Fall of France

The Fall of France occurred during World War II. In May 1940, the Allied armies were unexpectedly overwhelmed by the German armored blitzkrieg.

Belgium remained neutral right up until the German invasion, preventing the French and British from entering its territory. Instead the Belgians relied on a system of forts, which was subdued more quickly than expected due to German airborne attacks.

The French and British, expecting a static war like World War I, wanted to protect as much territory in Belgium and Northern France as possible. They sent their best mobile formations racing north.

In the meantime, the main German attack came through further to the south, through the Ardennes Forest, a mountainous region in southeastern Belgium and Luxembourg. Allied planners had not expected that a modern mechanized army would be able to move so quickly through this area.

The German armies crossed the Meuse River, then reached the English Channel, cutting off the Allied armies in the north. Counterattacks failed because not enough mobile formations had been left in reserve. The Germans also enjoyed overwhelming air superiority and their ground attack aircraft continually harassed the Allies.

French tanks were equal to and in some ways superior to German, but the Germans held a key advantage in that their tanks usually had radios.

The British Expeditionary Force and some French escaped across the Channel in the Dunkirk Evacuation, where the Royal Navy and even civilian boats carried them across.

France struggled on for another few weeks, but the more mobile and numerous Germans continually outmaneuvered them. Even so, German casualties piled up at a rate exceeding the early stages of the campaign. Once the French president resigned, collaborators in the government, including Petain, surrendered. Another general, Charles de Gaulle, fled to England and became the leader of Free France.

Following the German conquest of France a direct zone of occupation was set up in the northern and western parts of the country. In the southeast, Vichy France, a German puppet state, was set up with Philippe Petain as its leader. The colonies fell under the control of the government in Vichy.

The French fleet remained under the control of Vichy France, who attempted to use it as a bargaining chip to maintain some independence. Great Britain worried that the Germans would somehow get the French ships, and so they pushed for their former ally to send the fleet to French ports in the Caribbean Sea, where it would be safer. The French refused, and so the British attacked and sank a number of ships at Mars El Bebir, in Algeria. More ships were stationed at the naval base in Toulon, France, but the French kept their word and scuttled them when the Germans broke the agreement with Vichy and attacked.

Quotes

Churchill: "Où est la masse de manoeuvre?" (Where is the strategic reserve?)
Gamelin: "Aucune." (There is none.)