Fall of France

In the spring of 1940, Germany overran France in roughly six weeks, shattering a army that had been widely regarded as the strongest in Europe. The collapse ended France's status as a great power for the duration of the war, left Nazi Germany dominant on the European continent, and placed Britain in the position of fighting on almost alone. It remains one of the most startling military reversals of the twentieth century.

The background lay in the memory of the First World War. France had suffered enormous losses in 1914-1918 and built its defensive thinking around avoiding a repeat. The Maginot Line, a network of heavy fortifications along the border with Germany, reflected this outlook, though it did not cover the full length of the frontier. After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Britain and France declared war, but there followed months of relative inactivity on the Western Front, often called the "Phoney War." Allied planners expected a slow, drawn-out conflict resembling the last one.

The German offensive began in May 1940 with attacks on the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The best Allied forces moved north into Belgium to meet the advance. Meanwhile, German armored divisions struck through the Ardennes, a wooded region the French command had considered difficult terrain for large forces. The Germans crossed the Meuse near Sedan and drove toward the English Channel, cutting off the Allied armies in the north. Fast-moving tanks, close air support, and bold, decentralized command played key roles, though the Allies were not hopelessly outnumbered in equipment, and historians stress failures of French command, communication, and doctrine alongside German skill.

Trapped British and French forces fell back to Dunkirk, from which more than 300,000 Allied troops were evacuated by sea in late May and early June, though they left most of their heavy equipment behind. German forces then turned south. Paris was occupied in mid-June, and the French government, under Marshal Philippe Pétain, sought an armistice, signed in the latter part of the month. France was divided into an occupied zone in the north and along the Atlantic coast, and a nominally independent state in the south, governed from Vichy.

The consequences were far-reaching. Britain, now led by Winston Churchill, refused to negotiate and went on to face the Battle of Britain in the air. General Charles de Gaulle, who had escaped to London, called for continued resistance and became leader of the Free French. Within France, the Vichy regime collaborated with Germany to varying degrees, a legacy that left painful and long-debated questions about responsibility, resistance, and national memory.