DK - World War II Map by Map

54 GERMANY TRIUMPHANT 1939–1941

ITALY

SW

ITZ

ERLAND

GR

EA

TE

R

GE

RM

A

N Y F R A N

C E

U N I T E

D

KI NG

D O

M

Se

ine

Aisne

Lo

ire

Do

rd

og

ne

Se

in

e

M

ar

ne

M

eu

se

Clermont-Ferrand

Saint

Etienne

La Rochelle

Mullhouse

Colmar

Bordeaux

Royan Angoouleme

Grenoble

Le Havre

Le Mans

Limoges

Vierzon

Orleans

Paris

Troyes

Geneva

Nevers

Autun

Epinal

Cluny

Nantes

Biarritz

St.-Jean

de-Luz

Angers

Rouen

Nancy

Dover

Reims

Laon

Calais

Dijon

Vichy

Caen

Avranches

St. Malo

Metz

Saarbrucken

Lyon

Nice

Monaco

Lille

Arras

Dunkirk

Boulogne

Saint

Valery-en-Caux

Tours

Brest

St. Nazaire

Cherbourg

Portsmouth

Southampton

Rh

ône

Compiègne Dun-sur-Meuse

Vesoul

Bay

of

Biscay

E ng li

sh^

C h

an

ne

l

L

i

g

u

r

i

a

n

S

e

a

BE

L

G

IU

M

C

h

a

n

n

el

(^)
Is
la
nd
s
V I C
H Y^ F R A N
C E
S
P
A
I N
4th
Army
10th
Army 7th
Army
6th
Army
4th
Army
2nd
Army
3rd
Army
5th
Army
8th
Army
18th
Army
6th
Army
6th
Army
1st
Army
7th
Army
12th
Army
2nd
Army
9th
Army
German front line Jun 12
German advances
THE CAPTURE OF PARIS AND MOVE SOUTH
JUNE 9–22, 1940
On June 9, the Germans moved on Paris. The
government fled the city for Tours, where Churchill
met the French leaders on June 11, encouraging them
to continue the fight. However, the Germans marched
unopposed into the largely empty capital on June 14.
Their forces then poured south across central France
while the French considered their options.
2
“Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by
grasping it that he fulfills himself.”
CHARLES DE GAULLE, MEMOIRES DE GUERRE VOL 1, 1954
△ Hitler in Paris
One day after the armistice with France, Adolf Hitler
visited Paris for the first and last time to celebrate the
victory of his armies.
From a BBC studio in London,
Charles de Gaulle broadcast
a series of powerful speeches
to the people of France in June

1940. He urged them to stand
      firm against the Germans:
      “Whatever happens, the flame
      of French resistance must not
      and shall not die.” His words
      fanned the flames of resistance,
      but many of the French soldiers
      who had been evacuated from
      Dunkirk remained loyal to Vichy
      France and were unconvinced
      by De Gaulle’s promises.

THE OFFENSIVE BEGINS JUNE 5–9, 1940

The German offensive, code named Fall Rot, began

with an attack on the Allies between the city of Laon

and the sea. After fierce fighting, German forces

including panzer divisions broke through the Allied

line and advanced on Rouen, crossing the Seine on

June 9. Other forces moved south toward Paris

or advanced on the River Aisne.

1

German front line Jun 5

German advance

Jun 16–19 Over 30,000

Allied personnel evacuated

from Brest.

Jun 16–19

52,000 Allied

troops evacuated.

Jun 20–23

Polish troops

evacuate from

THE MAGINOT LINE COLLAPSES St.-Jean-de-Luz.

JUNE 14–JULY 4, 1940

On June 14, at Saarbrucken, the German 1st Army

broke through the Maginot Line—the defenses that

the French had built in the 1930s to deter just such an

attack—and then set about the forts to the east and

west. The 7th Army breached the Line near Colmar

soon after. Meanwhile, German panzers at the west

end of the line headed southeast and reached the Swiss

border, isolating the Maginot Line from the rest of

France, and surrounding France’s 5th and 8th Armies.

3

Last French stronghold

German front line Jun 22

German advances

DE GAULLE AND THE LONDON BROADCASTS

Jun 16–19

The French

fleet sails to

North Africa.

THE FALL

OF FRANCE

After the evacuations at Dunkirk, the vastly outnumbered

Allies fought fiercely but unsuccessfully to hold back Germany’s

advance into France. By June 22, 1940, France had signed an

armistice and the country was split between the German-

occupied north and Marshal Pétain’s Vichy France.

On June 5, 1940, following the withdrawal

of the British Expeditionary Forces, the

Germans began the second stage of their

invasion of France. Lacking significant

British support (only one division, the

51st Highland, stayed in France), Maxime

Weygand, chief of the Allied armies in

France, was outgunned. With a depleted

French army, he faced a near-impossible

task—to defend a 560-mile (900-km)

front from a German force of 10 panzer

divisions and 130 infantry divisions.

Although their army fought fiercely,

the French government was unwilling

to commit to a long battle, abandoning

Paris on June 10 and seeking an

armistice on June 17. With the Allied

forces in the west evacuating, the armies

in the east surrounded, and forces in

the center fragmenting as the Germans

swept on, France capitulated on June 22.

In the Franco–German Armistice,

France was divided, with the north and

west under German occupation, and

the south (nominally) under French

sovereignty. Charles de Gaulle, then

the French under-secretary of national

defense and war, refused to accept the

surrender and led the Free French from

London. By the end of June 1940, France

had lost half her huge army as prisoners

of war or casualties. The Western Front

remained closed for four years until the

D-Day landings of June 1944.

US_054-055_Fall_of_France.indd 54 24/05/19 1:16 PM