Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Battle of France (French: bataille de France; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (German: Westfeldzug), the French Campaign (Frankreichfeldzug, campagne de France) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) and France.
The cease-fire went into effect at 00:35 on 25 June 1940, more than two days later, only after another armistice was signed between France and Italy, the main German ally in Europe. The armistice did have some relative advantages for the French, compared to worse possible outcomes, such as keeping the colonial empire and the fleet, and, by ...
The Appeal of 18 June (French: L'Appel du 18 juin) was the first speech made by Charles de Gaulle after his arrival in London in 1940 following the Battle of France. Broadcast to France by the radio services of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), it is often considered to have marked the beginning of the French Resistance in World War II.
The Dutch surrender to the Germans after heavy bombing across Rotterdam. 17-18 May: Antwerp and Brussels would fall to Germany; the Allies were forced to retreat to the coastline of France. 20 May: General Maxime Weygand replaces General Maurice-Gustave Gamelin as supreme Allied commander due to major losses across France.
Inspired by Mandel, General Charles de Gaulle succeeded in creating a French government-in-exile in London. He tried to rally the colonies to his cause, hoping to gain troops and strategic bases to liberate metropolitan France. In 1940, a few colonies joined the Free French, but others remained under Vichy control.
In 1939 and 1940, France faced a united, determined, and technologically-sophisticated enemy. Although it was desperately important for France to match its enemy's traits with determination and unity of its own, French national leaders instead frittered away their final months before the catastrophe in a round of internal hostility, intrigue and backbiting, which led to the restoration of ...
France was one of the largest military powers to come under occupation as part of the Western Front in World War II.The Western Front was a military theatre of World War II encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany.
France did not invade Germany in 1939, because it wanted British lives to be at risk too and because of hopes that a blockade might force a German surrender without a bloodbath. The French and British also believed that they were militarily superior and guaranteed victory through the blockade or by desperate German attacks.