GENERAL VAUTHIER, A VISIONARY OFFICER

Paul Vauthier (1885–1979) was one of the most brilliant officers of his generation. A graduate of the École Polytechnique, an artilleryman, top of his class at the École supérieure de guerre, and fluent in seven languages, he reformed anti-aircraft defence after the First World War and announced, in visionary writings, the future of commandos, drones, helicopter operations, and in-flight refuelling. Above all, in the late 1920s, he grasped not only the importance that AVIATION would assume in a future war, but also the absolute necessity of overhauling the organisation of the country's defence. Despite numerous internal memoranda, lectures, dozens of press articles and the publication of five books — the principal one of which was translated into German and studied by Luftwaffe officers — most of his superiors, like the political establishment, remained sceptical. It is with the Débâcle that General Vauthier's destiny becomes truly extraordinary: he commanded two divisions in combat and witnessed the Wehrmacht triumph in six weeks by applying the revolutionary ideas he had sought to implement in the French army. Taken prisoner, he spent five years in captivity at Königstein before achieving, after the war, exceptional success in the business world. The career of Paul Vauthier — a brilliant but forgotten precursor — sheds new light on the defeat of 1940 and allows us to form a renewed understanding of the events and the men as we know them.