Maxime Weygand and the 1940 Fall of France

Maxime Weygand

French military officer and Army General. During World War I, he was involved in directing Allied operations as Chief of Staff to Ferdinand Foch, and served as a military advisor to Poland during the Polish-Soviet War. In the 1920s, he served as High Commissioner to the Levant, and went on to hold positions such as Chief of Staff of the French Army in 1930 and Vice President of the Supreme War Council in 1931. Although he retired in 1935, he returned to active service upon the outbreak of World War II, serving as Supreme Commander of the French Armed Forces during the 1940 German invasion of France. Following France's defeat, he became Minister of Defense under the Pétain regime and cooperated with the Vichy government as leader of the French forces in North Africa, while resisting direct German utilization of North African territory. Arrested by German forces after the Allied landing in North Africa in 1942, he was imprisoned at Itter Castle and other locations. After the war, he was indicted on charges of collaboration with Germany, but was acquitted in 1948.

Timeline

Category
Element

Year	Maxime Weygand
1867	Birth of Maxime Weygand (Period: January 21, 1867, Location: Brussels (Present-day Belgium))
1885	Admission to and Graduation from the Saint-Cyr Military Academy (Maxime Weygand, Age: 17 years old, Period: 1885–1887, Location: Saint-Cyr, France)
1888	Acquisition of the Surname Weygand and French Naturalization (Maxime Weygand, Age: 21 years old, Period: October 18, 1888, Location: France)
1898	Political Activity surrounding the Dreyfus Affair (Age: 30 years old, Period: c. 1898, Location: France)
1900	Marriage (Maxime Weygand, Marie-Renée-Joséphine de Forzan, Age: 33 years old, Period: November 12, 1900, Location: Noyon (Oise Department, France))
1902	Instructor at the Saumur Cavalry School (Age: 34 years old, Period: 1902–1907, 1910–1912, Location: Saumur, France)
1914	World War I (Age: 46 years old, Period: 1914–1918, Location: Western Front, Belgium and France) Service as Foch's Chief of Staff in World War I (Age: 46 years old, Period: 1914–1918, Location: Western Front / Allied Headquarters)
1919	Polish-Soviet War (Age: 51 years old, Period: 1919–1921, Location: Eastern Europe, including Poland and Ukraine) Participation in the Paris Peace Conference (Age: 51 years old, Period: 1919, Location: Paris, France)
1920	Appointment as Military Advisor to Poland (Maxime Weygand, Age: 52 years old, Period: 1920, Location: Warsaw, Poland) Defense of Warsaw and the Red Army Offensive (Age: 53 years old, Period: August 1920, Location: Warsaw, Poland)
1923	Appointment as High Commissioner to the Levant (Maxime Weygand, Age: 55 years old, Period: 1923–1924, Location: Beirut, French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon)
1929	Admission to the Académie Française (Age: 61 years old, Period: 1929, Location: Paris, France)
1930	Appointment as Chief of Staff of the French Army (Maxime Weygand, Age: 62 years old, Period: January 1930 – February 1931, Location: Paris, France)
1931	Appointment as Vice-President of the Supreme Military Council (Maxime Weygand, Age: 63 years old, Period: 1931–1935, Location: Paris, France)
1935	Retirement (Age: 67 years old, Period: 1935, Location: France)
1939	World War II (Age: 71 years old, Period: 1939–1945, Location: UK, France, North Africa, Mediterranean, Atlantic, etc.) Return to Active Service in World War II (Age: 72 years old, Period: September 1939, Location: Middle East and France)
1940	Vichy Regime Policies in North Africa (Age: 72 years old, Period: 1940–1941, Location: Algeria and French North Africa) 1940 Defeat of the French Army and the Weygand Line (Age: 73 years old, Period: May–June 1940, Location: Somme River, Aisne River, and Northern France) Appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the French Armed Forces (Maxime Weygand, Age: 73 years old, Period: May 19 – June 1940, Location: Northern France / Western Front) Participation in the Vichy Regime (Age: 73 years old, Period: June–November 1940, Location: Vichy, France) French Decision for Armistice (Age: 73 years old, Period: June 16–24, 1940, Location: Bordeaux, France / Area around Compiègne) Appointment as Minister of National Defense (Maxime Weygand, Age: 73 years old, Period: June 16 – September 5, 1940, Location: Bordeaux and Vichy, France) Appointment as Delegate-General in French North Africa (Maxime Weygand, Age: 73 years old, Period: September 1940 – November 1941, Location: Algeria and French North Africa)
1941	Dismissal of Weygand (Age: 74 years old, Period: November 1941, Location: North Africa and Algeria) Dismissal from North Africa (Age: 74 years old, Period: November 1941, Location: Algeria and Vichy, France)
1942	Detention by German Forces and Imprisonment at Castle Itter (Age: 74 years old, Period: 1942–1945, Location: Germany, Austria, and Castle Itter) Frank Family's Life in Hiding (Age: 75 years old, Period: July 6, 1942 – August 4, 1944, Location: The Rear Annex at Prinsengracht 263, Amsterdam) Allied Landing in North Africa and Arrest of Weygand (Age: 75 years old, Period: November 1942, Location: Algeria and North Africa)
1945	Postwar Trial on Charges of Collaboration (Age: 77 years old, Period: 1945–1948, Location: Paris, France) Postwar Detention and Acquittal (Age: 77 years old, Period: 1945–1948, Location: Paris, France)
1965	Death of Maxime Weygand (Age: 98 years old, Period: January 28, 1965)

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Element

Europe World

Group	List
British Politics	David Lloyd George Winston Churchill Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain Clement Attlee Anthony Eden Edward Wood Ernest Bevin
French Politics	Georges Clemenceau Charles de Gaulle Paul Reynaud Édouard Daladier Léon Blum Philippe Pétain Maxime Weygand Maurice Gamelin
Jewish relief	Anne Frank Etty Hillesum Edith Stein Raoul Wallenberg Aristides de Sousa Mendes Varian Fry Nicholas Winton Chiune Sugihara
Nuclear Science	Lise Meitner James Chadwick John Cockcroft Ernest Walton Patrick Blackett Mark Oliphant Otto Hahn Otto Robert Frisch

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Maxime Weygand and the 1940 Fall of France

Maxime Weygand

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