Marshal Petain & The Orleans Regime Part 2

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

Marshal Petain & The Orleans Regime, Part Two by Raymond Speer

Author says: what if Marshall Petain continued the fight from Orleans? muses Raymond Speer. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).

Call from Orleans

The Year 1940

On June 17^th,Adolf Hitler grew very distraught when a translator informed him that France, contrary to his latest intelligence reports, was not going to surrender. "This is absolute garbage," said Adolf Hitler when he was exposed to the oratory of the old Marshal. Petain. "As recently as last week, those curs expressed gratitude that we would condesend to accept their surrender."

Frustrated, Hitller's basic instincts returned to violence. "No mercy, no understanding, no pity. The French spurned reason! If they choose to die where they shelter from us, let them die. Let them all die!"

As soon as the evening of June 17, the German Luftwaffe began a heavy bombing of Orleans, the French alternative capitol. By the evening of June 18, armored thrusts pounded on the north and west of the Orleans.

"Drunk wiith their momentary advantage," commented Weygand's replacement, Charles de Gaulle, "the Germans have not ever made any offers worthy of our attention." An angry Hitler had broadcast that the French would never receive better terms so long as he controled Germany.

The Hitler conditions are the surrender and demobilization of French armies and fleets, and the northern half of France and its Atlantic coast was to be occupied by the Germans. Moreover, all political refugees from Germany are to be returned to their place of origin, whch seems to indicate that Jewish refugees within France are expected back in German-occupied Poland.

ORLEANS RESISTS is the new slogan of the French-lead international community as French tanks, men and artillery meet the invader, who has sealed off all but one road into the city. Meanwhile, far off in Algeria, the French Navy at Mers el Kebir agree to rules of co-operation with the British Navy that are supposed to suppress Italian maritime prospects.

On August 8^th,

tanks lead by Hans Guderian were repulsed by a surprise visit from war planes of the Royal Air Force and were kept immobile for most of the next week. With his air assets divided between Britain (behind the Channel) and a revived France (fighting hard on a line from Tours - Orleans - Troyes), the arrogant Air Reichs Marshal Goering was discovering the limitations of his service.

The National Assembly remained in session as a moral raiser, although there were worries that German bombs and shells might be powerful enough to penetrate the crowded and damp bunker. Former Premier (and Jew) Leon Blum gave a stirring exposition of France's resistance on August 16 and crossed the ocean for America the next month.

As propaganda suggested, ORLEANS RESISTS and every attempt to oust the Frenchmen from the forts and bunkers of their "fortress cities" fell short in the summer of 1940. The Maginot Line, infamous in May 1940 for having been ignored by the Germans, was appreciated by September for the strength it gave French frontiers in the East.

Pulled between the largely air battles characteristic of the Battle of Britain and its more traditional role as air enhancement done in connection with armor movements, the German Air Force was diminished by September 30.

On October 17^th,

Premier Petain and Prime Minister Churchill met for the first of two days of conferences with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. As Hitler said, since Franco's victory in his Spanish Civil War had been made possible by a fortune in aid from Germany and Italy, Franco's newfound ingratude to yesterday's allies should be a new definition of treason.

More worrisome to Hitler, his failure to conquer either France or Britain meant that his Army was fixed in ongoing combat against France and Britain. Stalin was left with the ability to take advantage of Hitler's enforced attention to the War in the West. So when might that surprise come to Germany?

Author says this is my second installment in my Marshal Petain & The Orleans Regime.