Preamble
All of you may know the Fantasque Time Line, which we commonly know as France Fights On. You can find it
here. However, there has to my knowledge been no english translation of this work. I've contacted
@Loïc M. , one of the authors of the FTL, to be able to translate this work so that you folks may finally get an English version. Having had his approval, this will be the thread for the English translation.
Now the work is obviously huge, which is why I cannot promise to translate everything. However, I will make sure to have at least the military and political sides of the work fully translated (this is around 2/3rds to 3/4ers of the work).
June 6th, 1940
1100 At the ministry of war, in Paris’ Rue Saint-Dominique, the council of ministers has its hands full with maps and dispatches all describing the same tragedy. The Allies, overwhelmed on a tactical standpoint, are also outnumbered since the fighting in May, which saw the encirclement and destruction of a large portion of the French armies and British Expeditionary Force – and the German offensive resumed the day before. How to stop the armies of Von Bock (Army Group B) who attack on the Somme and the Ailette? The Weygand line is breaking under the assault of the Panzers.
Paul Reynaud, President du Conseil since the end of March, but also minister of War, knows it: the collapse of the front is now a matter of days, possibly hours [1]. His undersecretary to War, the man who imagined the role of armoured divisions in modern warfare, can now see the scenario he had dreamt of, but it is his country that was falling victim to it:
“Our forces were behaving heroically, but they were outnumbered (…) I couldn’t explain to the President du Conseil that we had nothing to oppose the German Panzers.”
Brigadier-General (temporarily) Charles de Gaulle had been a member of government for a mere few hours, when the ministerial shuffle occurred. Just like him, many ministers would never accept to concede defeat against Nazi Germany, starting with Reynaud himself – but De Gaulle knew that others always considered this war as a major mistake. First among them, Marshal Petain, vice-president of the Conseil.
“If our greatest fears about the current battle were to become true, asked De Gaulle,
don’t you think, Monsieur le president du Conseil, that the presence of Marshal Petain’s presence amidst the government would disturb the establishment of measures for the salvation of the nation?”
“It is true that the Marshal has always criticized the war and that a military defeat would offer him the possibility of giving his opinions on French politics. But I’d rather have him in [the government] than out.” Reynaud answers.
1155 In his office at the ministry of War, Lt.col. De Villelume, who learned the opposition of De Gaulle to Petain’s presence in the new government, scribbles a few notes to answer to… whom it may concern. Villelume, military advisor to the ministry of foreign affairs, and liaison officer to High Command since the start of the conflict, had been promoted a few hours earlier to deputy-secretary to the War Council. Council where he would reunite with the new Brigadier-General (temporary, as he was nominated during war time) De Gaulle, whom he knew only too well…However after a few knocks on his office door, someone enters without being given invited to do so!
General De Gaulle, after the usual military salutes, declares to Villelume that he is
“delighted to have a man of such talent under [his] orders.”
Even though he knew what to expect, the pill is hard to swallow for the officer, who answers in an icy tone:
“You are mistaken, sir Undersecretary. I am not under your orders. If needed, the President du Conseil will confirm this to you at the end of the day. I will let you leave to the Quai d’Orsay for the meeting later.”
The general stares daggers at him. If he knew that his first steps in politics would be difficult, in such a dramatic setting, he didn’t think to have to battle so quickly!
Dryly, he replies:
“France is living hours much too dark for us to give much importance to protocol.” Without even giving time for Villelume to open his mouth, De Gaulle turns heels and walks out of the office of this old acquaintance which resembles an antagonist with each passing hour…
……
Old acquaintance indeed: they met for the first time at Ingolstadt’s Fort IX in 1916. The cavalryman, survivor of the glorious charge of the Gironde squadron, thought he knew well the infantryman made prisoner at Douaumont, and even shared with him the anecdote about the sabre [2]. De Villelume had managed to escape a short while after De Gaulle’s arrival, he didn’t have time to form an opinion on he who was two years his senior. They did have a common friend, Tuchashevsky, De Gaulle’s cellmate and great friend of Villelume’s, who fell victim to Stalin’s purges in the 1930s.
It is only at the beginning of 1940 that the two main military advisors of Reynaud crossed paths again. In this month of June 1940, De Gaulle wants to continue the fight, while Villelume thinks that the war has gone too badly to be won, and wishes for fighting to stop as soon as possible. And neither of them wants to back down. It is true that the Auvergnat aristocrat had always been right with his analysis of the international situation!
France should’ve distanced itself from the western alliances, who had brought her only complications and had allowed the USSR to position itself as the kingmaker of Europe…and divide Poland with Germany. In Spring 1939, he informed Daladier that the army wouldn’t be ready in time to support Poland. In 1940, he opposed the Dyle-Breda plan of Daladier and Gamelin. At the same time, he encouraged to take advantage of the winter to bomb the railroads and train stations of Germany in order to disrupt the Wehrmacht’s movements – but the GQG and government had stayed idle the entire winter. He was also partisan of a wider intervention in Norway and Finland to cripple the German economy and had been enraged to see that Gamelin didn’t care about these “side theatres”. It was him that, in early May, Reynaud had charged to draft an accusation manifesto against Gamelin in the goal of replacing him – but the start of the German offensive had stopped these plans.
However, Villelume did share with De Gaulle the desire to give the government and the populace a warrior spirit. But it’s the way of doing so that caused a rift between the two men. In January, Reynaud had asked for his opinion on a note given by Col. De Gaulle encouraging to attack the Siegfried line. His answer:
“Even if we managed to open a gap in the enemy’s defences, what would be the point? In a rural battle, our lesser numbers would lead us to a bitter defeat!” But he did feel that Reynaud had given in to De Gaulle’s influence. It is his help he sought when writing his inauguration speech in Spring.
