Battle of France

Battle of France
Part of the Western Front of World War II
German soldiers marching past the Arc de Triomphe after the surrender of Paris, 14 June 1940
Date 10 May – 25 June 1940 Location France, Low Countries Result Decisive Axis victory Second Armistice at Compiègne German occupation of Luxembourg German occupation of the Netherlands German occupation of Belgium German occupation of France Italian occupation of southern France French Third Republic replaced by Vichy France
Belligerents
Germany Italy (from June 10)	France United Kingdom Belgium Netherlands Canada Czechoslovakia Poland Luxembourg
Commanders and leaders
Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di Savoia (Army Group West)	Maurice Gamelin (POW) Maxime Weygand  Charles de Gaulle Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) Leopold III Henri Winkelman Władysław Sikorski
Strength
Germany: 141 divisions, 7,378 guns, 2,445 tanks, 5,638 aircraft 3,350,000 troops Alps on 20 June 300,000 Italians	144 divisions, 13,974 guns, 3,383 tanks, 2,935 aircraft 3,300,000 troops Alps on 20 June ~150,000 French
Casualties and losses
Germany: 27,074 dead, 110,034 wounded and 18,384 missing in all: 49,000 dead (later stated) 1,236 aircraft lost, 323 damaged 753 tanks Italy: 1,247 dead or missing, 2,631 wounded, 2,151 hospitalised due to frostbite1	360,000 dead or wounded, 1,900,000 captured 2,233 aircraft
1 Italian forces were involved in fighting in the French Alps, where severe sub-zero temperatures are common, even during the summer.

In Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium. During the fighting, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and many French soldiers were evacuated from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo.

In the second operation, Fall Rot (Case Red), executed from 5 June, German forces outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France. Italy declared war on France on 10 June and soon afterwards the French government fled to the city of Bordeaux. France's capital of Paris was occupied by the on 14 June. On the 17 June, Philippe Pétain publicly announced France would ask for an armistice. On 22 June, an armistice was signed between France and Germany, going into effect on 25 June. For the Axis Powers, the campaign was a spectacular victory.

France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north and west, a small Italian occupation zone in the southeast, and an unoccupied zone, the zone libre, in the south. A rump state, Vichy France, administered all three zones according to the terms laid out in the armistice. In November 1942, the Axis forces also occupied the zone libre, and metropolitan France remained under Axis occupation until after the Allied landings in 1944. The Low Countries remained under German occupation until 1944 and 1945.

Prelude

Following the invasion of Poland in September 1939, (that started the Second World War), a period of inaction called the Phoney War ("Sitzkrieg" or "Drôle de guerre") set in between the major powers. Adolf Hitler had hoped that France and the United Kingdom would acquiesce in his conquest and quickly make peace. On 6 October he made a peace offer to both Western Powers. Even before they had had time to respond, on 9 October he also formulated a new military policy in case their reply was negative: Führer-Anweisung N°6, or "Führer-Directive Number 6".

German strategy

Hitler had always fostered dreams about major military campaigns to defeat the Western European nations as a preliminary step to the conquest of territory in Eastern Europe, thus avoiding a two-front war. However, these intentions were absent from Führer-Directive N°6. This plan was firmly based on the seemingly more realistic assumption that Germany's military strength would still have to be built up for several more years and that for the moment only limited objectives could be envisaged. They were aimed at improving Germany's ability to survive a long, protracted war in the West. Hitler ordered a conquest of the Low Countries to be executed at the shortest possible notice. This would prevent France from occupying them first. Allied air power could then threaten the vital German Ruhr Area. It would also provide the basis for a successful long-term air and sea campaign against the United Kingdom. There was no mention in the Führer-Directive of any immediate consecutive attack to conquer the whole of France, although as much as possible of the border areas in northern France should be occupied.

While writing the directive, Hitler had assumed that such an attack could be initiated within a period of at most a few weeks, but the very day he issued it he was disabused of this illusion. It transpired that he had been misinformed about the true state of Germany's forces. The motorised units had to recover, repairing the damage to their vehicles incurred in the Polish campaign; ammunition stocks were largely depleted.

Schlieffen Plan revisited?

On 10 October 1939, the British refused Hitler's offer of peace; on 12 October the French did the same. Franz Halder, the chief of staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the German Army High Command, presented the first plan for Fall Gelb ("Case Yellow") on 19 October, the pre-war codename of plans for campaigns in the Low Countries: the Aufmarschanweisung N°1, Fall Gelb, or "Deployment Instruction No. 1, Case Yellow". Halder's plan has often been compared to the Schlieffen Plan, which the Germans executed in 1914 during the opening pahse of the First World War. It was similar in that both plans entailed an advance through the middle of Belgium, but while the intention of the Schlieffen Plan was to gain a decisive victory by executing a surprise encirclement of the French Army Aufmarschanweisung N°1 was based on an unimaginative frontal attack, sacrificing a projected half a million German soldiers to attain the limited goal of throwing the Allies back to the River Somme. Germany's strength for 1940 would then be spent; only in 1942 could the main attack against France begin.

Hitler was very disappointed with Halder's plan. Hitler reacted in two ways. He decided that the German army should attack early, ready or not, in the hope that Allied unpreparedness might bring about an easy victory. This led to a series of postponements, as time and again commanders managed to convince Hitler that the attack should be further delayed for a few days or weeks to remedy some critical defect in the preparations, or to wait for better weather conditions. Secondly, because the plan as it was did not appeal to him, he tried to make it different, without clearly understanding in which way it could be improved. This mainly resulted in a dispersion of effort, since besides the main axis in central Belgium, secondary attacks were foreseen further south. Hitler made such a suggestion on 11 November 1939. On 29 October, Halder let a second operational plan, Aufmarschanweisung N°2, Fall Gelb, reflect these changes by featuring a secondary attack on the Netherlands.

Hitler was not alone in disliking Halder's plan. General Gerd von Rundstedt, the commander of Army Group A, also disagreed with it. Unlike Hitler, von Rundstedt, as a professional soldier, understood perfectly well how it should be rectified. Its fundamental flaw was that it did not conform to the classic principles of the Bewegungskrieg, or "manoeuvre warfare", that had been the basis of German operations since the 19th century. A breakthrough would have to be accomplished that would result in the encirclement and destruction of the main body of Allied forces. The logical place to achieve this would be the Sedan axis, which lay in the sector of von Rundstedt's Army Group A. On 21 October, von Rundstedt agreed with his chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Erich von Manstein, that an alternative operational plan had to be arranged that would reflect these basic ideas, making his Army Group A as strong as possible at the expense of Army Group B to the north.

The Manstein plan

Further information: Manstein Plan

The evolution of German plans for Fall Gelb, the invasion of the Low Countries. The series begins at the left upper corner.

Whilst von Manstein was formulating new plans in Koblenz, Lieutenant-General Heinz Guderian, commander of the XIX Army Corps, Germany's elite armoured formation, happened to be lodged in a nearby hotel. Von Manstein won immediate support from Guderian who had known the terrain since his advance with the German Army in 1914 and 1918.

At this moment von Manstein's plan consisted of a move from Sedan in the north, to the rear of the main Allied forces, to engage them directly from the south in full battle. When Guderian was invited to contribute to the plan during informal discussions, he proposed a radical and novel idea. Not only his army corps, but most of the Panzerwaffe should be concentrated at Sedan. This concentration of armour should subsequently not move to the north but to the west, to execute a swift, deep, independent strategic penetration towards the English Channel without waiting for the main body of infantry divisions. This might lead to a strategic collapse of the enemy, avoiding the relatively high number of casualties normally caused by a Kesselschlacht or "annihilation battle". Such a risky independent use of armour had been widely discussed in Germany before the war but had not been accepted as received doctrine. The German General Staff, however, doubted such an operation could work.

Von Manstein wrote his first memorandum outlining the alternative plan on 31 October. In it he carefully avoided mentioning Guderian's name and downplayed the strategic part of the armoured units, in order to not generate unnecessary resistance. Six more memoranda followed between 31 October 1939 and 12 January 1940, slowly growing more radical in outline. All were rejected by the OKH and nothing of their content reached Hitler.

