This week, seventy years ago, the Republic of France executed an Armistice with the German Reich and the Kingdom of Italy.
    By this time, the battle of France was over and everyone knew it. The French Army was crumbling. Paris was occupied.  The Belgian and Dutch Armies had surrendered and the British Army had evacuated.  The Wehrmacht was threatening the temporary French capital of Bordeaux with capture.
    Although the French promised the British that they would not make a separate peace, and in no circumstances would they turn over the French Fleet, most thought that Britain would also make peace soon. The French Commander-In-Chief, General Maxim Weygand, summed up the feeling of most when he said, “England’s neck will be rung like a chicken’s!” Eighteen months later in a speech to the Canadian House of Commons, British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill replied, “Some chicken!”. After the laughter had died away, he added, “Some neck!”.
    On the evening of June 15th, Premier Paul Reynaud sent a note to the British government asking if it would consent to the French seeking an Armistice. If it would not so consent, he informed the British Government that he would have to resign. In the afternoon on Sunday, the British response to the French request arrived. The British agreed France could seek a separate Armistice if, and only if, “...the French Fleet is sailed forthwith for British Harbors pending negotiations....”  Then followed an unusual proposal -  France and Great Britain join together as one nation. Many had proposed that the government relocate to one of the French Colonies in North Africa and continue the struggle, since the Fleet, which was the fourth largest in the world, and very formidable, was still intact.
     The French Cabinet Members began to gather for a 10:00 P.M. meeting in the temporary Capital of Bordeaux. Premier Reynaud emerged from President Albert Lebrun’s office to announce that, “Marshal Pétain is forming a government!” The Ministers were stunned.  The 84 year-old Marshal and Hero of the Great Battle of Verdun in War World I, was summoned to the President’s office and arrived at 11:00 p.m. The President said, “Well, now, form a Government.”  The Marshal opened his briefcase and pulled out a list saying, “There is my Government.”  By midnight the new Cabinet was having its first meeting.  
    Marshal Pétain announced that, “The Government has been formed.  Its essential task, without losing time - too much has already been lost - is to ask the German Government under what conditions it will stop hostilities.” Paul Baudouin, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, immediately sent for José Félix de Lequerica, the Spanish Ambassador to France, who had been waiting for the call, and had arranged to transmit any message from the French Government to the German Representative in Madrid.
    The message that he transmitted was as follows:
    “The French Government and Marshal Pétain request the Spanish Government to act as rapidly as possible as intermediary with the German Government with a view to the cessation of hostilities and the settlement of conditions for peace.  The French Government hopes that the German Government, as soon as it takes note of this request, will give its Air Force orders to stop the bombing of cities.”
    At 12:30 p.m. on Monday, June 17th, the old Marshal addressed his Country over the radio saying, “I have made a gift of my person to France.” Then he said, “With a heavy heart, I tell you today that it is necessary to stop the fighting.” This was before the Germans had agreed to an Armistice! As French General Alphonse Georges said, the Marshal’s broadcast had, “...broken the last resistance of the French Army.” The Germans recorded the speech and re-broadcast it by loud-speaker to French Troops. That same day Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham, Commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, received a message from his Government saying, “If France concludes a separate peace, every effort must be employed to see that the French Fleet passes under our authority - or, if not, to sink it!”
    While the French waited for a response from the Germans, the German Führer and the Italian Duce were meeting in Munich to discuss the terms. On the train from Rome to Munich, the Il Duce had told his son-in-law, Italian Foreign Minister Count Galleazzo Ciano, that he would demand, “...the total occupation of French territory and the surrender of the French Fleet.”  
    Even El Caudillo of Spain was getting into the act! On  June 19th, Madrid sent Berlin a note claiming, “Western Algeria, all Morocco under a Spanish Protectorate, a part of the Sahara, and the additional territory in West Africa.”  It fell to the German dictator to lead the two Latin leaders back to reality.
    Like the British, Hitler was concerned about the disposition of the French Fleet as well. He did not want to see the British obtain control of it. He also did not want to push the French so hard that they would carry on the war with their fleet, in conjunction with the British, from their overseas colonies.
    At 6:25 a.m. on June 19th, the French Foreign Minister was awakened by the Spanish Ambassador who brought him the German reply. The Spanish Ambassador told the French Minister that the Germans were prepared to enter into an Armistice only on the condition that one was also reached with the Kingdom of Italy and suggested that contact with the Italian Government be made through Spain - not the Vatican.  
