Definition of Battle of France

As the German war machine rampaged through Poland in September 1939, France and Great Britain lost a golden opportunity to break into territory enemy and force combat on their own ground, despite the declaration of war made on the 3rd.

Losing this opportunity would be expensive for the Allies, as it would allow Germany to recover after devastating Poland and relocating her troops to the west to undertake the attack on France, but not before attacking Denmark and Norway to cover their northern flank.

Once this flank was liquidated, the German troops would launch on their neighboring country in which it would be one of the last blitzkrieg campaigns (together with the attack on Yugoslavia) carried out by the war machine of the III Reich. The Battle of France began.

The call Battle of france began on May 10, 1940 and ended on June 25 of the same year, facing Germany (which most later Italy would join), and on the other to the armies of Holland, Belgium, France and an expeditionary contingent British.

France and Germany were bitter enemies since, in the framework of the German unification process, the nascent II Reich had defeated in Sedan the imperial France of Napoleon III, and even more since the First World War and the harsh conditions of surrender imposed by the Allies on Germany.

That is why the Gauls had built a line of fortifications on the common border between the two countries, which started from Switzerland but reached only the point where the Luxembourg border began and Belgian. This line was the famous Maginot Line.

The Maginot was not fortified, or was very weakly fortified, in a point that was considered impregnable: the wooded region of the Ardennes. The Franco-British idea was to confront the Germans on Belgian soil.

The Germans pretended to do what the Allies expected, to attack through Holland and Belgium, only to appear by surprise through the Ardennes.

In the end, the Maginot Line was of no use.

The attack through the Netherlands and Belgium came with the actions of the paratroopers, the Fallschirmjäger, who were in charge of taking vital points such as bridges or assaulting the Belgian forts. “Dirty” actions were also carried out, such as the use of special units Brandenburger dressed in uniforms of the allied armies to capture bridges and airfields by deception.

The Netherlands surrendered on May 14, after only four days of fighting. The government The country, persuaded after the terrible bombardment of Rotterdam, saw that resistance to the German invader was impossible.

In Belgium, Fort Eben Emael, considered impregnable, was captured by German paratroopers in less than 24 hours. Quite a humiliation for the Belgian military machine, much more modest than the German one, but which had fought bravely during the First World War.

During the German advance through Holland and Belgium, the Allies mobilized their troops to confront the Wehrmacht in Belgian territory, while an armored army corps trudged through the Ardennes to get out to the south of the forces allies.

With this movement, the remains of the Belgian troops and the Franco-British corps ran the risk of being surrounded in Belgian soil and no connection to the rest of France, although the German advance did not have to be, in theory, easy.

Before them, the Germans had the Meuse River, which they had to overcome -a company that was not easy-, and with the French artillery covering this passage.

It is worth stopping here to take a closer look at both armies and the tactics they used: the Germans more coordinator between the different weapons, while these were more independent on the side ally.

This means that on the German side, the spearhead that were the tanks, coordinated by radio with the Luftwaffe aircraft, indicating to them the objectives to be beaten, as well as with the artillery, all acting like the different members of the body, who do not act individually, but coordinated.

In addition, the Germans used large masses of tanks to break through the front, an innovative tactic that allowed the armored weapon to squeeze its full potential. Broadly speaking, modern warfare has been based on the concept developed by German tacticians in World War II.

For their part, the allies did not enjoy this coordination among the various weapons, in addition to the fact that although they had armored means in greater numbers and with as much quality as the Wehrmacht (it is a myth about their numerical and material inferiority), they distributed them among the infantry units to cover the actions of the soldiers to foot.

The latter resulted in the Franco-British not being able to take full advantage of the advantages offered by the armored medium.

Germanic quickness was combined with a politics of bombings - and a bad reputation acquired during the First World War - that caused civilians to flee from the German troops as they progressed, which that generated to the allied forces the problem of having to coexist on the roads and transport routes, with long columns of civilians, in addition to having to take care of these.

The battles that took place around the crossing of the Meuse river, and that were favorable to the German arms, left the way expedited so that the Wehrmacht could complete the encirclement by land of the Franco-British units displaced to Belgium.

The French tried some desperate attacks against the flank of the advancing German troops towards the English Channel, actions in which a chariot officer named Charles de Gaulle.

On May 18, the armored unit of another promise, this time from the German side, Erwin Rommel, reached the canal, completing the encirclement by land of the Gallic troops and the British expeditionary corps.

While the French government evacuated Paris since it had left very few troops in reserve by risking everything to the Belgian letter, and For this reason he had left the rest of the territory sentenced, the pocketed Allied troops began to crowd around Dunkirk.

Is population French lived the most miraculous and controversial evacuation that history has perhaps given, allowing the repatriation of practically everything that was left of the expeditionary force British, and a part of the French army, although the Gallic commanders complained that the British ships had prioritized the embarkation of their own without observing strict criteria military.

Both military ships and all kinds of British civil and even recreational vessels participated in this operation.

The operation was facilitated by a pause in the German attack, long attributed as a veiled message from Hitler to the British that there was still room to agree, but that it was actually due to the need of the German troops to reorganize and rest, after having maintained a dizzying rate of advance and had stretched and decomposed its lines, with the danger of being vulnerable to possible counter attacks.

Although the soldiers were evacuated, all the weapons and equipment remained on the ground, part destroyed and another part that fell into German hands as spoils of war.

France was sentenced, but the final blow was dealt by Italy, which finally decided to enter campaign alongside the Germans, attacking on their part of the common border with France from 10 June.

Mussolini's decision sought to place the transalpine country at the table alongside the already obvious winners, who only had to occupy the rest of France.

However, the Italian troops entered the fray under-equipped and without much moral of combat, in a war that they did not consider as their own. This caused the Italian attack to crash against poor defenses and without much motivation, in a tonic that would be the one that the Italian army would present throughout the conflict.

Paris was declared an open city and occupied by the Germans without resistance.

Some French troops were shipped to Great Britain with the intention of continuing the war from British territory.

Meanwhile, the French government ceded control to veteran General Philippe Pétain, a hero of World War I, who immediately asked the Germans to negotiate an armistice.

Hitler wanted to humiliate France by having the armistice signed in the same train car and in the same place (Compiegne) where the Germans had surrendered to the French in 1918.

For the Nazi dictator, this had been a war of revenge. France was divided in two, with the entire north and the littoral area controlled by the Germans, while the south was under the control of the puppet government of Vichy, chaired by Pétain himself.

Thus ended a humiliating episode for France, which despite having what at the time was considered one of the best armies in the world, as well as the support of the British, had been defeated in a month and a half.

Facing the Wehrmacht, only Great Britain remained.

Themes in Battle of France