Maxime Weygand

At 98 years old, Maxime Weygand physical status not available right now. We will update Maxime Weygand's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Maxime Weygand (French pronunciation: [v]]; 21 January 1867–January 28, 1965) was a French military commander who fought in World War I and World War II.

Weygand was born in Belgium and educated at the Saint-Cyr military academy in Paris. He went on to become an instructor at the Cavalry School in Saumur after graduating in 1887. Weygand served as a staff officer to General Ferdinand Foch, later Marshal) during World War I. In the Polish-Soviet War, he served as an advisor and then High Commissioner of the Levant. Weygand was appointed Chief of Staff of the French Army in 1931, a position he held until his retirement in 1935 at the age of 68.

During the German invasion, Weygand was called back to active service and assumed command of the French Army during the German invasion. Weygand urged armistice after a string of military setbacks, but France eventually capitulated. He was appointed Delegate General in French North Africa by Philippe Pétain's Vichy regime and served as Minister for Defence until September 1940. Weygand liked limited cooperation with Germany, and was barred from his post in November 1941 due to Hitler's request. Weygand was arrested by the Germans and detained in Itter Castle in Austria until May 1945, during the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942. He was detained as a collaborator at the Val-de-Grâce on return to France, but he was released in 1946 and cleared of charges in 1948. He died in January 1965 in Paris at the age of 98.

Early years

Weygand was born in Brussels of unknown parents. He was long suspected of being the legitimate son of either Empress Carlota of Mexico and General Alfred Van der Smissen, or her brother Leopold II, the Belgian King of the Belgians and Leopold's Polish mistress. Because of Van der Smissen's striking resemblance between the two men, he was always a good candidate for Weygand's father. Dominique Paoli, a French journalist, claimed to have found proof that Weygand's father was indeed van der Smissen, but Mélanie Zichy-Metternich, mother of Prince Klemens von Metternich, Austrian Chancellor, was born in 2003. Weygand was born in mid-1865, not January 1867, as is often believed.

Weygand did not know his true parentage throughout his life. When an infant, he was sent to Marseille to be raised by a widow named Virginie Saget, who later claimed to be his mother. He was taken to the home of David Cohen de Léon, a financier of Sephardic origins who was a Leopold II associate. Weygand was legally recognized as a son by Francois-Joseph Weygand, an accountant in the employ of M. Cohen de Léon, on a French citizen, granting him French citizenship on reaching adulthood.

He claims little about his youth in his memoirs, devoting it only 4 pages out of 681. He mentions the emperor and the aumônier of his college, who instilled in him a strong Roman Catholic faith. His memoirs began with his acceptance into the Saint-Cyr Military School in Paris's preparatory class.

Source

Military career

Weygand was accepted as a foreign cadet in the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr. He had been posted to a cavalry regiment after graduating in 1887. He became an instructor at Saumur after transforming his name to Weygand and receiving French nationality.

Weygand was one of the most anti-Dreyfusarm officers of his regiment during the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus and encouraged the widow of Colonel Hubert-Joseph Henry, who had committed suicide after learning of the falsification of the charges against Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

Weygand, the French staff college, was the first to embark on the difficult preparations because he wanted to stay in touch with the troops, despite being promoted to captain. This did not stop him from becoming an instructor at Saumur's Cavalry School. Despite not being "fresh" (passed staff college), he was one of the few people to attend the Centre des Hautes Militaires (a school with more structured instruction) in 1909, when he first opened in 1909 and was one of the few to attend the Centre des Hautes Etudes Militaires (a school to provide more theoretical instruction).

Weygand was among Joffre and Foch's visit to Imperial Russian Army manoeuvres in 1910; his account includes a lot of pomp and many gala dinners, but also shows Russian reluctance to address military details. As a lieutenant colonel Weygand attended the last prewar French grand manoeuvres in 1913, it revealed "intolerable insufficiencies" such as two divisions becoming mixed up.

Weygand was serving as a staff officer during World War I. By spending 26 days with the 5ème Hussars, he satisfied his appetite for contact with the troops during the outbreak. He joined the staff of GM Ferdinand Foch, under whom he would continue for a large part of the conflict.

