 Complete the following phrase:  Pétains government was nevertheless internationally recognised, notably by the U.S., at least until the German occupation of the rest of France. Neither Pétain nor his successive deputies, Laval, Pierre-Étienne Flandin, or Admiral François Darlan, gave significant resistance to requests by the Germans to indirectly aid the Axis Powers. However, when Hitler met Pétain at Montoire in October 1940 to discuss the French governments role in the new European Order, the Marshal listened to Hitler in silence. Not once did he offer a sympathetic word for Germany. Still, the handshake he offered to Hitler caused much uproar in London, and probably influenced Britains decision to lend the Free French naval support for their operations at Gabon. Furthermore, France even remained formally at war with Germany, albeit opposed to the Free French. Following the British attacks of July and September 1940 Mers el Kébir, 