He expected that after the French defeat the British would realise the hopelessness of their position and respond to his peace overtures; he did not want to encourage the ‘warmongers’ around Churchill by driving the French too hard and perhaps pushing them into taking their Navy over to Churchill and carrying on the fight from overseas. He contented himself with reclaiming Alsace-Lorraine, occupying Paris and north-east France and, in order to widen his naval- and air-strategic position, occupying the Channel and Biscay coastal areas down to the Spanish border. He left Pétain’s government in
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