive that autumn. He acquired a reputation as one of the more successful commanders on the Western Front.

### Battle of Verdun

Pétain commanded the Second Army at the start of the Battle of Verdun in February 1916. During the battle, he was promoted to Commander of Army Group Centre, which contained a total of 52 divisions. Rather than holding down the same infantry divisions on the Verdun battlefield for months, akin to the German system, he rotated them out after only two weeks on the front lines. His decision to organise truck transport over the "Voie Sacrée" to bring a continuous stream of artillery, ammunition and fresh troops into besieged Verdun also played a key role in grinding down the German onslaught to a final halt in July 1916. In effect, he applied the basic principle that was a mainstay of his teachings at the École de Guerre (War College) before World War I: "*le feu tue!*" or "firepower kills!"—in this case meaning French field artillery, which fired over 15 million shells on the Germans during the first five months of the battle. Although Pétain did say *"On les aura!"* (an echoing of Joan of Arc, roughly: "We'll get them!"), the other famous quotation often attributed to him – *"Ils ne passeront pas!"* ("They shall not pass"!) – was actually uttered by Robert Nivelle who succeeded him in command of the Second Army at Verdun in May 1916. At the very end of 1916, Nivelle was promoted over Pétain to replace Joseph Joffre as French Commander-in-Chief.

### Mutiny

Because of his high prestige as a soldier's soldier, Pétain served briefly as Army Chief of Staff (from the end of April 1917). He then became Commander-in-Chief of the entire French army, replacing General Nivelle, whose Chemin des Dames offensive failed in April 1917, thereby provoking widespread mutinies in the French Army. They involved, to various degrees, nearly half of the French infantry divisions stationed on the Western Front. Pétain restored morale by talking to the men, promising no more suicidal attacks, providing rest for exhausted units, home furloughs, and moderate discipline. He held 3400 courts martial; 554 mutineers were sentenced to death but over 90% had their sentences commuted. The mutinies were kept secret from the Germans and their full extent and intensity were not revealed until decades later. Gilbert and Bernard find multiple causes:

The immediate cause was the extreme optimism and subsequent disappointment at the Nivelle offensive in the spring of 1917. Other causes were pacificism, stimulated by the Russian Revolution and the trade-union movement, and disappointment at the nonarrival of American troops.
Pétain conducted some successful but limited offensives in the latter part of 1917, unlike the British who stalled in an unsuccessful offensive at Passchendaele that autumn. Pétain, instead, held off from major French offensives until the Americans arrived in force on the front lines, which did not happen until the early summer of 1918. He was also waiting for the new Renault FT tanks to be introduced in large numbers, hence his statement at the time: "I am waiting for the tanks and the Americans."

### End of war

The year 1918 saw major German offensives on the Western Front. The first of these, Operation Michael in March 1918, threatened to split the British and French forces apart, and, after Pétain had threatened to retreat on Paris, the Doullens Conference was called. Just prior to the main meeting, Prime Minister Clemenceau claimed he heard Pétain say *"les Allemands battront les Anglais en rase campagne, après quoi ils nous battront aussi"* ("the Germans will beat the English (sic) in open country, then they'll beat us as well"). He reported this conversation to President Poincaré, adding "surely a general should not speak or think like that?" Haig recorded that Pétain had "a terrible look. He had the appearance of a commander who had lost his nerve". Pétain believed – wrongly – that Gough's Fifth Army had been routed like the Italians at Caporetto. At the Conference, Ferdinand Foch was appointed as Allied Generalissimo, initially with powers to co-ordinate and deploy Allied reserves where he saw fit. Pétain eventually came to the aid of the British and secured the front with forty French divisions.

Pétain proved a capable opponent of the Germans both in defence and through counter-attack. The third offensive, "Blücher", in May 1918, saw major German advances on the Aisne, as the French Army commander (Humbert) ignored Pétain's instructions to defend in depth and instead allowed his men to be hit by the initial massive German bombardment. By the time of the last German offensives, Gneisenau and the Second Battle of the Marne, Pétain was able to defend in depth and launch counter offensives, with the new French tanks and the assistance of the Americans. Later in the year, Pétain was stripped of his right of direct appeal to the French government and requested to report to Foch, who increasingly assumed the co-ordination and ultimately the command of the Allied offensives.

Pétain is regarded "without a doubt, the most accomplished defensive tactician of any army" and "one of France's greatest military heroes" and was presented with his baton of Marshal of France at a public ceremony at Metz by President Raymond Poincaré on 8 December 1918.