Mechelen Incident

On 10 January 1940, a German Messerschmitt Bf 108 made a forced landing at Maasmechelen, north of Maastricht, in Belgium (the so-called "Mechelen Incident"). Among the occupants of the aircraft was a Luftwaffe major, Hellmuth Reinberger, who was carrying a copy of the latest version of Aufmarschanweisung N°2. Reinberger was unable to destroy the documents, which quickly fell into the hands of the Belgian intelligence services. It has often been suggested that this incident was the cause of a drastic change in German plans, but this is incorrect; in fact a reformulation of them on 30 January, Aufmarschanweisung N°3, Fall Gelb, conformed to the earlier versions.

Adopting the Manstein plan

On 27 January, von Manstein was relieved of his appointment as Chief of Staff of Army Group A and appointed commander of an army corps in Prussia, to begin his command in Stettin on 9 February. This move was instigated by Halder to reduce von Manstein's influence. Von Manstein's indignant staff then brought his case to Hitler's attention, who was informed of it on 2 February. Hitler had, without any knowledge of von Manstein's plan, suggested an attack focused at Sedan. Until February 1940, he had been pursuaded to forget the idea as it was too risky. Von Manstein's plan brought it to his attention once more. On 17 February 1940 Hitler summoned Rudolf Schmundt, General der Infanterie, and Alfred Jodl to attend the conference with von Manstein and Hitler. Hitler sat and listened, abandoning his habbits of interrupting and launching into monologues. In the end, he agreed to all of von Manstein. The next day he ordered the plans to be changed in accordance with von Manstein's ideas. They appealed to Hitler mainly because they offered some real hope of a cheap victory.

Halder had no intention of deviating from established doctrine by allowing an independent strategic penetration by the seven armoured divisions of Army Group A. Much to the outrage of Guderian, this element was at first completely removed from the new plan, Aufmarschanweisung N°4, Fall Gelb, issued on 24 February. However, Halder went through an "astonishing change of opinion". Halder was criticised in the same way he had rejected the plan when von Manstein first suggested it. The bulk of the German officer corps were appalled by the plan, and they called him the "gravedigger of the Panzer force".

Even when adapted to more conventional methods, the new plan provoked a storm of protest from the majority of German generals. They thought it utterly irresponsible to create a concentration of forces in a position where they could not possibly be sufficiently supplied, while such inadequate supply routes as there were could easily be cut off by the French. If the Allies did not react as expected the German offensive could end in catastrophe. Their objections were ignored. Halder argued that, as Germany's strategic position seemed hopeless anyway, even the slightest chance of a decisive victory outweighed the certainty of ultimate defeat implied by inaction.

Alleged use of 'Blitzkrieg'

Main article: Blitzkrieg

The operational method, strategy and tactical methodology of the German Army and Luftwaffe was often been labelled "Blitzkrieg". The concept is deeply controversial and is connected to the problem of the precise nature and origin of "Blitzkrieg" operations, of which the 1940 campaign is often described as a classic example. An essential element of "Blitzkrieg" was considered to be a strategic envelopment executed by mechanised forces which led to the operational collapse of the defender. It has also been looked on as a revolutionary form of warfare. In recent years, it has not only been disputed as novel, but also "Blitzkrieg"'s existence has also been questioned. In the German wars of unification and First World War campaigns, the German General Staffs had attempted Bewegungskrieg (Movement War). These often succeeded in achieving tactical breakthroughs, but the operational exploitation took time as armies could not move quickly, and sometimes failed to achieve a decisive victory altogether. The invention of tanks, aircraft, and more importantly, motorised infantry and artillery, enabled the Germans to implement these old methods again with new technology. The tempo of advance solved the problem of operational level exploitation.

When dealing with "Blitzkrieg" itself, things have become complicated. It is seen as an anomaly and there is no explicit reference to such strategy, operations or tactics in the German battle plans. There is no evidence in German military art, strategy or industrial preparation that points to the existence of a thought out "Blitzkrieg" tendency. Evidence suggestes that the German Reich was preparing for a long sustained war of attrition, not a quick war of manouevre. Hitler's miscalculations in 1939 forced him into war before he was ready. Under these circumstances the German General Staff digressed back to attempting to win a quick war, before the economic-material superiority of the Allies could make a difference, although this was not the original intention. It was only after the defeat of France in 1940, that the German military pursued this kind of warfare to achieve its ambitions in Europe. German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser stated:

"The campaign in the west was not a planned campaign of conquest. Instead, it was an operational act of despair to get out of a desperate strategic situation. What is called "Blitzkrieg thinking" did not develop until after [author's emphasis] the campaign in the west. It was not the cause but rather the consequence of victory. Something that in May 1940, had come off successfully to everyone's surprise, was now to serve the implementation of Hitler's visions of conquest in the form of the secret success.

The Allied strategy

Early actions

In September 1939, Belgium and the Netherlands were still neutral. They had made arrangements in secret with the Entente for future cooperation should the Germans invade their territory. The Supreme Commander of the French Army, Maurice Gamelin, suggested during that month that the Allies should take advantage of the fact that Germany was tied up in Poland by using the Low Countries as a spring board to attack Germany. This suggestion was not taken up by the French government.

In September 1939, in the Saar Offensive, French soldiers advanced 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) into the Saar before withdrawing in October. At this time, France had employed 98 divisions (all but 28 of them reserve or fortress formations) and 2,500 tanks against German forces consisting of 43 divisions (32 of them reserves) and no tanks. According to the judgement of Wilhelm Keitel, then Chief of OKW, the French army would easily have been able to penetrate the mere screen of German forces present.

The Dyle plan

Further information: Dyle Plan

Strategic reaons dictated the Allied decision to advance and fight on Belgian territory when the German attack in the west came. The British government insisted that the Flemish coast remain under Allied control so as not to threaten British naval supremacy. The French determined that the German offensive had to be contained as far east as possible, to keep the battles off French territory. Finally, and for him personally, the most cogent argument for advancing and fighting on Belgian territory was that Gamelin did not consider the French army capable of winning a mobile battle against the German army in the wide operational theatre France would present. Belgium presented a far narrower front to contain German formations. He also argued that an advance to the Dyle river and preparing an entrenched front there saved most of Belgium's industrial regions from falling into German hands.

Gamelin did not have the personality to simply impose his will. The first step he took was to propose the "Escaut" variant as an option for Plan D, the code for the "Dyle plan". This would include an advance by the French onto Dutch territory. The powerful French Ninth Army and French First Army would hold the line in Belgium, from Wavre to Givet. The French Seventh Army would hold the line on the Scheldt and link up with Dutch forces. The Belgian Army would hold the Ghent-Antwerp line. They would be reinforced by the British Army near Brussels.

Gamelin made the reasonable assumption that the Germans would try to attempt a breakthrough by concentrating their mechanised forces. They could hardly hope to break the Maginot Line on his right flank or to overcome the Allied concentration of forces on the left flank. That only left the centre, but most of the centre was covered by the river Meuse. Tanks were limited in defeating fortified river positions. However, at Namur the river made a sharp turn to the east, creating a gap between itself and the river Dyle. This 'Gembloux Gap', ideal for mechanised warfare, was a very dangerous weak spot. Gamelin decided to concentrate half of his armoured reserves there, sure the main German thrust would be on the Belgian-Dutch plain. Gamelin reasoned the Germans might try to overcome the Meuse position by using infantry, but he was confident in the Belgian's ability to hold the line and believed, while it was possible for the Germans to cross the Meuse, it would take a long time to achieve. Gamelin made no study in the event of a German breakthrough in the south, and as a consequence, did not make preparations to extricate Allied forces from Belgium.

Gamelin continued with his plans despite repeated criticism from his subordinates. Gaston Billotte and Alphonse Joseph Georges were particularly critical. Georges hit on the decisive problem. He suggested that Gamelin was too sure the German plan involved the battles, or main effort, being fought in the Netherlands and Belgium. He argued that it seemed as if Gamelin was allowing himself to be drawn into the Low Countries. He even suggested that an attack in Belgium might be a diversion. He argued, that if the main forces were sent into Belgium and "the main enemy attack came in our centre, on our front between the Meuse and the Moselle, we could be deprived of the necessary means to repel it".

