WEYGAND, MAX (1867– ), French soldier, was born at Brussels Jan. 21, 1867. Having entered the military college at St. Cyr in 1885, as a foreigner, he proceeded to the cavalry school at Saumur. He was appointed sub-lieutenant in 1888 and after successive promotions commanded the 5th Hussars in 1912. On Sept. 21, 1914, as a temporary colonel, he was appointed chief of the general staff of an army, and in Aug. 1916 he was made a general of brigade. From the outset of the World War he was the immediate assistant of Marshal Foch, whom he succeeded as the French representative on the Inter-Allied General Staff in 1917. In April 1918 he resumed his work as Chief of the General Staff under Marshal Foch, which post he held during the remainder of the War; and in this capacity he was considered by many to be what Berthier was to Napoleon.
But, and here the balance was in his favour, he proved himself capable of personally directing operations on a very large scale in Poland. In Aug. 1920, when Warsaw was surrounded and threatened by a Soviet army, at a distance of only 20 km., Gen.
Weygand arrived, and speedily reconstituting the disorganised Polish army, launched an offensive against the Bolsheviks' vul nerable points. In December the enemy was in retreat. When the people of Warsaw acclaimed him, he said: "My role was merely to fill up the gaps; it was the heroic Polish nation itself which won the victory." Weygand became a member of the Conseil Superieur de la Guerre, and was made a grand officer of the Legion of Honour on Sept. 1, 1920. In Nov. and Dec. 1922 he served as military expert on the French delegation to the Lausanne Conference, and in Jan. 1923, he was sent to the Rhine to inspect the Allied troops. The same year he succeeded Gen. Gouraud as high commissioner in Syria. He returned to Paris in Nov. 1924 to take charge of the Centre des Hautes Etudes itlilitaires. He was general inspec tor of the army from 1931 to 1935.