The War in Europe Begins 1063

Hitler takes a triumphant stroll through Paris in June 1940.

army occupied the capital on June 14. On June 16, Marshal Philippe Petain,
hero of the Battle of Verdun in 1916, became premier. The next day, he
asked Germany for an armistice. France and Britain had several months
earlier agreed that neither ally would ask for an armistice without the
approval of the other. The British government wanted the French armies to
move to North Africa and continue the war from there. However, on June
22, the gleeful Hitler accepted the French surrender in a railway car in the
spot where Germany had signed a similar document in November 1918.
Hitler then set out to tour Paris. On July 3, the British navy sunk a battle­
ship, a cruiser, and several destroyers of the French fleet as they lay in port
at Mers el-Kebir in Algeria, killing 1,300 French sailors. The British com­
mand feared that the ships might fall into German hands.

The Battle of Britain

Britain would fight on. Addressing the House of Commons, Churchill

declared, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.... You

ask, what is our policy? I will say: it is to wage war, by sea, land, and air,

with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us.”

Hitler now considered whether an invasion of Britain could succeed. Ger­

many held the French and Belgian Channel ports, a position it had never

achieved during World War I. Furthermore, with Ireland having proclaimed

its neutrality, the Royal Navy no longer had use of southern Irish ports.