Philippe Pétain

Philippe Pétain entered Saint-Cyr Military Academy in 1876 and rose slowly through the ranks, reaching colonel by 1914. He commanded the defense at the nine-month Battle of Verdun in World War I, earning the title "the Lion of Verdun" and emerging as Commander-in-Chief after restoring order following the failed Nivelle Offensive and army mutinies. In the interwar years he led the peacetime French Army and served twice as a government minister. On 16 June 1940, at 84, he became Prime Minister as France fell, then signed armistice agreements with Germany and Italy. A vote by the French Parliament on 10 July transformed the Third Republic into the French State, with Pétain as head of the authoritarian regime governing the southeast in collaboration with the Axis. After all of France was occupied in November 1942, his government worked closely with German administration. He was convicted of treason on 15 August 1945, his death sentence commuted to life in prison, and he died at 95 on Île d'Yeu in 1951.