Allied intelligence

In the winter of 1939–1940, the Belgian consul-general in Cologne had anticipated the angle of advance that Von Manstein was planning. They deduced, through intelligence reports, that German forces were concentrating along the Belgian and Luxembourg frontiers. The Belgians were convinced that the Germans would thrust through the Ardennes and to the English Channel with the aim of cutting off the Allied field Armies in Belgium and north-eastern France. They also anticipated that the Germans would try to land airborne and glider forces behind the Allied lines to break open Belgian fortifications. Such warnings were not heeded by the French, or British. In March 1940, Swiss intelligence detected six or seven Panzer Divisions. More motorised divisions had also been detected. French intelligence were aware that the Germans were constructing pontoons over the Rhine in Luxembourg through aerial reconnaissance. The French military attache in Berne warned that the centre of the German assault would come on the Meuse at Sedan, sometime between the 8 May and 10 May 1940. The report was dated 30 April 1940. These reports had little effect on Gamelin.

Forces and dispositions

Further information: Order of Battle for the Battle of France

Germany

To support its mobilisation, the German nation mobilised 4,200,000 men for the Army, 1,000,000 for the Luftwaffe, 180,000 for the Kriegsmarine, and 100,000 of the Waffen-SS. When consideration is made for those in Poland, Denmark and Norway, the Army had 3,000,000 men available for the offensive on 10 May 1940. These manpower reserves were formed into 157 divisions. Of this, 135 were earmarked for the offensive, including 42 reserve divisions.

The German forces in the West would in May and June deploy some 2,439 tanks and 7,378 artillery guns, including matériel reserves committed. In 1939–40, 45 percent of the army was 40 years old, and 50 percent of all the soldiers had just a few weeks training. The German Army, contrary to what the Blitzkrieg legend suggests, was not fully motorised. The German Army could muster only 120,000 vehicles compared to the 300,000 of the French Army. The British also had an "enviable" contingent of motorised forces. Just 10 percent of the Army was motorised in 1940.

Only half of the German divisions available in 1940 were combat ready, often being more poorly equipped than the British and French Armies, as well as the German Army of 1914. In the spring, 1940, the German army was semi-modern. A small number of the best equipped and "elite divisions were offset by many second and third rate divisions".

One of the German strengths, however, was the Luftwaffe. It divided its forces into two groups. In total, 1,815 combat, 487 Transport and 50 Glider aircraft were deployed to support Army Group B, while a further 3,286 combat aircraft were deployed to support Army Groups A and C. In this regard, close air support was provided in the form of the dive-bomber and medium bomber. The Luftwaffe was a broadly based force with no constricting central doctrine, other than its resources should be used generally to support national strategy. It was flexible and it was able to carry out both operational-tactical, and strategic bombing effectively. Flexibility was the Luftwaffe's strength in 1939-1941. While Allied Air Forces, in 1940, were tied to the support of the Army, the Luftwaffe deployed its resources in a more general, operational way. It switched from air superiority missions, to medium-range interdiction, to strategic strikes, to close support duties depending on the need of the ground forces. In fact, far from it being a dedicated panzer spearhead arm, less than 15 percent of the Luftwaffe was designed for close support of the army in 1939.

The German Army was divided into three army groups:

• Army Group A commanded by Gerd von Rundstedt, composed of 45½ divisions including seven armoured, was to execute the decisive movement, cutting a "Sichelschnitt"—not the official name of the operation but the translation in German of a phrase after the events coined by Winston Churchill as "Sickle Cut" (and even earlier "armoured scythe stroke")—through the Allied defences in the Ardennes. It consisted of three armies: the Fourth, Twelfth and Sixteenth. It had three Panzer corps; one, the XVth, had been allocated to the Fourth Army, but the other two (the XXXXIst, including the 2nd Motorised Infantry Division and the XIXth) were united with the XIVth Army Corps of two motorised infantry divisions, on a special independent operational level in Panzergruppe Kleist. This was done to better coordinate the approach march to the Meuse; once bridgeheads had been established across the river, the Panzer Group headquarters would be disbanded and its three corps would be divided between the Twelfth and Sixteenth Armies.

• Army Group B under Fedor von Bock, composed of 29½ divisions including three armoured, was tasked with advancing through the Low Countries and luring the northern units of the Allied armies into a pocket. It consisted of the Sixth and Eighteenth Armies.

• Army Group C, composed of 18 divisions under Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, was charged with preventing a flanking movement from the east, and with launching small holding attacks against the Maginot Line and the upper Rhine. It consisted of the 1st and 7th Armies.

The Allies

Due to a low birthrate, which had further declined during the First World War and the Great Depression, France had a severe manpower shortage relative to its total population, which furthermore was barely half that of Germany. To compensate, France had mobilised about a third of the male population between the ages of 20 and 45, bringing the strength of its armed forces to 6,100,000 men. Only 2, 240,000 of these served in army units in the north. The British contributed a total strength of 897,000 men in 1939, rising to 1,650,000 by June 1940. In May, it numbered only 500,000 men, including reserves. Dutch and Belgian manpower reserves amounted to 400,000 and 650,000 respectively.

The number of divisions amounted to a total of 117 French divisions. Of this total 104 divisions (including 11 in reserve) for the defence of the north. The British Army contributed only 13 divisions, three of which were completely unorganised. Some 22 Belgian and 10 Dutch divisions are also a part of the Allied order of battle. British artillery strength amounted to 1,280 guns. Belgium fielded 1,338 and the Dutch, 656. France had 10,700 pieces. This made a total of around 14,000 artillery pieces. Although the Dutch, British and Belgians had barely any armour, the French had a powerful force of 3,254 tanks.

In the air the Allies were numerically inferior in the air: the French Armee de l'Air had 1,562 aircraft, and RAF Fighter Command committed 680 machines, while RAF Bomber Command could contribute some 392 aircraft to operations. Most of the Allied aircraft were obsolete types; among the fighter force only the British Hawker Hurricane and the French Dewoitine D.520 could contend with the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 on something approaching equal terms. At the beginning of Fall Rot, the French aviation industry had reached a considerable output, with an estimated matériel reserve of nearly 2,000 aircraft. However, a chronic lack of spare parts crippled this stocked fleet. Only 29% (599) of the aircraft were serviceable, of which 170 were bombers.

The French forces in the north had three Army Groups. The Second and the Third Army Groups defended the Maginot Line to the east; the First Army Group under Gaston-Henri Billotte was situated in the west and would execute the movement forward into the Low Countries. The French Seventh Army on the coast, was reinforced by a Light Mechanized (armoured) division (DLM). The Seventh Army was intended to move to the Netherlands via Antwerp. Next to the south was the divisions of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), which would advance to the Dyle Line and position itself to the right of the Belgian army. The French 1st Army, reinforced by two Light Mechanized Divisions, with a Reserve Armoured Division (DCR) in reserve, would defend the Gembloux Gap. The southernmost army involved in the move forward into Belgium was the French Ninth Army, which had to cover the entire Meuse sector between Namur and Sedan. At Sedan, the French Second Army would form the "hinge" of the movement and remain entrenched.

The French Second Army was to face the concentration of the German attack at Sedan. It was given low priority in manpower and air support. It contained just five divisions. Two were over-age reservist units, or "Series B" divisions, and one was a North African unit from Senegal.

May: Fall Gelb, Low Countries and northern France

Northern Front

Germany initiated Fall Gelb on the evening prior to and the night of 10 May. During the late evening of 9 May, German forces occupied Luxembourg. Army Group B launched its (feint) offensive during the night into the Netherlands and Belgium. Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) from the 7th Flieger and 22. Luftlande Infanterie-Division under Kurt Student executed that morning surprise landings at The Hague, on the road to Rotterdam and against the Belgian fort at Eben-Emael in order to facilitate Army Group B's advance.

The French command reacted immediately, sending its First Army Group north in accordance with Plan D. This move committed their best forces, diminishing their fighting power by the partial disorganisation it caused and their mobility by depleting their fuel stocks. That evening the French Seventh Army crossed the Dutch border, only to find the Dutch already in full retreat. The French and British air command were less effective than their commanders had anticipated, and the Luftwaffe quickly gained air superiority, depriving the Allies of key reconnaissance abilities and disrupting Allied communications and coordination.

The Netherlands

Main article: Battle of the Netherlands

A burnt out German Junkers Ju 52 transport lying in a Dutch field.

