Editing Charles de Gaulle (section)

=== Late 1930s: tank regiment ===
From April 1936, whilst still in his staff position at SGDN, de Gaulle was a lecturer to generals at CHEM.<ref name="Lacouture 1991, p125" /> De Gaulle's superiors disapproved of his views about tanks, and he was passed over for promotion to full colonel in 1936, supposedly because his service record was not good enough. He called on his political patron Reynaud, who showed his record to Minister of War [[Édouard Daladier]]. Daladier, who was an enthusiast for rearmament with modern weapons, ensured that his name was on the promotion list for the following year.<ref name="Fenby-2010" />{{RP|109}}<ref>Lacouture 1991, pp. 147–148</ref>

In 1937 General Bineau, who had taught him at Saint-Cyr, wrote on his report on his lectureship at CHEM that he was highly able and suitable for high command in the future, but that he hid his attributes under "a cold and lofty attitude".<ref name="Lacouture 1991, p125" /> He was put in command of the 507th Tank Regiment (a battalion of medium [[Char D2]]s and a battalion of [[Renault R35|R35 light tanks]]) at [[Metz]] on 13 July 1937, and his promotion to full colonel took effect on 24 December that year. De Gaulle attracted public attention by leading a parade of 80 tanks into the Place d'Armes at Metz, in his command tank "[[Battle of Austerlitz|Austerlitz]]".<ref>Lacouture 1991, pp. 149–150, 169</ref>

By now de Gaulle was becoming a well-known figure, known as "Colonel Motor(s)".<ref name="Fenby-2010" />{{RP|117}} At the invitation of the publisher [[Plon (publisher)|Plon]], he produced another book, ''La France et son Armée (France and Her Army)'' in 1938. De Gaulle incorporated much of the text he had written for Pétain a decade earlier for the uncompleted book ''Le Soldat'', to Pétain's displeasure. De Gaulle agreed to include a dedication to Pétain (although he wrote his own rather than using the draft Pétain sent him), which was dropped from postwar editions. Until 1938 Pétain had treated de Gaulle, as Lacouture puts it, "with unbounded good will", but by October 1938 he privately thought his former protégé "an ambitious man, and very ill-bred".<ref>Lacouture 1991, pp. 157–165, 213–215</ref>