The 'legitimate' French government was that of Marshal Philippe Pétain, an aged World War One veteran, and had its capital at Vichy in central France. Hitler was eager to follow up his victory over Poland in 1939 by attacking in the west, but bad weather forced the planned offensive to be postponed. When the Germans finally did attack through the Ardennes, the French army was trapped in bunkers, and its fortifications were immediately outflanked.

The Nazi dictator believed that it was necessary to neutralize the main Western European powers—Britain and France—and keep them out of the war. While France was protected by the Maginot Line and a fairly large army, it put up little resistance to Germany. It ripped up the balance of power in Europe, and overnight left the strategic assumptions on which Britain had planned to fight Hitler completely obsolete. France and its Britain declared against Germany in 1939. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. ...there was little to stop the German forces as they sliced across the Allied supply-lines. In particular, they had developed superior aircraft such as the Stuka dive bomber and the Messerschmitt ME fighter plane, that wreaked havoc on the allies. Manstein's plan envisaged these Panzer divisions in a semi-independent role, striking ahead of the main body of the army, to disrupt and disorientate the Allies. The defeat of this powerful army in a mere six weeks in 1940 stands as one of the most remarkable military campaigns in history. The Western Front. In September 1939, the French with the British declared war on Germany after Hitler invaded Poland.

Pillar of Fire: Dunkirk 1940 by Ronald Atkin (Birlinn, 2000), The Battle for France and Flanders 1940 Sixty Years On edited by Brian Bond and Michael Taylor (Pen & Sword, 2001), To Lose a Battle: France 1940 by Alistair Horne (Penguin, 1979 and many reprints), The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940 by Julian Jackson (Oxford University Press, 2004). However, rather than advance on a broad front through Belgium, the Germans focused two-thirds of their forces, including most of their tanks, in the Ardennes region of Belgium. General Weygand replaced General Gamelin as French commander-in-chief, but it made no difference. why so many soldiers survived the trenches, how Pack Up Your Troubles became the viral hit. The last thing Hitler wanted was to have to fight a war on two fronts. This strategy was based on high-speed and mobile attacks on the enemy’s weak points, and it proved devastating in France. Alsace-Lorraine, area comprising the present French départements of Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, and Moselle. The French had suffered massive casualties in frontal attacks in 1914. Allied high command seemed paralysed. The British and French had responded to the original attack by putting into operation a plan to advance to the River Dyle, in Belgium. French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned on June 16th during the catastrophe. Though Germany eventually lost World War II and France again ended up on the victorious side, the leadership traits demonstrated before and during the battle in … They included a failure of leadership, both at the military and the political level. Despite being among the victors in World War One, the French still dreaded a conflict with Germany. France and Belgium did reinforce the fortifications in this region because they assumed that the terrain was unsuitable for tanks. France suffered a humiliating defeat and was quickly occupied by Germany.

Sweeping across the northern plains of France at great speed, they divided the French and British forces into two parts. France was bitterly divided between the left and the right. [8], In 1940, the French general staff was led by General Maurice Gamelan, an officer widely respected. [14]. The end came with the surrender of France on 22 June. Why Did the French Army Collapse So Quickly? If France had a leader of the caliber of Clemenceau in 1940, perhaps the outcome of the Battle of France could have been different. It also strengthened the credibility of Churchill's insistence that Britain would fight on, thus influencing the neutral USA at a time when American aid was vital. In September 1939, the French with the British declared war on Germany after Hitler invaded Poland. The French, not surprisingly, regarded this as a betrayal, but Gort's decision saved the BEF.

