Even though the fall of France in 1940 did not surprise attentive observers, the circumstances of June’s defeat made the world astonished. The defeat of the Polish army, attacked in September ‘39 on two fronts by much stronger aggressors, was met with comments tinged with protectionism reinforced by Goebbels’s propaganda; what could cavalry charges have done against tanks and planes? With France, history was to turn out completely different—the victors of World War I, safe behind the Maginot line, having an advantage in almost all weapons, were to show this funny corporal his place in line. But when Marshal Pétain, the triumphant from Verdun, reached for power not as a symbol of past victories and further struggle, but as a spokesman for surrender, the world was astonished.