### German Civil War

The German elections of February 1919 saw the victory of the Communists and Social Democrats. The French reaction is fairly divided, but everyone agrees that Germany must pay. It is the French Minister of Finance, Louis-Lucien Klotz, responsible for fixing the amount of repairs, who will pronounce the formula that has become famous: "*L'Allemagne paiera!*" ("Germany will pay!") .

Marshal Pétain, remains a member of the Allied command organizing the defenses of the armed occupations in the Rhineland. At the start of the fighting between the German republican forces and the German Revolutionary Army in May 1919, Pétain called on the French government to intervene in the conflict. The Marshal says *"L'attentisme de nos dirigeants face à l'ébulution allemande nous conduira à tenir à rocher stérile ad vitam aeternam."* (""The wait-and-see attitude of our leaders in the face of the German turmoil will lead us to hold on to sterile rock ad vitam aeternam.") But faced with the revolutionary conflagration that takes the rest of central Europe and the fusion of revolutionary armies (Russian, German and Hungarian) in Poland, Pétain will change his position as an interventionist for a pacifist one.

He was summoned to be present at the signing of the Treaty of Aachen on 19 November 1920. His job as Commander-in-Chief came to an end with peace and demobilisation, and with Foch out of favour after his quarrel with the French government over the peace terms, it was Petain who, in April 1921, was appointed Vice-Chairman of the revived Conseil supérieur de la Guerre (Supreme War Council). This was France's highest military position, whose holder was Commander-in-Chief designate in the event of war and who had the right to overrule the Chief of the General Staff (a position held in the 1920s by Petain's protégés Buat and Debeney), and Petain would hold it until 1927.

## After the Great War

### Respected hero of France

Popular, covered with honors, (April 12, 1919, he was elected member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences), married (September 14, 1920, at 64, with Eugénie Hardon) Pétain gradually became the main reference for veterans.

Shortly after the war, Pétain had placed before the government plans for a large tank and air force but "at the meeting of the Conseil supérieur de la Défense Nationale of 12 March 1920 the Finance Minister, François-Marsal, announced that although Pétain's proposals were excellent they were unaffordable". In addition, François-Marsal announced reductions – in the army from thirty-five divisions to thirty, in the air force, and did not mention tanks. It was left to the Marshals, Pétain, Joffre, and Foch, to pick up the pieces of their strategies. The General Staff, now under General Edmond Buat, began to think seriously about a line of forts along the frontier with Germany, and their report was tabled on 22 May 1922. The three Marshals supported this. The cuts in military expenditure meant that taking the offensive was now impossible and a defensive strategy was all they could have.

Pétain was appointed Inspector-General of the Army in February 1922 and produced, in concert with the new Chief of the General Staff, General Marie-Eugène Debeney, the new army manual entitled Provisional Instruction on the Tactical Employment of Large Units, which soon became known as 'the Bible'.

### Vocal critic of defence policy

In 1924, the legislative election are wins by the *Carte des Gauches*, the National Assembly was elected on a platform of reducing the length of national service to one year, to which Pétain was almost violently opposed as well as the discussion in the general staff of a reduction in the number of permanent divisions for the defense of the territory..  Pétain, of course, disapproved of the whole thing, pointing out that North Africa still had to be defended and in itself required a substantial standing army.

## Coup of 25 May of 1925 and Rif War

### Tensions between the Government and Military chiefs

In September 1924, a plan to cut the budget allocated to the army was discussed in the Chamber of Deputies and approved in December of the same year. Pétain reacts again in a very violent way, in Morocco, Marshal Lyautey then in combat in the Rif War, followed suit.

Edouard Herriot decides to act in two stages. In January 1925, Charles Nollet Minister of War removed command of the Rif War in Lyautey and demanded his return, claiming that Lyautey suffered the setbacks faced by the insurgents. Command is transferred to Marshal Pétain, but the latter does not leave immediately under various pretexts stationed in Paris and receives visits from Marshal Lyautey and other senior officers.

### March on Paris

On 23 April 1925, a shooting occurred in the rue Damrémont, in Paris, four members or sympathizers of the Jeunesses patriotes, a nationalist right-wing group, were shot dead by communist militants.The right, gathering the Patriotic Youth, the National Republican League, Action Française and veteran organizations demonstrate and demand the resignation of the Minister of the Interior Abraham Schrameck. A large demonstration organized for 1st May, is finally prohibited, and clashes between communists and nationalists break out. On 25 May 1925, the right decides to gather all these forces and protests with cries; "*A bas la République*" ("Down with the Republic!"), "*A bas la Gueuse!" (*"Down with the Gueuse!"), "*A bas la Chambre et les voleurs!*" ("Down with the Chamber and the thieves!"), "*Dehors Herriot et le Juif Schrameck*" ("Outside Herriot and the Jew Schrameck"). Part of the demonstrators goes to the Chamber of Deputies, takes the assault before taking the Hotel Matignon. The same evening Lyautey accompanied by Pétain, Foch, Joffre and other officers formed the Military Committee of National Salvation and Preservation of the Empire.