When Did Germany Invade France? June 22. Why did New Zealand invade Samoa in 1914? The French devoted a considerable amount of resources and capital to the construction of the Maginot Line. However, the tanks were concentrated into Panzer (armoured) formations. The Allies pushed their best forces, including the British, into Belgium. Hitler had built up the German army and in particular the air force (Luftwaffe). The return of the troops, even without much of their equipment, gave Britain a basis on which to rebuild the Army, sheltering behind the Navy and the RAF. He adopted the Schlieffen Plan that was almost successful in WW I.[3]. Initially, France and Great Britain appeared to be a match for Germany. Vichy maintained control over the majority of the French Colonies. Since they did not believe that could defeat Germany outright, they hoped that the Maginot would drive up casualties and Germany to the negotiating table. After months of nervous speculation, Germany brought war to western Europe on May 10, 1940, with the primary goal of conquering France. Read more. When Did Germany Invade France? Not until D-Day, 6 June 1944, did a major British army return to France. It was still based on the idea that the next war would resemble the Great War. Hitler believed that attacking and defeating France would keep the Western European powers out of World War II, thus giving him the freedom to turn his attention to Eastern Europe, where he planned to build a racial empire. Was France prepared for the German invasion? It had stark political conflicts, and many politicians were more loyal to their political party than their country. They relied on defensive tactics and failed to grasp the impact of modern tanks and aircraft. They began to race towards the Channel coast, aided by the German aircraft that ruled the skies. French leaders believed that they had prepared for a potential war with Germany and were well prepared. France had been fearful of Germany ever since the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The Line was designed to keep German forces out of France. Well i dont think they did invade france but the Axis powers did. A potentially decisive counterattack by two high quality French armoured and motorised divisions fizzled out into some fierce, but ultimately inconclusive fighting. Britain and France declared war on the Nazi Third Reich on September 3, 1939. Arguably, the wartime divisions within French society that were created by this arrangement are still not fully healed. The plan was to rely heavily on surprise blitzkrieg ('lightning war') techniques. Why did Operation Market Garden in 1944 fail? When the Germans attack came through the Ardennes, they caught the French and their British allies by surprise because the French believed it was impassable to tanks. Compare and contrast the Code of Hammurabi and today's legal system. With the bulk of the Allied forces fighting in Belgium, there was little to stop the German forces as they sliced across the Allied supply-lines. The second act of the Battle of France began on 5 June, with the Germans striking southwards from the River Somme. However, in weeks in the late spring and early summer of 1940, it became clear that France was woefully unprepared for the German onslaught. Many people believed that France was a nation in decline and that her greatest days had passed. Even though the German army was superior to the French in many ways the Fall of France was not inevitable. The French officer corps was more worried about a Communist revolution than a German invasion. Admin, Ewhelan and EricLambrecht Then General Lord Gort, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), on 23/4 May took the morally courageous decision to abandon his role in a projected Anglo-French counterattack, and fell back on the Channel ports. The collapse of France, just six weeks after Hitler's initial assault, ripped up the balance of power in Europe.

By Dr Gary Sheffield This page has been archived and is no longer updated. In September 1939, the German war machine invaded Poland, and World War II began. This led to a spirit of defeatism in France in the Spring and Summer of 1940, that played an important role in the Fall of France. The political leadership of France was also very poor. The reasons for the sudden defeat of France in 1940 were numerous and varied. While the French army was large and had been well resourced, it had not been modernized. The German army was substantially better than the French and the British. The legacy for France itself was complex. Four years passed between Dunkirk and D-Day To Churchill at that time, France's army seemed a powerful bulwark against possible Nazi aggression towards other European nations. Moreover, the Maginot Line not only failed to protect France, but it encouraged a defensive mentality that allowed the Germans to take the initiative at crucial points during the invasion. 3 Some 300,000 British and French troops escaped the Germans after being evacuated by naval forces at Dunkirk. Lacking a centrally placed strategic reserve, the Allies tried to pull their armies out of Belgium to respond to the new threat emerging in their rear. In what ways were the English colonies alike in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in what ways... What are the differences between the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. BBC © 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. I think this is difficult question to answer with one sweeping statement. Under the dynamic command of General Heinz Guderian, a pioneer of armoured warfare known euphemistically as 'Hurry-up Heinz', the German Panzers broke out of their bridgehead.



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