At Vichy, the counter-admiral Auphan was part of the tenant groups which harbored a political view of "attentisme" (the act of waiting and refraining until situations become more clear and precise). Designated as chief of the headquarter staff of maritime forces () in August 1941, he maintained contact with the American diplomatic representation to Vichy by transmitting various couriers. State Secretary of the Navy () as of April 1942, he opposed the demanding German requirements related to materials of merchant tonnage. Along with French Army general Maxime Weygand, he assumed a staunch positions of opposition to the politics of collaboration at the corps of the government. A partisan of a suspension of combat between French and Americans during the Anglo-American disembarking of November 8, 1942 in North Africa, he opposed those who wanted to continue to mount combat along the Germans.