Word: darlan
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Admiral Jean Darlan...
...Without a navy," Admiral Jean Fran-gois Darlan once said, quoting Richelieu, "one can neither carry on a war nor profit by a peace." Last week the British Navy rode the Mediterranean and the Italian Navy was afraid to poke a bowsprit out of port. How nice it would be, Benito Mussolini must have thought wistfully, if the three western Mediterranean powers got together somehow and drove the British out of Mare Nostrum...
...again. He talked to Laval and to Fernand de Brinon, Vichy's Ambassador to Paris and Laval's man. Laval, playing for all or nothing, flatly refused the Marshal's offer. If he had expected the Germans to force him on Vichy, he was disappointed. Admiral Darlan had apparently persuaded Herr Abetz of his own worth as a collaborator, and he returned again to Vichy with the blessing of Herr Abetz and his boss. The Paris radio began praising Darlan and the German radio complimented Marshal Petain on his "spirit of comprehension...
Next Move? The old Marshal still held the fortress. He had forced Adolf Hitler to accept his own man as working chief of the Government, had retained supreme authority for himself. The French Fleet and Empire remained French. Foreign Minister Flandin resigned and Admiral Darlan became France's new strong man: Vice Premier, Foreign Minister, Navy Minister and Pétain's successor-designate. For the moment tension was eased. How long it would be before Adolf Hitler began pressing new demands, no one knew...
...midst of the tension a strange story had been broadcast to the world. The story: Marshal Petain and Admiral Darlan had flown to North Africa and rioting was going on in Vichy. The story originated in Bern, was broadcast by the German radio, picked up and repeated by the British radio. Germany claimed that its radio had broadcast a denial with the story, that the British radio had left out the denial and repeated the story to stir up bad feeling between France and Germany. Maybe this was true. Or maybe Germany just wanted to tell France what could happen...