Petain - 9781574885989

PetainVerdun to Vichy\nAuthor(s): Robert B. Bruce\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Potomac Books Inc, United States\nImprint: Potomac Books Inc\nISBN-13: 9781574885989, 978-1574885989\nSynopsis\nFew figures in modern French history have aroused more controversy than Marshal Philippe Ptain, who rose from obscurity to great fame in the First World War only to fall into infamy during the dark days of Nazi occupation in World War II. Ptain's brilliant theories of firepower and flexible defense, as well as his deep empathy for the soldiers of France and the horrific trials they endured on a daily basis, mark him as one of the greatest Allied generals of World War I. Yet today he is best remembered as the nearly senile marshal who was handed the reins of power in France in the midst of the disastrous 1940 campaign and tasked with seeking terms from Nazi Germany. His leadership of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944 and his postwar conviction of treason and lifetime exile to the Ile d'Yeu made him .