Fall of France

Stella Koo & SeungHyun Lim

• Fall of France = Battle of France.• Area: France, Belgium and the Netherlands• Location: North West Europe• It was the German invasion of France and the low

countries executed from 10 may 1940• Ended the Phoney war• 10 May 1940 to 22 June 1940• Summary: German victory in Holland, Belgium

and France, leading to an occupation that would last over four years and a desperate British evacuation from Dunkirk that left the UK facing invasion.

Brief Information

Timeline of the main events

10th May 1940 – German forces advanced to Holland, landing at Hague

13th May - Germans crossed the River Meuse into France at Sedan.

14th May- Holland surrounded

5th June - the Germans began a new offensive from their positions on the Somme.

7th June - Their tanks, led by Rommel, broke through toward Rouen

9th June - they crossed the Seine. Also the Germans attacked on the Aisne and eventually turned towards Switzerland, cutting off all the French forces still holding the Maginot Line.

20th May - cutting off the Allied armies in Belgium.

12th June, General Maxime Weygand, (French commander), told the French premier Paul Reynaud that the battle for France was lost and that a cessation of hostilities was the only option.

17th May - German crossed the River Oise and reached Abbeville.

16 June - Reynaud's government was divided between surrender and resistance, but faced Germany's inexorable advance through Paris and into the Rhône Valley. Reynaud resigned and a new government was formed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, the hero of the Battle of Verdun during World War 1.

Germany invades Poland. Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.

The form of warfareFrance

• 2100 planes• 10000 artillery pieces• 3500 tanks and armored cars

but only really about 2000 modern ones engaged

Losses: •156,492 losses + 6000 Italian losses in the French Alps) -- compared to 40,390 losses in Poland.

Germany

•4500 planes (Junkers Ju 87)•7500 artillery pieces•3800 tanks and armored cars

Losses :•330,000 losses•1,450,000 prisoners•892 aircrafts

The German army

The German Army was divided into three army groups:

• Army Group A commanded by Gerd von Rundstedt, composed of 45½ divisions including seven armored, through the Allied defenses in the Ardennes.

• Army Group B under Fedor von Bock, composed of 29½ divisions including three armoured, was tasked with advancing through the Low Countries and luring the northern units of the Allied armies into a pocket. It consisted of the Eighteenth and Sixth Army.

• Army Group C, composed of 18 divisions under Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, was charged with preventing a flanking movement from the east, and with launching small holding attacks against the Maginot Line and the upper Rhine. It consisted of the First and Seventh Army.

Casualties and lost

France⚐ 360,000 dead or wounded in this battle ⚐ French prisoners: more than 1,450,000⚐ France's heavy artillery were captured

Germany- 1236 planes destroyed & 322 damaged- 839 tanks were destroyed

What if…• If Britain and France had accepted the new

political order, German and France would have a good relationship.

• If the French soldier's had time to prepare before the war, they might win the war, but they didn’t have strategy and the French army was not able to lead a modern movement of war