Video: '17 juin 1940 - Maréchal Pétain - "Je fais à la France le don de ma personne" - Armistice'

(Sunday, June 16, 1940; during the Battle of France, part of the Western Front of the World War II) — With Nazi Germany on the brink of crushing France, 84-year-old Marshal Philippe Pétain became Prime Minister of France tonight after Paul Reynaud resigned.

Only one hour after becoming the head of government, Pétain asked his Foreign Minister Paul Baudouin to pass a note to the Spanish ambassador asking Spain to request “the conditions Chancellor Hitler would require to put a halt to military operations and sign an armistice.”

By the following day, Pétain took to the radio to deliver his first message to the nation: “It is with a heavy heart that I say to you that fighting must cease.”

However, fighting went on in some sectors.