Eighty years ago Vichy introduces labour conscription on behalf of the Germans

Having struck a bargain with the Germans under which 50,000 French prisoners of war would be liberated in exchange for France supplying 150,000 workers to Germany, the Vichy prime minister Pierre Laval had to find a way of delivering his end of the deal. Fewer than 100,000 workers had gone to Germany voluntarily before then. Vichy passed a law creating the service du travail obligatoire under which all able-bodied males between 18 and 50 and single women of 21 to 35 were forced to do any work that the government deemed to be necessary: in practice going to Germany as quasi-slaves. In practice the law was never applied to women because of the scale of protest it would have aroused especially from the church, but it was enforced on men and became arguably Vichy's least popular measure, a key factor in destroying whatever support the regime had enjoyed.

Nineteen year old Tom Williams became the last IRA man to be hanged for murdering a (Catholic) RUC constable earlier that year in an orgnaised attack. The death sentences on the other members of his unit were commuted because Williams acknowledged that he had been the leader. In the ensuing riots in Belfast two RUC men were shot.

 

Franco sacked his brother-in-law Serrano Suner as  foreign minister and head of the Falange in the twisted aftermath of the Begona incident. A falangist had thrown a hand grenade into a crowd, injuring many albeit not seriously. The mildly anglophile defence minister Varela tried to capitalize on the incident, but over-reached himself by tendering his resigation. This was a blow to the army and Franco yielded to the generals' long-standing pressure to remove the enthusiastically pro-Axis Suner as a compensation.