Editing François Darlan (section)

===Armistice===
Darlan was immensely proud of the French navy which he had helped to build up, and after [[Axis powers|Axis]] forces [[Battle of France|defeated France]] (May–June 1940), on 3 June he threatened that he would mutiny and lead the fleet to fight under the British flag in the event of an armistice.<ref name="Lacouture 1991, p. 231">Lacouture 1991, p. 231</ref> Darlan promised Churchill at the [[Briare]] Conference (12 June) that no French ship would ever come into German hands.<ref name="Bell 1974" />{{rp|62}} Even on 15 June he was still talking of a potential armistice with indignation.<ref>Lacouture 1991, p. 231</ref> Darlan appears to have retreated from his position on 15 June, when the Cabinet voted 13–6 for [[Camille Chautemps]]' compromise proposal to inquire about possible terms. He was willing to accept an armistice provided the French fleet was kept out of German hands.<ref name="Williams 2005, pp. 325–27">Williams 2005, pp. 325–27</ref>

On 16 June Churchill's telegram arrived agreeing to an armistice (France and Britain were bound by treaty not to seek a separate peace) provided the French fleet was moved to British ports. This was not acceptable to Darlan, who argued that it would leave France defenceless.<ref name="Atkin 1997, pp. 82–86">Atkin 1997, pp. 82–86</ref> That day, according to [[Jules Moch]], he declared that Britain was finished so there was no point in continuing to fight, and he was concerned that if there was no armistice Hitler would invade French North Africa via [[Francisco Franco|Franco]]'s Spain.<ref name="Lacouture 1991, p. 231" /> That evening [[Paul Reynaud]], feeling he lacked sufficient cabinet support for continuing the war, resigned as [[Prime Minister of France|Prime Minister]], and [[Philippe Pétain]] formed a new government with a view to seeking an armistice with [[Nazi Germany|Germany]].<ref name="Atkin 1997, pp. 82–86" />

Darlan served as the [[Minister of Marine (France)|Minister of Marine]] in the Pétain administration from 16 June.<ref name="Bell 1974" />{{rp|139–40}} On 18 June Darlan gave his "word of honour" to the British [[First Sea Lord]], Sir [[Dudley Pound]] that he would not allow the French fleet to fall into German hands.<ref name="Lacouture 1991, p. 246">Lacouture 1991, p. 246</ref> Petain's government signed an armistice (22 June 1940) but retained control of the territories known as "[[Vichy France]]" after the capital moved to [[Vichy]] in early July.<ref name="Bell 1974" />{{rp|139–40}} General [[Charles Noguès]], Commander-in-Chief of French forces in North Africa, was dismayed at the armistice but accepted it partly (he claimed) because Darlan would not let him have the French fleet to continue hostilities against the Axis powers.<ref>Lacouture 1991, pp. 229–30</ref>

Churchill later wrote that Darlan could have been the leader of the Free French, "a [[Charles de Gaulle|de Gaulle]] raised to the tenth power", had he defected at this time. De Gaulle's biographer [[Jean Lacouture]] described Darlan as "the archetypal man of failed destiny" thereafter.<ref name="Lacouture 1991, p. 231" /><ref name="Williams 2005, pp. 325–27" />