French Ministers of War

Édouard Daladier (French: [edwaʁ daladje]; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, and the Prime Minister of France who signed the Munich Agreement before the outbreak of World War II.
Daladier was born in Carpentras and began his political career before World War I. During the war, he fought on the Western Front and was decorated for his service. After the war, he became a leading figure in the Radical Party and Prime Minister in 1933 and 1934. Daladier was Minister of Defence from 1936 to 1940 and Prime Minister again in 1938. As head of government, he expanded the French welfare state in 1939.
Along with Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, Daladier signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, which gave Nazi Germany control over the Sudetenland. After Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the Phoney War, France's failure to aid Finland against the Soviet Union's invasion during the Winter War led to Daladier's resignation on 21 March 1940 and his replacement by Paul Reynaud. Daladier remained Minister of Defence until 19 May, when Reynaud took over the portfolio personally after the French defeat at Sedan.
After the Fall of France, Daladier was tried for treason by the Vichy government during the Riom Trial and imprisoned first in Fort du Portalet, then in Buchenwald concentration camp, and finally in Itter Castle. After the Battle of Castle Itter, Daladier resumed his political career as a member of the French Chamber of Deputies from 1946 to 1958. He died in Paris in 1970.

Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, French: [filip petɛ̃]) or Marshal Pétain (French: Maréchal Pétain), was a general who commanded the French Army in World War I and became the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944, during World War II.
Pétain was admitted to the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in 1873 and pursued a career in the military, achieving the rank of colonel by the outbreak of World War I. He led the French Army to victory at the nine-month-long Battle of Verdun, for which he was called "the Lion of Verdun" (French: le lion de Verdun). After the failed Nivelle Offensive and subsequent mutinies, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief and succeeded in restoring control. Pétain remained in command for the rest of the war and emerged as a national hero. During the interwar period he was head of the peacetime French Army, commanded joint Franco-Spanish operations during the Rif War and served twice as a government minister. During this time he was known as le vieux Maréchal ("the Old Marshal").
On 17 June 1940, with the imminent Fall of France and the government desire for an armistice, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned, recommending to President Albert Lebrun that he appoint Pétain in his place, which he did that day, while the government was at Bordeaux. The government then resolved to sign armistice agreements with Germany and Italy. The entire government subsequently moved briefly to Clermont-Ferrand, then to the town of Vichy in central France. It voted to transform the French Third Republic into the French State, better known as Vichy France, an authoritarian puppet regime that was allowed to govern the southeast of France and which collaborated with the Axis powers. After Germany and Italy occupied all of France in November 1942, Pétain's government worked closely with the Nazi German military administration.
After the war, Pétain was tried and convicted for treason. He was originally sentenced to death, but due to his age and World War I service his sentence was commuted to life in prison. His journey from military obscurity, to hero of France during World War I, to collaborationist ruler during World War II, led his successor Charles de Gaulle to declare that Pétain's life was "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre".
Pétain, who was 84 years old when he became Prime Minister and later Chief of State, remains both the oldest person to become the head of government and the oldest person to become the head of state of France.

Jean-Joseph Frédéric Albert Farre (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ ʒozɛf fʁedeʁik albɛʁ faʁ]; 15 May 1816, in Valence – 24 March 1887, in Paris) was a French general and statesman. He served during the Franco-Prussian War and later as the French Minister of War.

Gaston Alexandre Auguste, Marquis de Galliffet, Prince de Martigues (Paris, 23 January 1830 – 8 July 1909), was a French general, best known for having taken part in the repression of the 1871 Paris Commune. He was Minister of War in Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet at the turn of the century, which caused a controversy in the socialist movement, since independent socialist Alexandre Millerand also took part in the same government, and was thus side by side with the Fusilleur de la Commune (the "Commune's executioner").

Auguste Michel Étienne Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély, later 2nd Count Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély (30 July 1794, Paris – 1 February 1870 Cannes) was a Marshal of France, soldier and politician.

André Maginot (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃dʁe maʒino]; 17 February 1877 – 7 January 1932) was a French civil servant, soldier and Member of Parliament. He is best known for his advocacy of the string of forts known as the Maginot Line.

Adolphe Niel (4 October 1802 – 13 August 1869) was a French Army general and statesman.
He was born at Muret, Haute-Garonne and entered the École Polytechnique in 1821. Niel entered the engineer school at Metz, became lieutenant in the Engineers Corps in 1827, and captain in 1833. He fought in the French conquest of Algeria, participating in the storming of Constantine. There Niel led the engineer detachment with one of the storming parties, and his conduct gained for him the rank of chef de bataillon in 1837. Niel was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1840 and to colonel in 1846. His next war service was as chief of staff to General Vaillant during the 1849 siege of Rome, after which he was made general of brigade and director of engineer services at headquarters.In 1851, Niel became a member of the Committee of Fortifications. He became a member of the council of state in 1852 and in 1853 was promoted to general of division. In the first part of the Crimean War, Niel was employed in the expedition to the Baltic Sea and directed engineering operations against Bomarsund. Early in 1855 Niel was sent to the Crimea, where he succeeded General Michel Bizot as chief of engineers. For some years Niel had been the most trusted military adviser of Napoleon III, and he was now empowered to advise the generals on the spot in accordance with the wishes of the sovereign and the home government.Niel managed to carry out this delicate and difficult task with as much success as could be expected, and he directed siege operations at the Battle of Malakoff. His reward was the grand cross of the Légion d'honneur. From 1855 to 1859 Niel was employed at headquarters and also served in the French Senate. In the war against the Austrians, Niel commanded the IV Corps and took part in the Battle of Magenta and the Battle of Solferino. Niel was made a marshal of France on the field at Solferino.After he served for some years in a home command, Niel became minister of war and held the position from 1867 to 1869. In this capacity he drafted and began to carry out a far-reaching scheme of army reform, based on universal service and the automatic creation of large reserves which needed only time to mature. Under his system, those men who had purchased exemption from conscription into the army would nonetheless be called up into a new service, the Garde Mobile. He also was able to rearm the whole of the army with the chassepot rifle, but not the Garde Mobile. He did not live to complete the development of his system.Niel died in Paris during an operation for a bladder stone, and a year later the Franco-Prussian War destroyed the old imperial army upon which the new formations were to have been grafted.