On March 26th, in Leca’s (cabinet director of Reynaud) office, the opposition between the two men became vocal. Villelume tells:
“The Colonel De Gaulle made a long presentation about the possibility of winning the war militarily. He deplores that we did not enter Belgium, even against the Belgians’ will. According to him, the German army isn’t stronger than the French, and their air forces are equal…I am astonished. I thought him much more intelligent and informed. I do not even think to interrupt his monologue. I just refute everything in a few strict words when he finishes talking.”
On this June 6th, Villelume, still annoyed, rings Paul Baudouin, Undersecretary to the Ministry of Foreign affairs and close friend to Reynaud, also an opponent to the continuation of the war proned by Mandel and Margerie. They agree to talk about it following the afternoon meeting at the Quai d’Orsay. Baudouin advises Villelume to invent any pretext to talk to the Countess de Portes, official mistress of the President du Conseil, who apparently has much influence over him. Maybe she can convince Reynaud to dismiss the arrogant colonel.
1500 The government convenes for the usual “family photo”. It is taken, not at the Hotel Matignon, but on the steps of the Escalier d’Honneur of the Quai d’Orsay (Reynaud is also Minister of Foreign Affairs). Even with the unknowns of the military situation, a few bottles of Champagne are opened and Paul Reynaud is given the best wishes of Helene de Portes, his official mistress for a few months now. He decided to divorce for him to marry the beautiful Helene as soon as the law will allow him to do so. When the young woman leaves Matignon, Reynaud offers her his car, but Lt.Col. De Villelume offers to accompany her personally.
“It is very nice of you, Mr.Villelume observes Reynaud
but remember, we have work to do.”
“I shall drive her myself.” Villelume answers.
“I won’t be long.”
According to Reynaud’s memoirs, Villelume apparently mentioned to Helene de Portes that he wished to
“talk about the personalities of certain members of the new cabinet, and a certain arrogant colonel, to be more precise…”
As Charles de Gaulle would note to some of his collaborators, including Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel, Paul de Villelume was a brilliant man, but with a complete bias against him. Indeed, he had waged a silent war against his ideas and the pursuit of hostilities with Reynaud.
1600 Villelume’s car races along the Quai d’Orsay and speeds through the Pont de l’Alma. While crossing, still at high speeds, the Place de l’Alma, towards the Avenue George V, the driver loses control of the vehicle for an unknown reason. After the war, some eyewitnesses would claim that a mysterious Mercedes, appearing from the Avenue Montaigne, had slammed into her rear before disappearing on the Pont de l’Alma…Whatever the reasons, the automobile violently runs into a lamppost and wedges on its side. Help arrives very quickly, and the two people inside, covered in blood, are raced to the Hotel-Dieu Hospital. It is there that they realize that Helene de Portes had died on the spot, instantly.
It is 1625. Today, certain historians consider that the “Pont de l’Alma incident” had massive consequences despite its allure, and that at this moment, France’s destiny shifted.
1700 Reynaud, warned, rushes to the Hotel-Dieu, along with his cabinet director, Dominique Leca. In front of his mistress’ corpse, he completely breaks down in tears.
“I cannot continue Dominique, I will resign…”
“Don’t, mister President du Conseil! France needs you ! ” Leca pleads while pointing (not without hypocrisy) to the dead woman.
“Think of her! She loved you, she was passionate about the affairs of the State, she wouldn’t have wanted you to abandon your task!”
The argument seems to work on Reynaud, who goes silent and thinks, silently, for a few minutes. It is then that De Villelume appears. He is only lightly injured and bears on his head a large bandage that gives him a ridiculous aura.
“Mister president…” he stutters.
“I am so sorry, I…”
Reynaud stops and rages at the man, in tears:
“How dare you…You were driving…it’s your fault! Get out of my sight, I do not wish to see you again! Never!” [3]
2000 After a discussion with Dominique Leca, Reynaud decides to give De Villelume’s post to Roland de Margerie, responsible of his diplomatic cabinet at the time.
“The next few days would see Reynaud impacted but “liberated” (according to De Gaulle), give Roland de Margerie a way to gain growing influence, to the point of becoming a second President du Conseil, to the great disappointment of the defeatist faction.” (De Gaulle t.II, Le Combattant, 1984, J.Lacouture).
We have recently learnt, thanks to the memoirs of admiral Philippe de Gaulle, how hard the general had been stunned at the sudden removal of Paul de Villelume from the political scene, and of the one he called Reynaud’s “
mégerie”, considering her opposition of the fighting faction.
“This event, he’d told his son,
was for me a sign of the providence. France’s destiny wasn’t going to let itself go with the sirens of despair.”
[1] At this moment, Reynaud considers the possibility of the creation of a “Brittany Redoubt” in case the situation worsens. However, although Marshal Weygand just created the 10th Military Region, under general Guitry’s command, which encompasses all of Brittany, it is without any hope of success.
[2] This story is repeated by anti-Gaullist factions as a way of proving De Gaulle’s arrogance. As he just arrived in captivity, he had asked to be given his officer’s sabre, honor only given to those that had displayed extreme bravery at the moment of their capture. After examination of the Oflag’s records, this request was denied.
[3] After his dismissal by Paul Reynaud, Paul de Villelume would stay in France and would offer his services to Pierre Laval in October of 1940. He would be named Ambassador to France in Germany. In 1944, he tried to escape to Spain, but failed and was imprisoned. Sentenced to death for collaborating with the enemy, he refused to ask for the president’s pardon. Indeed, Paul Reynaud had then become president of the Republic, and he still carried with him the grief of the countess’ death.
