Weygand acquired a reputation as an opponent of collaboration when he protested, in Vichy, against the Protocols of Paris of 28 May 1941 signed by Admiral Darlan, agreements which granted bases to the Axis in Aleppo ( Syria ), Bizerte ( Tunisia ), and Dakar ( Senegal ) and envisaged an extensive military collaboration with Axis forces in the event of Allied countermeasures.

In 1918 Weygand served on the armistice negotiations, and it was Weygand who read out the armistice conditions to the Germans at Compiègne, in the twice infamous railway carriage.

As far as General Maxime Weygand was concerned, " if the Germans crossed the Seine and the Marne, it was the end.

Weygand was briefly sent to Poland as member of Interallied Mission to Poland during July and August 1920.

Foch was then selected to command the newly formed Ninth Army during the First Battle of the Marne with Maxime Weygand as his Chief of Staff.

Late in 1932 — this is known by a later confirming letter dated 18 December 1932 — Renault had a meeting with General Weygand, during which he proposed to develop an entire family of light armoured fighting vehicles based on the AMR 33-chassis.

The tactic was proposed by General Maxime Weygand during the Battle of France in 1940.

Weygand complained that he had been summoned two weeks too late to halt the invasion.

One year later, in November 1942, following the Allied invasion of North Africa, Weygand was arrested.

Weygand returned to France in 1925, when he became director of the Center for Higher Military Studies, a position he had for five years.

Wilson's funeral was a public affair attended by Lloyd George and the cabinet, Foch, Nivelle and Weygand from France as well as many of his former army colleagues including French, Macready, Haig and Robertson.

In 1939 he was charged with protecting French overseas trade as well as the north coast of France, and the following year General Maxime Weygand named him as Commander-in-Chief of the northern naval forces.

Weygand had traveled to Warsaw in the expectation of assuming command of the Polish Army, but had found a disappointing reception, aggravated by the fact that around the same time France have frozen its financial aid to Poland.

In June, Weygand was appointed by Pétain to the Bordeaux-Vichy cabinet as Minister for National Defence for three months ( June to September 1940 ), and then Delegate-General to the North African colonies.

* General Weygand, Foch's chief of staff ( later French commander-in-chief in 1940 )

On 17 May 1940 Gamelin and Georges were sacked and General Maxime Weygand returned as head of the French Army.

Weygand then oversaw the creation of the Weygand line, an early application of the Hedgehog tactic ; however, by this point the situation was untenable, with most of the Allied forces trapped in Belgium.

Nevertheless, the Weygand General Delegation ( 4th Office ) collaborated with Germany by delivering to Rommel's Afrika Korps 1200 French trucks and other French army vehicles ( Dankworth contract of 1941 ), as well as heavy artillery pieces accompanied with 1000 shells per gun.

Once promoted to Captain, Weygand chose not to attempt the difficult preparation to the Advanced War College (' Haute Ecole de Guerre ') because of his desire, he said, to keep contact with the troops.

Weygand travelled to Warsaw in the expectation of assuming command of the Polish army, yet he met with a very disappointing reception.

Weygand was apparently favorable to collaboration with Germany, but with discretion.

In January 1918, in accordance with Lloyd George ’ s wishes, an Executive Board was set up to control the planned Allied General Reserve, with Clemenceau ’ s agreement being obtained by having Foch rather than Weygand on it.

A plan by General Maxime Weygand to close this gap included an attack by Frankforce, with the British 5th Infantry Division holding the line of the river Scarpe to the east of Arras, while the other two formations attacked to the south of that city.

As there was an insufficient budget to equip even a limited part of the Infantry with fully tracked vehicles this plan was abandoned, but on 20 March 1933 Renault received an order from the STMAC ( Section Technique des Matériels Automobiles de Combat ) to develop a prototype of a different design discussed with Weygand: a command vehicle corresponding to the specifications of 9 January 1931 for a so-called Type M.

Nevertheless, since Adolf Hitler demanded full unconditional collaboration, he pressured the Vichy government to obtain the dismissal and recall of Weygand in November 1941.

* May 19 – General Maxime Weygand replaces Maurice Gamelin as commander-in-chief of all French forces.

Maxime Weygand ( 21 January 1867 – 28 January 1965 ; ) was a French military commander in World War I and World War II.

Weygand on TIME magazine in 1933.

Weygand was born in Brussels of unknown parents.

Paoli further claimed that Weygand had been born in mid-1865, not January 1867 as is generally claimed.

Regardless, throughout his life Weygand maintained he did not know his true parentage.

Upon reaching adulthood, Weygand was legally acknowledged as a son by Francois-Joseph Weygand, an accountant in the employ of M. Cohen de Léon, thereby granting him French citizenship.

After changing his name to Weygand and receiving French nationality, he became an instructor at Saumur.

Weygand passed the war of 1914-18 as a Staff Officer.

Clemenceau wanted to have Foch ( French Army Chief of Staff ) as French Military Representative on the Supreme War Council ( formally established 7 November 1917 ), to increase French control over the Western Front, but was persuaded to appoint Weygand as a more independent general instead.

However, Clemenceau only agreed to set up an Allied General Reserve if Foch rather than Weygand were earmarked to command it.

Weygand was promoted Général de Division ( equivalent to the Anglophone rank of Major General ) in 1918.

Subsequently, for many years, the myth that the timely arrival of Allied forces saved Poland was begun, a myth in which Weygand occupies the central role.

" Weygand had no divisions to offer.

He was the first uncomprehending victim, as well as the chief beneficiary, of a legend already in circulation that he, Weygand, was the victor of Warsaw.

Weygand was unemployed for a time after the military mission to Poland, but in 1923 he was made commander-in-chief Levant, the French mandate in Lebanon and Syria.