John L Stonehouse
AUTHOR
Vichy
Vichy, a town situated on the banks of the River Allier, was the favourite resort of Napoleon III. A town where the rich and famous came to recuperate from their ailments, both real and imagined!
A peaceful town set in the Auvergne region of France full of architectural splendour and famous for it’s thermal springs … until Monday, 1st July 1940! On this day Albert Lebrun, President of France, arrived to take up residence at the Pavillon Sévigné. Marshal Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain, the new Prime Minister, took up office at the Hôtel du Parc to be joined later by Pierre Laval whose car had broken down on the way.
The town was chosen because it sported 14,000 hotel rooms and the Hôtel des Postes sported an ultra modern telephone exchange. It also was close to Pierre Laval’s home at Châteldon!
Two days later on Wednesday, 3rd July 1940, the Royal Navy attacked the French fleet at Mers el Kebir killing over one thousand French sailors following which the French government broke off diplomatic relations with Great Britain.
A week later, on 10th July 1940 the democratically elected senators and deputies of the Third Republique voted against democracy by giving full powers to the 84-year-old Marshal. Of the 649 who voted only 80 voted against, and so started ‘Les Années Noires.’
Four days after the battle of El Alamein, on 8th November 1942, British and American forces landed on the beaches of French North Africa.
Winston Churchill said, "This is not the end, nor is it even the beginning of the end, but, it is perhaps, the end of the beginning". It certainly was for the Pétain regime. On 11th November 1942 German and Italian forces invaded the unoccupied zone of France.
The occupiers preferred Pierre Laval to Marshal Pétain who
then became more of a figurehead and with little influence.
In January 1943, Joseph Darnand transformed his Service de l’Ordre
Legionnaire into the Milice, an organisation of Frenchmen considered to be
more ferocious than the Gestapo.
On 4th September 1943 Laval passed a law called the Service de Travail Obligatoire (Forced Labour) for all Frenchmen between the ages of 21 & 35. French men and women, who were becoming less enchanted with the hero of Verdun, rebelled against the regime, many joining the resistance. Young men, who were called up to do their STO, ran to the hills swelling the ranks of the Maquis.
At 8:15 am on Sunday, 20th August 1944 Maréchal Pétain, left the Hôtel du Parc and started his journey to the Sigmaringen castle in Germany.
The town was liberated on Friday, 25th August 1944, thereby ending the black years but leaving an enduring stain on the town of Vichy.
Joseph Darnand was executed on 10th October 1945 five days before Pierre Laval was placed in front of a firing squad at Fresnes Prison near Paris.
Pétain had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment by Général Charles de Gaulle on 17th August 1945 because of his age. He died at 9:22 am on 22nd July 1951 on the Île d’Yeu.
On doing research I have drawn up a timeline of the period just (click
here)
for a copy.