The Luftwaffe was guaranteed air superiority over the Netherlands. They allocated 247 medium bombers, 147 fighter aircraft, 424 Junkers Ju 52 transports, and 12 Heinkel He 59 seaplanes to direct operations over the Netherlands. The Dutch Air Force, the Militaire Luchtvaartafdeling (ML), had a strength of 144 combat aircraft, half of which were destroyed within the first day of operations. The remainder was dispersed and accounted for only a handful of Luftwaffe aircraft shot down. In total the ML flew a mere 332 sorties losing 110 of its aircraft.

The German 18th Army secured all the strategically vital bridges in and toward Rotterdam, which penetrated Fortress Holland and bypassed the New Water Line from the south. However, an operation organised separately by the Luftwaffe to seize the Dutch seat of government, known as the Battle for The Hague, ended in complete failure. The airfields surrounding the city (Ypenburg, Ockenburg, and Valkenburg) were taken with heavy casualties and transport aircraft losses. Some 96 aircraft in all were lost to Dutch shell fire. The Luftwaffe's Transportgruppen operationshad cost it 125 Ju 52s destroyed and 47 damaged, representing 50 percent of the fleet's strength Moreover, the airborne operation had cost the German paratroopers 4,000 men, or whom 1,200 were prisoners of war. The Dutch evacuated them back to Britain. The total percentage cost of the defeat was 20 percent of NCOs and men and 42 percent of German officers were lost.

The French Seventh Army failed to block the German armoured reinforcements from the 9th Panzer Division, which reached Rotterdam on 13 May. That same day in the east, following the Battle of the Grebbeberg in which a Dutch counter-offensive to contain a German breach had failed, the Dutch retreated from the Grebbe line to the New Water Line. The Dutch Army, still largely intact, surrendered in the evening of 14 May after the Bombing of Rotterdam by Heinkel He 111 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 54 (Bomber Wing 54). It considered its strategic situation to have become hopeless and feared further destruction of the major Dutch cities. The capitulation document was signed on 15 May. However, the Dutch troops in Zeeland and the colonies continued the fight while Queen Wilhelmina established a government-in-exile in Britain.

Central Belgium

Main article: Battle of Belgium

Abandoned Belgian tank is inspected by two German soldiers

The Germans were able to establish air superiority in Belgium. Having completed thorough photographic reconnaissance missions, they destroyed 83 of the 179 aircraft of the Aeronautique Militaire within the first 24 hours. The Belgians would fly 77 operational missions but would contribute little to the air campaign. The Luftwaffe was assured air superiority over the Low Countries.

Because Army Group B had been so weakened compared to the earlier plans, the feint offensive by the German 6th Army was in danger of stalling immediately, since the Belgian defences on the Albert Canal position were very strong. The main approach route was blocked by Fort Eben-Emael, a large fortress then generally considered the most modern in Eruope, controlling the junction of the Meuse and the Albert Canal. Any delay might endanger the outcome of the entire campaign, because it was essential that the main body of Allied troops was engaged before Army Group A would establish bridgeheads. To overcome this difficulty, the Germans resorted to unconventional means in the assault on the fort. In the early hours of 10 May gliders landed on the roof of the fort and unloaded assault teams that disabled the main gun cupolas with hollow charges. The bridges over the canal were seized by German paratroopers. Shocked by a breach in its defences just where they had seemed the strongest, the Belgian Supreme Command withdrew its divisions to the KW-line five days earlier than planned.

The BEF and the French 1st Army were not yet entrenched. When Erich Hoepner's XVIth Panzer Corps, consisting of 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions was launched over the newly-captured bridges in the direction of the Gembloux Gap, this seemed to confirm the expectations of the French Supreme Command that the German Schwerpunkt would be at that point. The two French Light Mechanized divisions, the 2nd DLM and 3rd DLM were ordered forward to meet the German armour and cover the entrenchment of the First Army. The resulting Battle of Hannut, which took place on 12 and 13 May was the largest tank battle until that date, with about 1,500 armoured fighting vehicles participating. The French claimed to have disabled about 160 German tanks for 91 Hotchkiss H35 and 30 Somua S35 tanks destroyed or captured. The Germans controlled the battlefield area afterwards after a voluntary French withdrawal. They recovered and eventually repaired or rebuilt many of the Panzers. German irreparable losses amounted to 49 tanks (20 3PD and 29 4PD).

On the second day the Germans managed to breach the screen of French tanks, which were successfully withdrawn on 14 May to Gembloux after having gained enough time for the First Army to dig in. Hoepner tried to break the French line on 15 May against orders, leading to the Battle of Gembloux. This was the only time in the campaign when German armour frontally attacked a strongly held fortified position. The attempt was repelled by the 1st Moroccan Infantry Division, costing 4th Panzer Division another 42 tanks, 26 of which were irreparable. This French defensive success was made irrelevant by events further south.

Central front

The German advance until noon, 16 May 1940

In the centre, the progress of German Army Group A was to be delayed by Belgian motorised infantry and French Mechanized Cavalry divisions (Divisions Légères de Cavalerie) advancing into the Ardennes. These forces had an insufficient anti-tank capacity to block the surprisingly large number of German tanks they encountered and quickly gave way, withdrawing behind the Meuse. The German advance was greatly hampered by the sheer number of troops trying to force their way along the poor road network. Kleist's Panzer Group had more than 41,000 vehicles. This huge armada had been granted only four march routes through the Ardennes. The time-tables proved to be wildly optimistic and there was soon heavy congestion, beginning well over the Rhine to the east—it would last for almost two weeks. This made Army Group A very vulnerable to French air attacks, but these did not materialise.

Although Gamelin was well aware of the situation, the French tactical bomber force was far too weak to challenge German air superiority so close to the German border. On 11 May Gamelin ordered many reserve divisions to begin reinforcing the Meuse sector. Because of the danger the Luftwaffe posed, movement over the rail network was limited to night-time, slowing the reinforcement; but the French felt no sense of urgency as the build-up of German divisions would be correspondingly slow.

The German advance forces reached the Meuse line late in the afternoon of 12 May. To allow each of the three armies of Army Group A to cross, three major bridgeheads were to be established at: Sedan in the south, Monthermé twenty kilometres to the northwest and Dinant another fifty kilometres to the north. The first units to arrive hardly had local numerical superiority; their already insufficient artillery support was further limited by an average supply of just twelve rounds per gun.

Battle of Sedan

Main articles: Battle of Sedan (1940) and Luftwaffe Organization

At Sedan the Meuse Line consisted of a strong defensive belt, six kilometres deep according to the modern principles of zone defence on slopes overlooking the Meuse valley and strengthened by 103 pillboxes, manned by the 147th Fortress Infantry Regiment. The deeper positions were held by the 55th Infantry Division (55e DI). This was only a grade "B" reserve division. On the morning of 13 May, 71e DI was inserted to the east of Sedan, allowing 55e DI to narrow its front by a third and deepen its position to over ten kilometres. Furthermore, it had a superiority in artillery to the German units present.

On 13 May, the German XIXth Corps forced three crossings near Sedan, executed by the motorised infantry regiments of the 1st, 2nd and 10th Panzer Divisions, reinforced by the elite Großdeutschland infantry regiment. Instead of slowly massing artillery as the French expected, the Germans concentrated most of their air power to smash a hole in a narrow sector of the French lines by carpet bombing punctuated by dive bombing. Hermann Göring had promised Guderian that there would be extraordinarily heavy air support during a continual eight hour air attack, from 8am until dusk. Luftflotte 3, supported by Luftflotte 2, executed the heaviest air bombardment the world had yet witnessed and the most intense by the Luftwaffe during the war. The Luftwaffe committed two Sturzkampfgeschwader (Dive Bomber Wings) to the assault, flying 300 sorties against French positions, with Sturzkampfgeschwader 77 alone flying 201 individual missions. A total of 3,940 sorties were flown by nine Kampfgeschwader (Bomber Wing) units often in Gruppe strength.

The forward platoons and pillboxes of the 147 RIF were little affected by the bombing and held their positions throughout most of the day, initially repulsing the crossing attempts of the 2nd and 10th Panzer Divisions on their left and right. However, there was a gap in the line of bunkers in the centre of the river bend. In the late afternoon Großdeutschland penetrated this position, trying to quickly exploit the opportunity. The deep French zonal defence had been devised to defeat just these kind of infiltration tactics; it now transpired that the morale of the deeper company positions of the 55e DI had been broken by the impact of the German air attacks. They had been routed or were too dazed to offer effective resistance any longer. The French supporting artillery batteries had fled; this created an impression among the remaining main defence line troops of the 55e DI that they were isolated and abandoned. They too had retreated by the late evening. At a cost of a few hundred casualties the German infantry had penetrated up to 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) into the French defensive zone by midnight. Even then, most of the infantry had not crossed, much of the success being due to the actions of just six platoons, mainly assault engineers.