In 1916, Weygand was promoted to général de brigade. He later wrote about the Anglo-French Somme Offensive in 1916, when Foch commanded French Army Group North, that the unit had seen "constant mix-ups with an ally [i.e.] The British [who were learning how to run a large operation and whose values and tactics were not yet in accordance with ours."

David Lloyd George, the British prime minister, called for the establishment of a Supreme War Council, which was officially established on November 7, 1917. Keen to name a British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir William Robertson, insisted that Foch, as the French Army chief of the General Staff, could not also be France's permanent military representative (PMR) on the SWC. After all, Paul Painlevé, France's prime minister, thought that Lloyd George was still pushing for Foch to be Supreme Allied Commander, not French Chief of Staff.

Georges Clemenceau, the current prime minister, wanted Foch to expand French influence over the Western Front, but instead, Foch was disobeyed to choose Weygand, who had been seen very well as Foch's sidekick. Colonel Edward M. House, Clemenceau's envoy, told US President Woodrow Wilson that he would bring in a "second- or third-rate man" as Prime Minister and "let the thing drift where it will."

Weygand was the youngest of the PMRs (the others being Luigi Cadorna, the American Tasker H. Bliss, and British Henry Wilson, who were later replaced by Henry Rawlinson). In 1918, he was promoted général de division (equivalent to major general) in Anglophone France. This was specifically because of his appointment as a Prime Minister.

Unlikely, Clemenceau only agreed to establish an Allied General Reserve if Foch rather than Weygand were earmarked to command it. For the time being at a SWC Meeting in London (14-15 March 1918), the Reserve was frozen, as the national commanders in chief, Philippe Pétain and Sir Douglas Haig, were reluctant to reveal divisions.

Weygand was in charge of Foch's staff when his patron was appointed Supreme Allied Commander in the spring of 1918, and he was Foch's right-hand man throughout his victories in the late summer and until the war's conclusion.

Weygand's chief was initially a small team of 25-30 officers, with Brigadier General Pierre Desticker as his deputy. E.g., there was a separate head for each of the departments. Intelligence, Operations (Quartermaster) Q (Quartermaster). Foch and Weygand poached staff officers from the French Commander-in-Chief Philippe Pétain from June 1918 to date, under British pressure, according to Lloyd George's tentative plan of a multinational Allied force was rejected by President Wilson. Colonel Payot (responsible for supply and transportation) had migrated to Foch's headquarters by early August, as had the Military Missions from the other Allied HQs; "real as opposed to nominal power, not imaginary power into Foch's hands," Colonel Payot said in Greenhalgh's words. From early July to late August, British military and political figures began to mourn Foch's rise in power, but Weygand later admitted that they had only themselves to blame for the change, after having pushed for the change.

Weygand could not speak enough English to "sustain a conversation" like Foch and most French leaders of his time (Clemenceau, who had lived in the United States as a young man), "Irmenceau, who had lived in the United States as a young man), was the most common second language in which French officers were trained). Competent interpreters were, therefore, extremely useful.

Weygand gathered the memorandum for the meeting of Foch with the national commanders-in-chief (Haig, Pétain, and John J. Pershing), the only such meeting before the fall in which Foch ordered (successfully) the liberation of the Marne salient captured by the Germans in May (this offensive would be called Foch's Second Battle of the Marne, in which Foch urged (Foch edoutput: To Haig, Weygand personally gave the order for the Amiens assault. By Pershing on the 20th of September, Foch and Weygand were shown around the liberated St. Mihiel sector.

Weygand later inquired whether Pétain's planned offensive in Lorraine in November 1918 may have been triggered by a "zone of chaos" in which the Germans were fleeing; Pétain's despairs over the scheme was another factor in the search for an armistice. Weygand was on the armistice talks in 1918, and it was Weygand who read out the armistice conditions to the Germans at Compiègne, according to the railway carriage. He can be seen in photographs of the armistice delegates, as well as standing behind Foch's shoulder at Pétain's investiture as Marshal of France at the end of 1918.