    Later that morning Marshal Pétain named General Charles L.C. Huntziger to preside over the delegation to negotiate the final terms. The delegation included: General Jean-Marie Joseph Bergeret, Chief-of-Staff of the Air Force; General Georges Hubert Parisot, Foreign Military Attaché in Rome; Rear-Admiral Maurice R. Le Luc, Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Navy; and Léon Noël, Former Ambassador to Poland. At 10:15 a.m. the French Foreign Minister handed the list to the Spanish Ambassador. The French did request that the Spanish Ambassador ask the Germans to halt their advance on the temporary French capital of Bordeaux.  
    At 2:00 p.m. on June 20th, the French Delegation departed Bordeaux by car and arrived at 7:30 a.m. the next day in Paris.  Its progress was impeded by the crush of refugees. The delegation checked into the Hotel Royal-Moncaeau at 37 Avenue Hoche, and was told to be ready to depart at 1:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the French had been scrambling to find copies of the 1918 Armistice and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, that the Allies had imposed on the Germans, so that they would know what to expect, now that the tables had been turned.
     The German Führer had planned a little surprise for the French delegation. The Germans had located the railway car where the Armistice had been signed on November 11, 1918, to end “The War To End All Wars.” He had it transferred to the precise spot, in Compiégne Forest, outside of the town of Compiégne. There, the French delegation would sit, in humiliation, and, as had the Germans 22 years previously, sign the document with the terms dictated by the enemy.
    Adolph Hitler arrived at 3:15 p.m. He was accompanied by: Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop; Luftwaffe Chief, Field Marshal Hermann Göring; German Army Commander-in-Chief, Colonel-General Walther von Brauchitsch; Kriegsmarine Chief, Grand Admiral Eric Räder; Deputy Führer  Rudolph Hess and Wehrmacht Commander-in-Chief, Colonel-General Wilhelm Keitel. The German delegation entered the old railway car first. The French delegation was escorted by German Lt. General Kurt von Tippelskirch.
    The German Führer sat in the same chair which the leader of the French delegation, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, had occupied in 1918. At a signal from Hitler, General Keitel read the preamble to the Armistice. After he finished reading the preamble, Hitler rose and left the meeting, followed by Göring, von Ribbentrop, von Brauchitsch, Räder and Hess, leaving General Keitel in charge. He then distributed copies of the document in French and German and announced that the terms, “...were unalterable and must be accepted or rejected as they are.” As Hitler and the others left, the German band played the German national anthem, “Deutschland uber Alles” and the Nazi Party anthem, “The Horst Wessel Song.”
    At 8:30 p.m. on June 21st, General Weygand  received a telephone call in Bordeaux from General Huntziger telling him that, “I am in the wagon!” General Weygand immediately knew where he was. He proceeded to read the Armistice terms to Weygand.
    The French Cabinet discussed the terms until it adjourned at 3:00 a.m. on the 22nd and met again at 8:00 a.m. to continue discussing the twenty-three paragraph document. In the late afternoon of June 22, General Huntzinger called General Weygand and said that General Keitel had given them one hour in which to sign. General Huntzinger also made clear to General Weygand that he wanted, “...not merely an authorization to sign, but an order from the French government...” to sign the document.
     At 6:30 p.m. General Keitel sent General Huntzinger a note saying that the French must accept or reject the Armistice terms within an hour.  At 6:42 p.m. the Delegation assembled in Marshal Foch’s old railway car for the signing. At 6:50 p.m. on June 22nd the Armistice between the two Countries was signed.  
    The French Delegation was then driven to Paris and the next day flown to Rome to sign an Armistice with Italy.  General Huntzinger told General Keitel that, “Although Italy has declared war on France, she has not waged war.  France, in fact, does not have to ask Italy for an Armistice because the Armistice has actually existed since the day of the Declaration of War.” But he signed it anyway, having no choice.
    The infamous railway car was taken to Berlin and exhibited as a trophy, until the last days of the war, when der Führer had it destroyed lest the Germans suffer a second humiliation in it.
    After World War I, the French had made the site itself into a monument, which they called the “Glade of Armistice,” and commissioned French architect M. Magés to design it. Three days after the execution of the Armistice, a monument depicting a German eagle being impaled by a sword was destroyed and “Glade of Armistice” was obliterated. The inscription on the monument had read, “To the heroic soldiers of France, Defenders of the country and of right, Glorious liberators of Alsace-Lorraine.” The only thing that remained was a statue of Marshal Foch, which Hitler allowed to remain so the French Marshal could witness what had occurred.
    After the war, German P.O.W.s were used to restore the site. The monument was rebuilt and a replica of the railway car was constructed.

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.