The disorder that had begun at Sedan spread down the French lines via groups of haggard and retreating soldiers. At 19:00hrs on 13 May, the 295th regiment of 55e DI, holding the last prepared defensive line at the Bulson ridge, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the Meuse, was panicked by the false rumour that German tanks were already behind its positions. It fled, creating a gap in the French defences, before even a single German tank had crossed the river. As this "Panic of Bulson", or "phénomène d’hallucination collective", involved the divisional artillery, the crossing sites were no longer within range of the French batteries. The division ceased to exist. The Germans had not attacked their position, and would not do so until 12 hours later, at 07:20 on 14 May. On the morning of 14 May, two French FCM 36 tank battalions and the reserve regiment of the 55th Infantry Division (213th Infantry Regiment), executed a counterattack on the German bridgehead. It was repulsed at Bulson by German armour and anti-tank units which had been rushed across the river from 07:30 over the first pontoon bridge. The Germans had beaten them to the ridge by minutes.

Air battle

General Gaston-Henri Billotte, commander of the First Army Group whose right flank pivoted on Sedan, urged that the bridges across the Meuse River be destroyed by air attack, convinced that "over them will pass either victory or defeat!". That day every available Allied light bomber was employed in an attempt to destroy the three bridges, but failed to hit them while suffering heavy losses. The RAF Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF) under the command of Air Vice-Marshal P H L Playfair, bore the brunt of the attacks. The plan called for the RAF to commit its bombers for the attack while receiving protection from French fighter groups. The British bombers received insufficient air cover and as a result some 21 French fighters and 48 British bombers, 44 percent of the AASF's strength, was destroyed by Oberst Gerd von Massow's Jagdfliegerführer 3 Jagdgruppen. The French Armée de l'Air also tried to halt the German armoured columns, but the small French bomber force had been so badly mauled in the previous days that only a couple of dozen aircraft could be committed to that vital target. Two French bombers were shot down. The German anti-aircraft defences, consisting of one hundred and ninety eight 88 mm, fifty-four 3.7 cm and eighty-one 20 mm cannon accounted for half of the Allied bombers destroyed. In just one day the Allies lost ninety bombers. In the Luftwaffe it became known as the "Day of the Fighters".

The French collapse

Heinz Guderian, the commander of the German XIXth Army Corps, had indicated on 12 May that he wanted to enlarge the bridgehead to at least 20 kilometres (12 mi). His superior, Ewald von Kleist, on behalf of Hitler, ordered him to limit his moves to a maximum of 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) before consolidation. On 14 May at 11:45, von Rundstedt confirmed this order, which implied that the tanks should now start to dig in. Guderian by threatening to resign and behind the scenes interventions was able to get to Ewald von Kleist to agree to "reconnaissance in force." This vague terminology allowed Guderian to advance forward effectively ignoring Ewald von Kleist's order to halt.

In the original von Manstein Plan as Guderian had suggested, secondary attacks would be carried out to the southeast, in the rear of the Maginot Line, to confuse the French command. This element had been removed by Halder but Guderian now sent 10th Panzer Division and Großdeutschland south to execute precisely such a feint attack, using the only available route south over the Stonne plateau. The commander of the French Second Army, General Charles Huntziger, intended to carry out a counterattack at the same spot by the armoured 3e Division Cuirassée de Réserve (DCR) to eliminate the bridgehead. This resulted in an armoured collision, both parties trying in vain to gain ground in furious attacks from 15 May to 18 May, the village of Stonne changing hands many times. Huntzinger considered this at least a defensive success and limited his efforts to protecting his flank. Holding Stonne and taking Bulson enabled the French to hold onto the high ground overlooking Sedan. They could disrupt the Sedan bridgehead, even if they could not take it. Heavy battles took place and Stonne changed hands 17 times. In the evening of 16 May, Guderian removed 10th Panzer Division from the effort, having found a better task for it.

Guderian had turned his other two armoured divisions, the 1st and 2nd Panzer sharply to the west on 14 May. On the afternoon of 14 May there was still a chance for the French to attack the exposed southern flank of 1st Panzer Division before the 10th Panzer Division had entered the bridgehead, but it was thrown away when the planned attack by 3 DCR was delayed because it was not ready in time.

On 15 May, in heavy fighting, Guderian's motorised infantry dispersed the reinforcements of the newly formed French 6th Army in their assembly area west of Sedan, undercutting the southern flank of the French Ninth Army by 40 kilometres (25 mi) and forcing the 102nd Fortress Division to leave its positions that had blocked the tanks of the XVI Corps at Monthermé. The French Second Army had been seriously mauled and had rendered itself impotent. While this was happening, the French Ninth Army began to collapse. This Army had already been reduced in size because some of its divisions were still in Belgium. They also did not have time to fortify and had been pushed back from the river by the unrelenting pressure of the attacking German infantry. This allowed the impetuous Erwin Rommel to break free with his 7th Panzer Division. Rommel had advanced quickly and his lines of communication with his superior, General Hermann Hoth and his headquarters were cut. Disobeying orders and using the veneer of the Mission Command system, and not waiting for the French to establish a new line of defence, he continued to advance. The French 5th Motorised Infantry Division was sent to block him, but the Germans were advancing unexpectedly fast, and Rommel surprised some of the French vehicles while they were refuelling on 15 May. The Germans were able to fire directly into the neatly lined French vehicles and overrun their position completely. The French unit had "disintegrated into a wave of refugees; they had been overrun literally in their sleep".

By 17 May, Rommel claimed to have taken 10,000 prisoners and suffered only 36 losses. However the success of his commanders on the ground began to have effects on Hitler who worried that the German advance was moving too fast. Halder recorded in his diary on May 17th that "Fuhrer is terribly nervous. Frightened by his own success, he is afraid to take any chance and so would pull the reins on us ... [he] keeps worrying about the south flank. He rages and screams that we are on the way to ruin the whole campaign." Through deception and different interpretations of orders to stop from Hitler and von Kleist, the commanders on the ground were able to ignore Hitler's attempts to stop the northern advance to the sea.

The Allied reaction

The German advance up to 21 May 1940

The Panzer Corps now slowed their advance considerably and put themselves in a very vulnerable position. They were stretched out, exhausted, low on fuel, and many tanks had broken down. There was now a dangerous gap between them and the infantry. A determined attack by a fresh and large enough mechanised force might have cut the Panzers off and wiped them out.

The French High Command, however, was reeling from the shock of the sudden offensive and was now stung by a sense of defeatism. On the morning of 15 May French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud telephoned the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and said "We have been defeated. We are beaten; we have lost the battle." Churchill, attempting to offer some comfort to Reynaud, reminded the Prime Minister of all the times the Germans had broken through the Allied lines in World War I only to be stopped. Reynaud was, however, inconsolable.

Churchill flew to Paris on 16 May. He immediately recognised the gravity of the situation when he observed that the French government was already burning its archives and was preparing for an evacuation of the capital. In a sombre meeting with the French commanders, Churchill asked General Gamelin, "Où est la masse de manoeuvre?" ["Where is the strategic reserve?"] that had saved Paris in the First World War. "Aucune" ["There is none"] Gamelin replied. After the war, Gamelin claimed his response was "There is no longer any." Churchill described hearing this later as the single most shocking moment in his life. Churchill asked Gamelin where and when the general proposed to launch a counterattack against the flanks of the German bulge. Gamelin simply replied "inferiority of numbers, inferiority of equipment, inferiority of methods".

Gamelin was right. Most of the French reserve divisions had by now been committed. The only armoured division still in reserve, 2nd DCR, attacked on 16 May. However the French reserve armoured divisions, the Divisions Cuirassées de Réserve, were, despite their name, very specialised breakthrough units, optimised for attacking fortified positions. They could be quite useful for defence, if dug in, but had very limited utility for an encounter fight. They could not execute combined infantry–tank tactics because they simply had no significant motorised infantry component. They also suffered from poor tactical mobility, their heavy Char B1 bis tanks, in which half of the French tank budget had been invested, had to refuel twice a day. The 2nd DCR was forced to divide themselves into a covering screen. Their small subunits fought bravely but with little strategic effect.

