Despising the “regime of the parties”, Vichy and Gaullism were at one in agreeing that governments must govern, that the constitution of the Third Republic made this impossible, and that the executive must be strengthened.

Vichy came into being on the assumption that the war had been lost. Nevertheless not all saw defeat as irreversible. Many were anti-German and believed that the armistice had bought France time. The army remained in being, much of it stationed in north Africa, and the empire was still inviolate. The French Secret Services continued to hunt down and arrest German spies. Many saw the Marshal as a shield, protecting the French from the worst consequences of defeat. This was also how Pétain saw himself.

Edgar Morin, a Jew and a Communist, later active in the Resistance, remarked on the complexity of Vichy: “Vichy evolved over time. When the parliamentarians voted all powers to Pétain, this wasn’t a vote for collaboration, which came later .?.?. At first Vichy was a branch held out to drowning men. It was a shifting collection of people, some reformed Socialists, some pacifists, some the old reactionaries who followed Maurras. Over four years there was a very rapid evolution. It’s a mistake to try to fix Vichy in some sort of unchangeable essence. You mustn’t forget that from 1941 to the beginning of 1944 a good part of the population was ‘Pétaino-Gaullist’. Pétain was the shield, de Gaulle the sword.”

Collaboration dated from Pétain’s meeting with Hitler at Montaine in October 1940. Why did he agree to it? One reason was that the armistice was just that – a cessation of hostilities, not a peace treaty; there were still 2m French prisoners-of-war in Germany. Moreover, the occupation of more than half of France was clearly going to continue for a long time. Some collaboration with the Germans was necessary if the French state were to continue to function. But collaboration meant that the Man of Montoire would come to eclipse the Hero of Verdun.