Word: laval
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...whether Hitler drove west or defensively feared the west, in this crucial spring he would want all the help he could get from France both inside France and wherever French forces might profitably go into action. Pierre Laval was the man willing to deliver that help, whether he found himself a shield & buckler for the Führer or a cushion for Hitler's backside...
...also known to many Frenchmen as a French patriot. With his help the French Fleet and the French African bases were neutralized, forming a buffer between Britain and Axis operations in the Mediterranean. With his help democrats were purged from the French Navy, Army and police - a purge which Laval may find very handy...
...torrential milking of France, Marshal Petain's collaboration was never 100% satisfactory to the Nazis. Even a year ago the Nazi-kept Les Nouveaux Temps was howling: "Collaboration must be expanded from the economic to the political plane to be really productive. It can be accomplished only by Laval...
Moreover, from the German viewpoint, he was overly tender about the feelings of Frenchmen. He would not shoot them, no matter what their crimes against totalitarian progress. He even pardoned (with life imprisonment) zealous young Paul Collette, who last summer pumped bullets into the chest of Pierre Laval...
...with war materials destroyed, 30 ammunition dumps blown up and 184 trains derailed. Last week another German troop train was derailed, killing 44. Two grenades wrapped in newspapers were hurled into the Nazis' Paris headquarters. In a Rennes theater this week, when Jacques Doriot, rabid collaborationist and good Laval friend, got up to address a meeting, someone in the balcony threw a bomb which exploded harmlessly in the orchestra...