Some of the best units in the north, however, had seen little fighting. Had they been kept in reserve they might have been used in a decisive counter-strike. However, they had lost much of their fighting power by simply moving to the north. If they were forced to hurry south again it would cost them even more. The most powerful Allied formation, the French 1st Light Mechanized Division, had been deployed near Dunkirk on 10 May. It had moved its forward units 220 kilometres (140 mi) to the northeast, beyond the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch in just 32 hours. Upon finding that the Dutch army had already retreated to the north, they withdrew, and moved back to the south. When it reached the German lines, only three of its 80 SOMUA S 35 tanks were operational, these losses were mostly the result of mechanical breakdown.

Nevertheless, a radical decision to retreat to the south, while avoiding contact, could probably have saved most of the mechanised and motorised divisions, including the BEF. However, that would have meant leaving about thirty infantry divisions to their fate. The loss of Belgium would be seen as an enormous political blow. The Allies were uncertain about what the Germans would do next. They threatened in four directions: to the north, to attack the Allied main force directly; to the west, to cut it off; to the south, to occupy Paris and even to the east, to move behind the Maginot Line. The French response was to create a new reserve under General Touchon, among which was a reconstituted Seventh Army, using every unit they could safely pull out of the Maginot Line to block the way to Paris.

Colonel Charles de Gaulle, in command of France's hastily formed 4th DCR, attempted to launch an attack from the south which achieved a measure of success. This attack would later accord him considerable fame and promotion to Brigadier General. However, de Gaulle's attacks on 17 May and 19 May did not significantly alter the overall situation.

The German advance to the Channel

The Allies did little to either threaten the Panzer Corps or to escape from the danger that they posed. The Panzer troops used 17 May and 18 May to refuel, eat, sleep, and return more tanks to working order. On 18 May Rommel caused the French to give up Cambrai by merely feinting an armoured attack toward the city.

The Allies seemed incapable of coping with events. On 19 May, General Ironside, the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, conferred with General Lord Gort, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, at his headquarters near Lens. Gort reported that the Commander of the French Northern Army Group, General Billotte, had given him no orders for eight days. Ironside confronted Billotte, whose own headquarters was nearby, and found him apparently incapable of taking decisive action.

Ironside had originally urged Gort to save the BEF by attacking south-west towards Amiens. Gort replied that seven of his nine divisions were already engaged on the Scheldt River, and he had only two divisions left with which he would be able to mount such an attack. Ironside returned to Britain concerned that the BEF was already doomed, and ordered urgent anti-invasion measures.

On that same day, the German High Command grew very confident. They determined that there appeared to be no serious threat to them from the south. Indeed, General Franz Halder toyed with the idea of attacking Paris immediately to knock France out of the war. The Allied troops in the north were retreating to the river Scheldt which exposed their right flank to the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions. It would have been foolish for the Germans to remain inactive any longer since it would allow the Allies to reorganise their defence or escape. It was now time for the Germans to attempt to cut off the Allies' escape. The next day the Panzer Corps started moving again and smashed through the weak British 18th and 23rd Territorial Divisions. The Panzer Corps occupied Amiens and secured the westernmost bridge over the river Somme at Abbeville. This move isolated the British, French, Dutch, and Belgian forces in the north. That evening, a reconnaissance unit from Rudolf Veiel's 2nd Panzer Division reached Noyelles-sur-Mer, 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the west. From there they were able to see the Somme estuary and the English Channel.

VIII. Fliegerkorps under the command of Wolfram von Richthofen committed its StG 77 and StG 2 to covering this "dash to the channel coast." Heralded as the Stukas' "finest hour", these units responded via an extremely efficient communications system to the Panzer Divisions' every request for support, which effectively blasted a path for the Army. The Ju 87s were particularly effective at breaking up attacks along the flanks of the German forces, breaking fortified positions, and disrupting rear-area supply chains. The Luftwaffe also benefitted from excellent ground-to-air communications throughout the campaign. Radio equipped forward liaison officers could call upon the Stukas and direct them to attack enemy positions along the axis of advance. In some cases the Stukas responded to requests in 10–20 minutes. Oberstleutnant Hans Seidmann (Richthofen's Chief of Staff) said that "never again was such a smoothly functioning system for discussing and planning joint operations achieved".

The Weygand plan

Situation on 4 June 1940 and actions since 21 May.

On the morning of 20 May, Maurice Gamelin ordered the armies trapped in Belgium and northern France to fight their way south and link up with French forces that would be pushing northward from the Somme river. However on the evening of 19 May, French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud had dismissed Gamelin for his failure to contain the German offensive, and replaced him with Maxime Weygand. Weygand immediately cancelled Gamelin's order, as he wished to confer with the other Allied commanders in Belgium before deciding what to do. This resulted in three wasted days before Weygand issued the same orders that Gamelin had issued on 19 May. The plan was nevertheless referred to as the Weygand Plan.

On 22 May, Weygand ordered his forces to pinch off the German armoured spearhead by combining attacks from the north and the south. On the map this seemed like a feasible mission, as the corridor through which von Kleist's two Panzer Corps had moved to the coast was a mere 40 kilometres (25 mi) wide. On paper Weygand had sufficient forces to execute it: to the north were the three DLM and the BEF; to the south, was de Gaulle's 4th DCR. These units had an organic strength of about 1,200 tanks, and the Panzer divisions were again very vulnerable, due to the rapidly deteriorating mechanical condition of their tanks. However, the condition of the Allied divisions was far worse. Both in the south and the north they could in reality muster only a handful of tanks. Nevertheless, Weygand had flown to Ypres on 21 May trying to convince the Belgians and the BEF of the soundness of his plan.

That same day, a detachment of the British Expeditionary Force under Major-General Harold Edward Franklyn had already attempted to at least delay the German offensive, and perhaps cut off the leading edge of the German army. During the resulting Battle of Arras, the limited counter-attack overran two German regiments. The German 37mm anti-tank gun proved ineffective against the heavily armoured British Matilda tanks, and the German commander at Arras, Erwin Rommel, was forced to rely on 88mm anti-aircraft guns and 105mm field guns firing over open sights to halt them. He reported being attacked by 'hundreds' of tanks, although there were only 74 British tanks, and 60 French tanks which attacked later. The panic that resulted temporarily delayed the German offensive.. German reinforcements were able to press the British back to Vimy Ridge the following day.

Although this attack was not part of any coordinated attempt to destroy the Panzer Corps, the German High Command panicked even more than Rommel. They thought that hundreds of Allied tanks were about to smash into their elite forces. However, on the next day the German High Command had regained confidence and ordered Guderian's XIXth Panzer Corps to press north and push on to the Channel ports of Boulogne and Calais. This position was to the rear of the British and Allied forces to the north.

Also on 22 May, the French tried to attack south to the east of Arras with some infantry and tanks. By now the German infantry had begun to catch up with the Panzer formations, and the attack was stopped, with some difficulty, by the German 32nd Infantry Division.

The first rather weak counter-attack from the south was launched on 24 May when 7th DIC, supported by a handful of tanks, failed to retake Amiens. On 27 May the incomplete British 1st Armoured Division, which had been hastily brought forward from Evrecy in Normandy where it was forming, attacked Abbeville in force but was beaten back with crippling losses. The next day de Gaulle tried again but with the same result, by now even complete success might not have saved the Allied forces to the north.

The BEF and the Channel ports

Further information: Battle of Dunkirk and Dunkirk evacuation

British and French soldiers taken prisoner in northern France

French troops are rescued by a British ship at Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo

In the early hours of 23 May Gort ordered a retreat from Arras. By now he had no faith in the Weygand plan, nor in Weygand's proposal to at least try to hold a pocket on the Flemish coast, a so-called Réduit de Flandres. Gort knew that the ports needed to supply such a foothold were already being threatened. That same day the 2nd Panzer Division had assaulted Boulogne. The British garrison there surrendered on 25 May, although 4,368 troops were evacuated. This British decision to withdraw was much criticised by later French publications.

