Following the German invasion of France in 1940, Henri Philipe Pétain (1856 – 1951) was recalled to active military service as adviser to the minister of war. On 16 June 1940, at the age of 84, he succeeded Paul Reynaud as premier of France making Pentain the oldest in the world at first appointment to become cheif of state. Soon after taking the post, Pentain asked the Germans for an armistice, which was concluded on 22 June 1940.

Pétain, was a French soldier and statesman, born in Cauchy-à-la-Tour, France. During World War I, he became a national hero for his defence of Verdun (1916), and was made commander-in-chief (1917) and marshal of France (1918). His aim to unite France under the slogan "Work, Family and Country’, and keep it out of the war, involved active collaboration with Germany.  After the liberation, he was tried in the French courts, his death sentence for treason being commuted to life imprisonment on the Ile d’Yeu, where he died. His role remains controversial, and some still regard him as a patriot rather than a traitor.