Word: verdun
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...been taking flying lessons for three weeks. Vichy announced that the centennial of World War I Premier Georges Clemenceau's birth (Sept. 28, 1841) would be ignored. Same day the burial place chosen by Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain was announced: the tomb at Douaumont where Verdun's unknown war dead...
...even reflected the French egalitarian spirit. Even as an officer in World War I he was a professed Royalist, often expressing dislike for liberalism and democratic institutions. In 1934 when the Fascist Croix de Feu attempted a coup d'etat, its demand was for the Hero of Verdun as head of Government. Again, in 1937 when the Cagoulards (Hooded Ones) were caught in what seemed a foolish revolutionary plot, their aim was to make Pétain dictator...
...Darlan career has been chiefly a triumph of political luck and wangling. During World War I he obtained the command of 25 mobile naval guns ashore, fighting at the Somme and Verdun. He later explained that he had wanted the job because as a Navy officer under Army officers he would get more attention, attract more patronage...
Mysterious chief of the Beggars is "Colonel Verdun," said to be a 43-year-old Army officer. He is supposed to direct the less spectacular activities, signaling British planes, guiding, sheltering and giving information to British agents...
...French Ambassador has two busy aides in his press attaché, Captain Charles Emmanuel Brousse, bomber-squadron commander in World War I, and his longtime friend and assistant military attaché, one-eyed Lieut. Colonel Georges Bertrand-Vigne, another soldier of Verdun and Narvik. In addition he numbers among his good friends the elegant Mrs. Williams, ageless Lady Mendl, Count René de Chambrun (Pierre Laval's son-in-law, who quit the U. S. for France after Laval's fall), Jeweler Pierre Carder (longtime paterfamilias of the French colony in Manhattan), onetime U. S. Ambassador to France...