The 10th Panzer Division attacked Calais, beginning on 24 May. British reinforcements (3rd Royal Tank Regiment, equipped with cruiser tanks, and the 30th Motor Brigade) had been hastily landed 24 hours before the Germans attacked. The Siege of Calais lasted for four days. The British defenders were finally overwhelmed and surrendered at approximately 16:00 on 26 May while the last French troops were evacuated in the early hours of 27 May.

On May 23 Günther von Kluge proposed that the 4th army posed to continue the attack against the Allied forces in Dunkirk should, "halt and close up." Seeing the Allies were trapped in the city German Commander Gerd von Rundstedt agreed with von Kluge and in the 4th Army diary it is recorded on May 23 "will, in the main, halt tomorrow [May 24] in accordance with Colonel-General von Rundstedt's order." Army Commander-in-Chief Walther von Brauchitsch disagreed with his colleagues and wanted to continue the attack against Dunkirk by putting the 4th army under Bock but Bock was busy and Halder agreed with Von Rundstedt and with von Kluge to stop action against Dunkirk. The disagreement went to Hitler and Hitler overruled Brauchitsch and sided with stopping action against Dunkirk. Thus in historian John Strawson's opinion Hitler's error wasn't making the command to halt the German army but his mistake was in allowing the orders already drawn up by the German generals to stand. This remains one of the most controversial decisions of the war.

Hermann Göring had convinced Hitler that the Luftwaffe could prevent an evacuation and von Rundstedt warned him that any further effort by the armoured divisions would lead to a much longer refitting period. Also, attacking cities was not part of the normal task for armoured units under German operational doctrine.

Encircled, the British, Belgian and French forces launched Operation Dynamo which evacuated Allied troops from the northern pocket in Belgium and Pas-de-Calais, beginning on 26 May. About 198,000 British soldiers were evacuated in Dynamo, along with nearly 140,000 French; almost all of whom later returned to France. The Allied position was complicated by Belgian King Léopold III's surrender the following day, which was postponed until 28 May.

During the Dunkirk battle the Luftwaffe flew 1,882 bombing and 1,997 fighter sorties. British losses totalled 6% of their total losses during the French campaign, including 60 precious fighter pilots. The Luftwaffe failed in its task of preventing the evacuation, but had inflicted serious losses on the Allied forces. A total of 89 merchantmen (of 126,518 grt) were lost; the Royal Navy lost 29 of its 40 destroyers sunk or seriously damaged.

As early as the 16 May, the French position on the ground and in the air had become desperate. They pressed the British to commit more of the RAF fighter groups to the battle. Hugh Dowding, C-in-C of RAF Fighter Command refused, arguing that if France collapsed, the British fighter force would be severely weakened. The RAF force of 1,078 had been reduced to 475 aircraft. RAF records show just 179 Hawker Hurricanes and 205 Supermarine Spitfires were serviceable on 5 June 1940.

Confusion still reigned. After the evacuation at Dunkirk and while Paris was enduring a short-lived siege, part of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division was sent to Brittany (Brest) and moved 320 kilometres (200 mi) inland toward Paris before they heard that Paris had fallen and France had capitulated. They withdrew and re-embarked for England. The British 1st Armoured Division, under General Evans, (without its infantry, which had been re-assigned to keep the pressure off the BEF at Dunkirk), had arrived in France in June 1940. It was joined by the former labour battalion of the 51st (Highland) Division and was forced to fight a rearguard action. Other British battalions were later landed at Cherbourg and were still waiting to form a second BEF. At the end of the campaign Erwin Rommel praised the staunch resistance of British forces, despite being under-equipped and without ammunition for much of the fighting.

On 26 February 1945, Hitler claimed he had let the BEF escape as a "sporting" gesture, in the hope Churchill would come to terms. Few historians accept Hitler's word in light of Directive No. 13, which called for "the annihilation of French, British and Belgian forces in the [Dunkirk] pocket".

June: Fall Rot, France

The German offensive to the Seine River between 4 June and 12 June.

French problems

The best and most modern French armies had been sent north and lost in the resulting encirclement; the French had also lost much of their heavy weaponry and their best armoured formations. Weygand was faced with the prospect of defending a long front (stretching from Sedan to the Channel), with a greatly depleted French Army now lacking significant Allied support. Sixty divisions were required to man the 600 kilometre (400 mi) long frontline, Weygand had only 64 French and one remaining British division (the 51st Highland) available. Therefore, unlike the Germans, he had no significant reserves to counter a breakthrough or to replace frontline troops, should they become exhausted from a prolonged battle. If the frontline was pushed further south, it would inevitably get too long for the French to man it. Some elements of the French leadership had openly lost heart, particularly as the British were evacuating. The Dunkirk evacuation was a blow to French morale because it was seen as an act of abandonment.

Italy declares war

Main article: Italian invasion of France

Adding to this grave situation, on 10 June, Italy declared war on France and Britain.The country was not prepared for war and made little impact during the last twelve days of fighting. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was aware of this and sought to profit from German successes. Mussolini felt the conflict would soon end. As he said to the Army's Chief-of-Staff, Marshal Badoglio:

"I only need a few thousand dead so that I can sit at the peace conference as a man who has fought."

Mussolini's immediate aim was the expansion of the Italian colonies in North Africa by taking land from the British and French in that region.

A new German offensive and the fall of Paris

German troops in Paris

The Germans renewed their offensive on 5 June on the Somme. An attack broke through the scarce reserves that Weygand had put between the Germans and the capital. On 10 June the French government fled to Bordeaux, declaring Paris an open city. Churchill returned to France on 11 June and met the French War Council in Briare. The French requested that Churchill supply all available fighter squadrons to aid in the battle. With only 25 squadrons remaining, Churchill refused, believing at this point that an upcoming Battle of Britain could be decisive. At the meeting, Churchill obtained assurances from Admiral François Darlan that the French fleet would not fall into German hands. On 14 June Paris, the capture of which had so eluded the German Army in World War I (see First Battle of the Marne), fell to the Wehrmacht. This marked the second time in a century that the French capital had fallen to German forces (the first occurring during the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War).

German air supremacy

By this time the situation in the air had grown critical. The Luftwaffe established air supremacy (as opposed to air superiority) as the French air arm was on the verge of collapse. The French Air Force (Armee de l'Air) had only just begun to make the majority of bomber sorties; between 5 and 9 June (during Operation Paula), over 1,815 missions, of which 518 were by bombers, were flown. The number of sorties flown declined as losses were now becoming impossible to replace. The British Royal Air Force (RAF) attempted to divert the attention of the Luftwaffe with 660 sorties flown against targets over the Dunkirk area but losses were heavy; on 21 June alone 37 Bristol Blenheims were destroyed. After 9 June, French aerial resistance virtually ceased, some surviving aircraft withdrew to French North Africa. The Luftwaffe now 'ran riot'. Its attacks were focused on the direct and indirect support of the German Army (Wehrmacht). The Luftwaffe subjected lines of resistance to ferocious assault, which then quickly collapsed under armoured attack.

The Luftwaffe virtually destroyed the Armée de l'Air during the campaign and inflicted heavy losses on the RAF contingent that was deployed. It is estimated the French lost 1,274 aircraft during the campaign, the British suffered losses of 959 (477 fighters). The battle for France had cost the Luftwaffe 28% of its front line strength, some 1,428 aircraft destroyed (1,129 to enemy action, 299 in accidents). A further 488 were damaged (225 to enemy action, 263 in accidents), making a total of 36% of the Luftwaffe strength negatively affected.

The second BEF evacuation

Further information: Operation Cycle and Operation Ariel

Most of the remaining British troops in the field had arrived at Saint-Valery-en-Caux for evacuation, but the Germans took the heights around the harbour making this impossible and on 12 June General Fortune and the remaining British forces surrendered to Rommel. The evacuation of the second BEF took place during Operation Ariel between 15 June and 25 June. The Luftwaffe, with complete mastery of the French skies, was determined to prevent more Allied evacuations after the Dunkirk debacle. I. Fliegerkorps was assigned to the Normandy and Brittany sectors. On 9 and 10 June the port of Cherbourg was subject to 15 tonnes of German bombs, whilst Le Havre received 10 bombing attacks which sank 2,949 grt of escaping Allied shipping. On 17 June 1940 Junkers Ju 88s (mainly from Kampfgeschwader 30) sank a "10,000 tonne ship" which was the 16,243 grt Lancastria off St Nazaire, killing some 5,800 Allied personnel. Nevertheless, the Luftwaffe failed to prevent the mass evacuation of some 190,000–200,000 Allied personnel.

