Philippe Pétain

Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly called Marshal Pétain, was a French military commander during World War I who later, from 1940 to 1944, led the Vichy regime, a government that collaborated with the Axis powers in World War II.

He entered the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in 1876 and rose through the ranks, becoming a colonel just before World War I. His leadership at the nine-month Battle of Verdun earned him the nickname "the Lion of Verdun." After the failed Nivelle Offensive caused mutinies, he was made Commander-in-Chief and restored order, remaining in command for the rest of the war and becoming a national hero. Between the wars, he headed the peacetime army, oversaw joint Franco-Spanish operations in the Rif War, and served twice as a government minister, known widely as "the Old Marshal."

Pétain replaces Reynaud

On 16 June 1940, as France was about to fall and the government sought an armistice, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned and recommended Pétain to President Albert Lebrun, who appointed him that day while the government was in Bordeaux. The government then agreed to armistices with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It briefly moved to Clermont-Ferrand, then to Vichy in central France.

Constitutional change

On 10 July, a parliamentary congress voted to replace the Third Republic with the French State—Vichy France—an authoritarian puppet regime allowed to govern southeastern France in collaboration with the Axis. At 84, Pétain became the oldest French head of government and head of state. After Germany and Italy occupied all of France in November 1942, his government worked closely with the German military administration.

After the war, Pétain was tried and convicted of treason on 15 August 1945. Sentenced to death, his punishment was commuted to life imprisonment due to his age and World War I service. He died at 95 on Île d'Yeu, where he had spent five years in prison. His successor Charles de Gaulle said Pétain’s life was "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre."

Early life

Pétain was born into a peasant family on 24 April 1856 in Cauchy-à-la-Tour, Pas-de-Calais, the only son among five children of farmer Omer-Venant Pétain and Clotilde Legrand. His father had lived in Paris working for photography pioneer Louis Daguerre before returning to the family farm after the 1848 Revolution. One great-uncle, a Catholic priest named Father Abbe Lefebvre, served in the Grande Armée during the Napoleonic Wars.

His mother died when he was 18 months old, and after his father remarried, relatives raised him. He attended the Catholic boarding school Saint-Bertin in Saint-Omer, excelling in geography and arithmetic. In 1875, aiming for Saint-Cyr, he enrolled at the Dominican college of Albert le Grand in Arcueil.

Early military career

Admitted to Saint-Cyr in 1876, he began his army career. From 1878 to 1899, he served in various garrisons with different chasseurs battalions, then alternated between staff and regimental assignments.

His career advanced slowly because he rejected the French Army’s doctrine of furious infantry assault, arguing that "firepower kills"—a view validated in World War I. He became a captain in 1890 and major in 1900. In March 1904, serving with the 104th Infantry, he was made adjunct professor of applied infantry tactics at the École Supérieure de Guerre, and after promotion to lieutenant-colonel, became a full professor on 3 April 1908. He was brevetted colonel on 1 January 1910.

Unlike many French officers, Pétain served mostly in mainland France, not in Indochina or African colonies, though he did participate in the Rif campaign in Morocco. As colonel, he took command of the 33rd Infantry Regiment at Arras on 25 June 1911; a young lieutenant, Charles de Gaulle, served under him and later wrote that Pétain taught him the Art of Command. In spring 1914, he was given a brigade command (still as colonel). At 58, having been told he would never be a general, he had bought a retirement villa.

During World War I, he led his brigade at the Battle of Guise on 29 August 1914. The next day, he was promoted to brigade general, replacing a general who had committed suicide. He then commanded the 6th Division at the First Battle of the Marne, and in October 1914 was promoted again to lead XXXIII Corps.

After leading his corps in the spring 1915 Artois Offensive, he took command of the Second Army in July 1915, leading it in the autumn Champagne Offensive. He gained a reputation as one of the Western Front’s more successful commanders. He commanded the Second Army at the start of the Battle of Verdun in February 1916.