Maxime Weygand - Weygand in World War II

Weygand in World War II

By late May 1940 the military disaster in France after the German invasion was such that the Supreme Commander - and politically neutral - Maurice Gamelin, was dismissed, and Weygand - a figurehead of the right - recalled from Syria to replace him.

Weygand arrived on May 17 and started by cancelling the side counter-offensive ordered by Gamelin, to cut off the enemy armoured columns which had punched through the French front at the Ardennes. Thus he lost two crucial days before finally adopting the solution, however obvious, of his predecessor. But it was by then a failed manoeuvre, because during the 48 lost hours, the German infantry had caught up behind their tanks in the breakthrough and had consolidated their gains. The situation wasn't helped by Churchill's refusal to commit the Royal Air Force to the counter-attack, leaving ground forces vulnerable to the Luftwaffe.

Weygand then oversaw the creation of the Weygand line, an early application of the Hedgehog tactic; however, by this point the situation was untenable, with most of the Allied forces trapped in Belgium. Weygand complained that he had been summoned two weeks too late to halt the invasion. After some further vain attempts to contain the enemy offensive, he then joined in seeking an armistice and cooperation with the German occupiers.