Maxime Weygand

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Download or read book Maxime Weygand written by and published by . This book was released on 1936 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Letter autographed photograph Belgium/France Maxime Weygand (21 January 1867 - 28 January 1965) was a French military commander in World War I and World War II. Weygand initially fought against the Germans during the invasion of France in 1940, but then surrendered to and collaborated with the Germans as part of the Vichy France regime. Weygand was born in Brussels of unknown parents. He was long suspected of being the illegitimate son of either Empress Carlota of Mexico (by General Alfred Van der Smissen); or of her brother Leopold II, King of the Belgians, and Leopold's Polish mistress. Van der Smissen always seemed a likely candidate for Weygand's father because of the striking resemblance between the two men. He was admitted to the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, under the name of Maxime de Nimal as a foreign cadet (Belgian). Successfully graduating in 1887, he was posted to a cavalry regiment. After changing his name to Weygand and receiving French nationality, he became an instructor at Saumur. During the Dreyfus affair, he was one of the most antidreyfusard officers of his regiment, supporting the widow of Colonel Henry, who had committed suicide after the discovery of the falsification of the charges against Captain Dreyfus. Weygand was apparently favorable to collaboration with Germany, but with discretion. Additionally, when he opposed German bases in Africa, he did not intend to be neutral or to help the Allied camp, rather he only sought to prevent France from losing prestige with the natives and keep its colonial empire. Nevertheless, since Adolf Hitler demanded full unconditional collaboration, he pressured the Vichy government to obtain the dismissal and recall of Weygand in November 1941. One year later, in November 1942, following the Allied invasion of North Africa, Weygand was arrested. He remained in confinement in Germany and then in the Itter Castle in North Tyrol with General Gamelin and few other French Third Republic personalities until May 1945, when he fell into the hands of the Americans. After returning to France, he was held as a collaborator at the Val-de-Grâce but was released in May 1946 and cleared in 1948. He died in Paris at the age of 98. Beirut still holds his name on one of its major streets, Rue Weygand.