If nothing else I doubt an 84 year old could have the energy to run the Free French Army as well as someone about half his age.
WI: Petain Joined The Resistance With De Gaulle?
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If nothing else I doubt an 84 year old could have the energy to run the Free French Army as well as someone about half his age.
If Petain and a segment of the French Government is setting up shop in North Africa to carry on the fight and the French Navy evacuates there as OTL then they're siding with him and there's no need for the tragedy of Mers el Kebier,
The need to help the French in North Africa will take precedent over putting troops into Greece, although perhaps the British and French together can guarantee Allied control of Crete.
Doubtful under the circumstances. He will eventually be overshadowed by younger more energetic commanders like de Gaulle.
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Certaily not after the war given how close he was to death anyway and the fact that the French govt would have been stable enough for now. No reason to become a dictator during the war.
The short/wartime effect would be the dimming of de Gaulle's light in the eyes of the French body politic. He emerged from the war as the unquestioned symbol of the Resistance narrative and the savior of France (with good reason). If the Hero of France was, if nothing else, the figurehead of Free France, it automatically puts a division commander into a far less visible, and vastly less influential, position. What impact that has on postwar French politics is difficult to gauge, the political situation was... fraught, although If Pertain was the Face of Free France during the war he would likely be the "king maker" post war.
It is unlikely that the Germans abandon their "Vichy France" concept. It afforded them all the positives of Occupation with almost none of the manpower costs. They would find someone else to collaborate (there is ALWAYS someone who will collaborate) and proceed as happened IOTL. Someone else sits in the dock post war and is convicted of Treason, since they are certainly not of the same status as the Lion of Verdun, they likely dance Danny Deever.
The WAllies are absolutely delighted to not have to deal with de Gualle as much directly. Churchill seriously disliked him, Stalin thought he of little consequence and FDR loathed the guy to an amazingly intense degree.
I've never really been able to figure out what caused the conflict between de gaulle and the others, so could you elaborate? Was it just his personality, with his ideas being secondary, or were his politics and wants of the postwar order that caused issue?
The German might pro-up a collaborationist group like they did in Belgium with the Rexists and Vlaams Nationaal Verbond. In a french context, this might be the Parti Populaire Français.
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There were enough Frenchmen who, pre-war, declared they would prefer rule by a foreign Fascist power instead of under a French Socialist, that would be willing to lead Vichy. Laval, obviously; Flandin; Chautemps; probably not Darlan, who I believe would go with the fleet to North Africa.
From what little I know about the dynamics, de Gaulle, even among his supporters, tended toward aloof and autocratic, not to mention plain old arrogant. Arrogant and insisting that you represent a Great Power while literally having to get every bit of equipment for your army from the folks you are looking down your rather noticeable nose, from six and a half feet off the ground tends to set the people giving the support, somewhat on edge.
Why FDR quite literally, and fairly openly, hated de Gaulle, is something of mystery to me since they didn't meet for the first time until a few months before FDR's death, but it is the reality.
The collaborational government of Vitchi France is seen as less legitimate by the French people slightly strengthening the French Resistance but really pissing off the Germans
Reprisals would probably be a little more severe leading to more bad blood
Reprisals would probably be a little more severe leading to more bad blood
The army & air force units were converted to mostly training formations during and after mobilization. Those close to combat capable were shipped to France to complete training & equipping. Most of the combat units in Tunisia in June 1940 were three very understrength, undertrained, and under equipped divisions occupying the Mareth Line north of the Lybian/Tunisian border. Those had negligible offensive capability and limited defensive ability. The same for the air forces. To defeat the Italians they need to occupy the Tunisian airfields with combat capable air groups, to cover the naval ops. The French navy and RN would probably be ready first, to interdict Axis reinforcements.
I think it was down to both his personality and circumstances. De Gaulle always had a very arrogant and overly patriotic attitude (even during his officer training at Saint-Cyr), but there was also the situation with France. France was probably at its lowest point in its entire history, being not only occupied and guaranteed to be completely crippled after the war, but also at risk of being outright declassed (even after the Napoléonic and Franco-Prussian wars, France was allowed to keep a good position as an important continental power).
The only bargaining chips France had left were its contribution as Free France and whatever guarantees De Gaulle could get from Wallied leadership, so obviously he had to fight very hard for it. Whether Free France could still have secured the same postwar situation under another more cooperative leader is uncertain, but it is fairly impressive that it did this well postwar, still having a seat at the UNSC while being highly influential in Europe. By all accounts it should barely have been better than Belgium or Italy.
Depends on how much of the legislature evacuates. OTL less than 100 out of 500+ were headed to the ports. Most of the legislators were all for a armistice and halting the disaster. This is what caused Reynaud to resign. He saw the legislature would probably not him out & form a new government in France were & his cabinet & a small minority (15% ?) of the legislature to evacuate. His cabinet was split on this as well. Let imagine Renaud, Petain, part of the cabinet & maybe 100 representatives. reach Algeria. There is a clear chance here the remaining majority of the Chamber of Deputies will simply vote out Renauds group, including Petain, and select a new PM who will ask the Germans for a armistice. This creates a disastrous political choice for everyone. Support Renauds fighting government in exile, or the legal government still in France?
If the governors of Tunisia & Algeria stick with Renaud/Petain then Petain may have to organize some sort of 'dictatorship' or other non legislative government to effectively organize.
The fact that the legislature, the Deputies, would very likely form a new government, making Renaud/Petain illegitimate creates a really ugly political situation for France across the globe. Every colonial governor & his staff, every local military commander, millions of French citizens, will have to choose. it would make French politics OTL simple by comparison.
This would be the future of the 'legitimate' government in France.
Didn't he call him a wannabee right-wing dictator? So if you are uncharitable the reason he didn't like him was because he correctly assesed him.
Roosevelt was usually a pretty good judge of people. Makes his total misread of Stalin all the more odd.