World War II
The Battle of France (10 May – 25 June 1940) was the German invasion of the Low Countries and France during the Second World War. It ended with the fall of France, the armistice of 22 June, and the division of the country into occupied and unoccupied zones. The campaign is famous for the German use of Blitzkrieg tactics, the Dunkirk evacuation, and the establishment of the Vichy regime.
The German plan, developed by General Erich von Manstein, was a bold variant of the earlier Schlieffen Plan. Instead of a direct push through Belgium, the main armored thrust (Panzergruppe von Kleist) would slice through the Ardennes, a region the Allies considered impassable for tanks, and cross the Meuse at Sedan. This surprise move would cut the Allied forces in two, separating the British Expeditionary Force and the French armies in Belgium from the rest of France.
The Allies, expecting a repeat of 1914, had committed their best forces to the north, following the Dyle Plan. The German feint into the Low Countries drew these forces into a trap. The Luftwaffe also achieved air superiority early, destroying Allied airfields and disrupting communications.
On 13 May, German troops crossed the Meuse at Sedan and Dinant. Within days, Panzer divisions broke through the French Second Army and raced westward, reaching the English Channel on 20 May. The Allied forces in Belgium were now surrounded. The French commander, General Maurice Gamelin, had no strategic reserve, and his replacement, Maxime Weygand, could not reverse the situation.1
The German advance was so rapid that it outran its own infantry and supply lines, but the Allies were too disorganized to exploit this. The British Expeditionary Force, along with French and Belgian troops, fell back to the coast around Dunkirk. A halt order from Hitler on 24 May, later debated by historians, gave the Allies precious time to organize an evacuation.2
Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk, took place between 26 May and 4 June. Despite constant Luftwaffe attacks, a fleet of naval vessels and civilian boats rescued over 338,000 Allied soldiers. The British and French rearguards fought tenaciously, and the RAF claimed air superiority over the beachhead.3
After Dunkirk, the Germans turned south. The French army, though still large, was demoralized and lacked armor and air support. The Wehrmacht broke through the Weygand Line, and Paris fell on 14 June. The French government, led by Paul Reynaud, resigned, and Marshal Philippe Pétain formed a new government that requested an armistice. The armistice was signed on 22 June in the same railway car used in 1918, at Compiègne.
The Battle of France included several often-overlooked episodes. The French army fought bravely in many places, such as the defense of the Maginot Line extensions and the counterattack at Abbeville by Charles de Gaulle's 4th Armored Division. The French navy also played a role, and the Italian invasion of France in June 1940, though brief, tied up French forces in the Alps.
The campaign also saw the first large-scale use of airborne troops, as German Fallschirmjäger captured the Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael. Additionally, the French government considered a plan to continue the war from North Africa, but it was rejected. The armistice divided France into an occupied zone in the north and west, and a nominally independent zone governed from Vichy. The British attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940, to prevent it from falling into German hands, was a direct consequence of the armistice.4
The Battle of France is also known as the Fall of France or the Western Campaign (Westfeldzug).
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