Maxime Weygang: A Biography of the French General in Two World Wars

During the armistice proceedings and at the Peace Conference after World War I, French General Maxime Weygand served as chief aid to Marshal Foch. Called out of retirement in the late 1930s, Weygand again served his country during World War II, becoming commander in chief of the French Army. His call for enhanced French unity, military preparedness, and adaptation to a new kind of war dominated by tank mobility might have saved France the humiliating defeat in 1940 at the hand of the Nazis, had it been heeded. Weygand’s recognition of the Nazi threat earned him the respect of Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. Weygand’s Vichy Resistance led to his imprisonment from late 1942 through the end of the war. French archival sources, available oral testimony and Weygand’s private papers contribute to a fascinating biography of one of World War II’s unsung heroes.

Barnett Singer is a professor emeritus of history at Brock University. He has published a number of other books in French history.