Weygand was a participant of the InterAllied Mission to Poland of July and August 1920, assisting the infant Second Polish Republic in opposition to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. (He had not been on the 1919 French Military Mission to Poland led by General Paul Prosper Henrys.) The Interallied Mission, which also included French diplomat Jean Jules Jusserand and British diplomat Lord Edgar Vincent D'Abernon, did not achieve much: it was only after the Polish Armed Forces had defeated Warsaw, which was a pivotal battle. Despite this, the presence of the Allied missions in Poland contributed to a myth that Allied forces saved Poland.

Weygand had hoped to take over the Polish army from Warsaw, but those hopes were quickly dashed. Józef Pisudski, who asked "how many divisions do you carry?" during their first meeting on July 24, had no reply. Weygand had no one to offer. Tadeusz Jordan-Rozwadowski, who was an advisor to the Polish Chief of Staff, from July 27 to the Polish Chief of Staff. It was a difficult situation; most Polish officers regarded him as an interloper, and spoke only Polish, which he didn't understand. He suggested that the Poles stand the length of the Bug River at the end of July; a week later, he suggested a more defensive position along the Vistula River; both plans were turned down, as were many of his others. One of his few contributions was to insist on converting the current scheme of spoken orders by written documents. "On the whole, he was completely out of his place, a man who was not allowed to give orders to people without the desire to obey," Norman Davies, a proponent of the resistance in the company of enthusiasts. Weygand became offended and threatened to leave after another meeting with Pisudski on August 18, feeling befuddled by Poland's lack of Allied powers and shocked by Poland's skepticism of the Allied powers. He was consoled by the award of the Virtuti Militari, 2nd class, at the Warsaw station on August 25; on the 28th, he was welcomed by crowds lining the streets of the Hôtel de l'Est; and awarded with the Grand Cross of Honour. He couldn't understand what had happened and has confessed in his memoirs that "the victory was Polish, the scheme was Polish, and the army was Polish." As Norman Davies says, "He was the first uncompromended survivor, as well as the chief beneficiary of a legend still in circulation that argues that Weygand was the winner of Warsaw." And in academic circles, this legend lived for more than 40 years.

Weygand was unemployed for a time after the military mission to Poland, but Levant, the French mandate in Lebanon and Syria, was created in 1923. He was then named High Commissioner of Syria the next year, but this was not the first time he had served for a year.

Weygand returned to France in 1925, when he took over the Center for Higher Military Studies, a post he held for five years. He was appointed Chief of Staff of the French Army, Vice President of the Supreme War Council, Inspector of the Army, and Member of the Académie française in 1931. Except Inspector of the Army, he served in these posts until his retirement in 1935 at the age of 68.

Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and the newly elected commander-in-chief of the Orient Theatre of Operation called Weygand for active service in August 1939.

The military tragedy in France following the German invasion had been so widespread that the Supreme Commander—and political neutral—Maurice Gamelin was dismissed, and Weygand, a figurehead of the right—was called from Syria to replace him by late May 1940.

Weygand began on May 17th by canceling Gamelin's flank counter-offensive order to shave the enemy armoured columns that had punched through the French front at the Ardennes. He spent two days before finally adopting the solution, although obvious in the case. But it was still a failed manoeuvre during the 48 hours lost, because the German Army infantry had gotten up behind their tanks in the breakthrough and had consolidated their gains.

Weygand oversaw the construction of the Weygand Line, an early Hedgehog tactic; however, by this time, the bulk of the Allied forces were still trapped in Belgium. Weygand screamed that he had been summoned two weeks late to prevent the invasion.

The German second offensive (Fall Rot) began on June 5th. Charles de Gaulle, who was newly elected to the government as Under-Secretary for War, visited Weygand on June 8. Weygand thought it was "the end" and had a "despairing laugh" when de Gaulle suggested fighting. After France was defeated, he was hoping that after an armistice would allow him to keep enough of a French Army to "maintain order" in France. Weygand later challenged de Gaulle's account of this interview, commenting on its similarity to a discussion between Pierre Corneille. According to de Gaulle's biographer Jean Lacouture, Gaulle's account is consistent with other evidence of Weygand's beliefs at the time, and is therefore, perhaps encouraging for a little literary embellishment, which is perhaps suggestive.