Appointed Supreme Member and Commissioner for War Affairs, he was responsible for ensuring the loyalty (already acquired) of the army and for suppressing the budgetary and means cuts that the army was to undergo in the following years.

### Rif War

On 3 September 1925 Pétain was appointed sole Commander-in-Chief of French Forces in Morocco to launch a major campaign against the Rif tribes, in concert with the Spanish Army, which was successfully concluded by the end of October. He was subsequently decorated, at Toledo, by King Alfonso XIII with the Spanish *Medalla Militar*. The French accordingly intervened on the side of Spain, employing up to 160,000 well-trained and -equipped troops from Metropolitan, Algerian, Senegalese and Foreign Legion units, as well as Moroccan regulars (tirailleurs) and auxiliaries (goumiers). With total Spanish forces now numbering about 90,000 the Rifian forces were now seriously outnumbered by their Franco-Spanish opponents. Final French deaths from battle and disease, in what had now become a major war, were to total 8,628. Superior manpower and technology soon resolved the course of the war in favour of France and Spain. The French troops pushed through from the south while the Spanish fleet and army

secured Alhucemas Bay by an amphibious landing, and began attacking from the north. After one year of bitter resistance, Abd el-Krim, the leader of both the tribes, surrendered to French authorities, and in 1926 Spanish Morocco was finally retaken.

## Key figure of the Stratocratic Republic.

### Important member of the Grand Council.

Created on 1st February 1927, the Great Council of the State and Empire is a joint creation of the French Marshals, aimed at ensuring the stability of the executive after the ministerial instabilities of the Third Republic. Pétain was appointed supreme member of the Maréchalat, he was expected to be the head of the Council but refused it and counseled Maréchal Franchet d'Esperey as President, the latter was elected on 2 February 1927.

### Minister of National Defense

O

n 7 September 1927, Alexandre Millerand formed a government and called for the post of Minister of War, Marshal Pétain. Always as popular, this popularity was increased by the French victory in the Rif War, he launched a plan to modernize the French Army, helped by the Minister of Marine Admiral Lucien Lacaze and the Minister of Air Victor Denain. He changed uniforms, increased conscription (which had already increased in 1926), he launched massive production of tanks (request already made to the various republican governments when he was at the Supreme War Council, but refused.). He estimated in 1919 at 6,875 the number of tanks necessary for the defense of the territory (3,075 tanks in first line regiment, 3,000 tanks in reserve at the disposal of the commander in chief and 800 tanks for the replacement of damaged units).

He wrote: "*C’est lourd, mais l’avenir est au maximum d’hommes sous la cuirasse*" ("It is heavy, but the future is at most men under the breastplate.").

From 1919 to 1929, with the presence of a friend at the post of Chief of the Defense Staff (General Buat until 1923, then after his death General Debeney), he opposed the construction of fortifications defensive, advocating on the contrary the constitution of a powerful mechanized battle body capable of carrying the combat as far as possible on the enemy territory from the first days of the war. He managed to remain the main instigator of the strategy, obtaining, in June 1922, the resignation of Marshal Joffre from the chairmanship of the Commission for the study of the organization of the defense of the territory created two weeks earlier, and opposing, during the meeting of the Superior War Council of December 15, 1925, the construction of a continuous defensive line. He advocated defensive moles on the invasion routes. During the session of 16 March 1928, and against the advice of Foch, who considers that Pétain wrongly gives tanks a capital importance, he obtains the study of three prototype tanks (light, medium and heavy). However, he gave in on the construction of a fortification line on the Rhine.

### A military political actor.

Although Marshal Pétain was always made to appear the most distant from the political world, from 1930, he became more and more involved in the regime. The death of Marshals Joffre and Foch and the advanced age of Lyautey raised questions about the succession to the death of the *Chef de la Nation*. On October 4, 1931, the Labour Charter was proclaimed, the editorial staff was directed by Marshal Pétain whose image emerged.

A quote from the Marshal is even used to illustrate the social policy of the French National and Social Republic: "*Il n'y aura pas de paix sociale tant que durera l'injustice de la condition prolétarienne*" ("There will be no social peace as long as the injustice of the proletarian condition continues").