Exonerated Corap

One year ago next month the Nazi Army on the Western Front broke through at Sedan, crossed the Meuse River, and started the drive that ended in the defeat of France. In command of the Ninth French Army, protecting the Meuse, was General Andre Georges Corap. Six days after the break-through Premier Paul Reynaud took to the air, told the French Senate of the Meuse disaster, which he blamed on "the total disorganization of the Corap Army." Said he: "As a result of unbelievable faults, which will be punished, bridges on the Meuse were not destroyed."

General Corap was relieved of his command. Paris newsmen thought that General Corap had been made a scapegoat by the Reynaud Government in an effort to restore its own prestige. His Army might have been full of slackers and saboteurs (TIME, Jan. 8, 1940), but his previous record was superb. A graduate of St. Cyr, French equivalent of West Point, he had served on Marshal Foch's staff in World War I, was twice cited for bravery. He served in 1926 under Marshal Petain against famed Rebel Abdel-Krim in French Morocco. He was for a while Chief of Staff under General Maxime Weygand, was Vice President of the Supreme War Council, a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor.

That the bridges over the Meuse were left standing was denied by Army men, They claimed instead that German columns had found some shallow fords in the river, had driven scores of obsolete tanks, useless for combat, into the water, and sent their big 30-ton monsters crunching over these improvised bridges. But in the magnitude of France's fall their words went unheeded.

Last week, from Vichy, capital of Unoccupied France, came the first news of General Corap since the French collapse. One day last month, said a Government spokesman, General Corap turned up unexpectedly in Vichy, paid a surprise call on General Charles Huntziger, Minister of War. To General Huntziger he told his story, presented proofs. General Huntziger investigated, learned that Premier Reynaud's accusation was based on an unconfirmed report which he heard just half an hour before he went on the air last May. General Corap had repeatedly complained to General Maurice Gamelin, then in command of the French Army, that he lacked materiel and men to meet a German advance. The bridges over the Meuse were indeed blown up.

To 63 -year-old General Corap, still in retirement, exoneration by the Vichy Government was small consolation last week.

But to the French people, smarting under charges of treason and sabotage, it was a comforting sign that there can be honor in defeat.

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