Surrender and Armistice

Main article: Armistice with France (Second Compiègne)

Hitler (hand on side) staring at Foch's statue before signing the armistice at Compiègne, France (22 June 1940)

Discouraged by his cabinet's hostile reaction to a British proposal to unite France and the United Kingdom to avoid surrender, and believing that his ministers no longer supported him, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned on 16 June. He was succeeded by Marshal Philippe Pétain, who delivered a radio address to the French people announcing his intention to ask for an armistice with Germany. When Hitler received word from the French government that they wished to negotiate an armistice, he selected the Compiègne Forest as the site for the negotiations. Compiègne had been the site of the 1918 Armistice, which had ended World War I with a humiliating defeat for Germany, Hitler viewed the choice of location as a supreme moment of revenge for Germany over France. The armistice was signed on 22 June 1940 in the very same railway carriage in which the 1918 Armistice was signed (it was removed from a museum building and placed on the precise spot where it was located in 1918), Hitler sat in the same chair in which Marshal Foch had sat when he faced the defeated German representatives. After listening to the reading of the preamble, Hitler, in a calculated gesture of disdain to the French delegates, left the carriage, leaving the negotiations to his OKW Chief, General Wilhelm Keitel. The French Second Army Group, under the command of General Pretelat, surrendered the same day as the armistice and the cease-fire went into effect on 25 June 1940.. After the armistice had been signed, some of the French troops (such as the troops of the "Ligne Maginot") were still fighting for more than a month.

Aftermath

Adolf Hitler in Paris, 23 June 1940, with Albert Speer and Arno Breker.

France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north and west and a nominally independent state in the south. The new French state, known as Vichy France, headed by Pétain, accepted its status as a defeated nation and attempted to buy favour with the Germans through accommodation and passivity. Charles de Gaulle, who had been made an Undersecretary of National Defence by Reynaud, in London at the time of the surrender, made his Appeal of 18 June. In this broadcast he refused to recognise Pétain's Vichy government as legitimate and began the task of organising the Free French forces. Numerous French colonies, such as French Guiana and French Equatorial Africa, joined de Gaulle rather than the Vichy government.

The British began to doubt Admiral Darlan's promise to Churchill not to allow the French fleet at Toulon to fall into German hands by the wording of the armistice conditions; they therefore attacked French naval forces in Africa and Europe, which led to more feelings of animosity and mistrust between the former French and British allies.

Casualties

German

German Military Medic providing first aid to a wounded soldier

Around 44,000 Germans were killed and 150,000 were wounded, giving a total of approximately 200,000 men. Other sources tell of 100,000 killed. There is no definite verifiable number for this statistic. According to very recent French sources, in April 2010, 27,000 Germans were killed.

Allied

The Germans had destroyed the French, Belgian, Dutch and Polish armies. They had also defeated the British. Total Allied losses amounted to 2,292,000. Casualties were as follows:

• France: According to the Defence Historical Service, 85,310 killed (including 5,400 Maghrebis), 12,000 missing, 120,000 wounded and 1,540,000 captured (including 67,400 Maghrebis). More recent French research indicates that the number of killed had been between 55,000 and 65,000. In August, 1940 1,540,000 prisoners were taken into Germany where roughly 940,000 remained until 1945 when they were liberated by advancing Allied forces. While in German captivity, 24,600 French prisoners died; 71,000 escaped; 220,000 were released by various agreements between the Vichy government and Germany; several hundred thousand were paroled because of disability and/or sickness. Most prisoners spent their time in captivity as forced labourers.
• Britain: 68,111 killed, wounded or captured
• Belgium: 23,350 killed or wounded
• The Netherlands: 9,779 killed or wounded
• Poland: 6,092 killed, wounded or captured
• Czechoslovakia: 1,615 losses, including 400 killed.

See also

• British Expeditionary Force order of battle (1940)
• Blitzkrieg
• Military history of France during World War II
• Battle of the Netherlands
• Battle of Belgium
• Vichy France
• Western Front (World War II)

Bibliography

Notes

References

• Blatt, Joel, ed. (1998). The French Defeat of 1940: Reassessments. Breghahn Books. ISBN 1-57181-109-5.
• Bond, Brian. Britain, France and Belgium, 1939–1940. Brassy's, London, 1990. ISBN 0-08-037700-9
• Brooke, Alan (1946). Despatch on Operations of the British Expeditionary Force in From 12th June, 1940 to 19th June, 1940 (PDF). London: War Office. in
• Buckley, John (1998). Air Power in the Age of Total War. UCL Press. ISBN 1-85728-589-1.
• Citino, Robert Michael. (2005) The German Way in War: From the Thirty Years War to the Third Reich, University of Kansa Press. ISBN 978-0700661624-4
• Churchill, Winston S. The Second World War: Their Finest Hour (Volume 2). Houghton Mifflin Company, Cambridge, 1949.
• Durand, Yves. La Captivite, Histoire des prisonniers de guerre francais 1939–1945, Paris, 1981. Best available study of French prisoners of war in German captivity.
• Dunstan, Simon. Fort Eben Emael: The Key to Hitler's victory in the West. Osprey, Oxford. 2005. 1-84176-821-9
• Evens, Martin Marix. The Fall of France. Osprey Publishing, Oxford. 2000. ISBN 1-85532969-7
• Frieser, Karl-Heinz. The Blitzkrieg Legend. Naval Institute Press. 2005. ISBN 978-1-59114-294-2
• Gunsburg, Jeffrey A., 'The Battle of the Belgian Plain, 12–14 May 1940: The First Great Tank Battle', The Journal of Military History, Vol. 56, No. 2. (Apr., 1992), pp. 207–244
• Gunsburg, Jeffery A. 'The Battle of Gembloux, 14–15 May 1940: The "Blitzkrieg" Checked'. The Journal of Military History, Vol. 64, No. 1 (Jan., 2000), pp. 97–140
• Harman, Nicholas. (1980) Dunkirk; the necessary myth. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0 340 24299 X.
• Healy, Mark, Ed. Prigent, John &. Panzerwaffe: The Campaigns in the West 1940. Vol. 1. London. Ian Allan Publishing. 2008 ISBN 978-071103-240-8
• Hooton, E.R. (2007). Luftwaffe at War; Blitzkrieg in the West. London: Chervron/Ian Allen. ISBN 978-1-85780-272-6.
• Hooton, E.R. Phoenix Triumphant: The Rise and Rise of the Luftwaffe. Brockhampton Press, London. 1994. ISBN 1-86019-964-X
• Jackson, Robert. Air War Over France, 1939-1940. Ian Allen, London. 1974. ISBN 0-7110-0510-9
• Jackson, Julian T.. The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940. Oxford UP, 2003.
• Krause, M. and Cody, P. (2006) Historical Perspectives of the Operational Art. Center of Military History Publication. ISBN 978-0-16-072564-7
• Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon and Schuster. 1990. ISBN 0671728687
• Strawson, John. Hitler as Military Commander. Pen & Sword Military Classics.2003 ISBN 9780850529562
• Taylor, A.J.P. and Mayer, S.L., eds. A History Of World War Two. London: Octopus Books, 1974. ISBN 0-7064-0399-1.
• Weal, John (1997). Junkers Ju 87 Stukageschwader 1937–41. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 1-85532-636-1.
• Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge UP, 1995.
• Martin, J. and Martin, P. Ils étaient là: l’armée de l’Air septembre 39 – juin 40. Aero-Editions, 2001. ISBN 2-9514567-2-7.
• Tooze, Adam. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy. Allen Lane, 2006. ISBN 0713995661.

External links

• "Viscount Gort's Despatch on Operations of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium, 1939–1940". Supplement to the London Gazette, Number 35305. 10 October 1941. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
• Brooke, Alan (1946). Despatch on Operations of the British Expeditionary Force in From 12th June, 1940 to 19th June, 1940 (PDF). London: War Office. In
• BBC – History – WW2: Fall of France Campaign (Flash animation of the campaign)
• Official German account of the Battle of France (as published in 1940)
• Battle of France Template:Sr icon
• Armistice Agreement Between Germany and France, 22 June 1940
• The invasion of Holland in May 1940
• Battle of France animated battle map by Jonathan Webb