On June 10, Fascist Italy entered the war and invaded France. Weygand stormed Prime Minister Paul Reynaud's office on a Saturday and ordered an armistice. On Monday, Weygand attended the Anglo-French Conference at Chateau du Muguet in Briare, where the option of continuing the French war effort from Brittany or French North Africa was discussed. According to the transcript, Weygand was marginally more disappointed than de Gaulle's memoirs would have predicted. Marshal Pétain, Deputy Prime Minister of Tours, backed Weygand's call for an armistice at a Cabinet meeting on the evening of June 13th, after another Anglo-French conference at Tours. Weygand told high-ranking British officer Alan Brooke that the French Army was collapsing and ineffective at combating further, prompting him to abandon the last British Expeditionary Force contingents still on the Western Front on June 14.

On June 14, the French government took the French government to Bordeaux. Reynaud was advised at Cabinet on June 15 that they should follow the Dutch example and that the Army should lay down its arms so that the war can be carried out from abroad. Pétain was sympathetic, but he was sent by him to Weygand (who was waiting outside because he was not a member of the Cabinet). Weygand pleaded with him that this would be a humiliating surrender after no more than fifteen minutes. Chautemps then suggested a compromise plan, recommending that the Germans be consulted regarding future armistice terms. The Chautemps plan was approved by the Cabinet 13–6.

After Reynaud's resignation as Prime Minister on June 16, President Albert Lebrun felt he had no choice but to appoint Pétain, who already had a ministerial team aplent as Prime Minister. Weygand was elected as Minister of Defense by the new government, and we were able to veto Pierre Laval's appointment as Minister of foreign affairs for a short period.

In July 1940, the Vichy family was established. Weygand continued to serve as Minister of National Defence in Pétain's cabinet until September 1940. He was then named Delegate-General in French North Africa.

He persuaded young officers, who were planning to fight in North Africa, not to join the French Resistance against the German occupation, but to go with the armistice for the present, giving them the opportunity to retaliate. He deported Vichy opponents of Vichy to concentration camps in Southern Algeria and Morocco, with Admiral Jean-Marie Abrial's complicity. Despite the Soviet Union's orders not to support the resistance, those detained included Gaullists, Freemasons, and Jews, as well as Communists. He also detained the international volunteers of the Légion Etrangère, foreign refugees who were in France legally but without employment, as well as others. He enforced Vichy anti-Jewish laws very harshly. Georges Hardy, the Rector (University chancellor) who served on his own authority, was convicted by the Rector (United College Chancellor) by a mere "note de service" (n°343QJ of 30 September 1941), a school numerus clausus (quota). This drove out the majority of Jewish students from the colleges and primary schools, from 5 to 11. "By analogy," Weygand said, "to the legislation regarding Higher Education."

When Weygand marched in Vichy against the Paris Protocols of 28 May 1941, signed by Admiral François Darlan, he earned a reputation as an enemy of collaboration. These deals enabled Axis powers to establish bases in French colonies: at Aleppo, Syria; Bizerte, Tunisia; and Dakar, Senegal. In the case of Allied attacks on such bases, the Protocols also envisaged extensive French military cooperation with Axis forces. Weygand remained outspoken in his critique of Germany.

Weygand's opposition to Wehrmacht bases in French territories were not intended to assist the Allies or even to keep France neutral, but rather to preserve the French Empire's integrity and maintain its local pride. Weygand appears to have favored limited collaboration with Germany. The Weygand General Delegation (our 4th Office) supplied military arms to the Panzer Armee Afrika: 1,200 French trucks and other Armistice Army vehicles (Dankworth contract of 1941), as well as heavy artillery with 1,000 shells per gun. However, Adolf Hitler demanded unconditional cooperation and compelled the Vichy government to ban Weygand from North Africa in November 1941. The Germans arrested Weygand a year later, in November 1942, during the Allied invasion of North Africa. He remained in prison in Germany and then in the Itter Castle in North Tyrol with GM Gamelin and a few other French Third Republic figures until May 1945. After the Battle for Castle Itter, US Army troops liberated him.

Source