Fall of France and Dunkirk
France was defeated in six weeks in 1940 by an army that was not larger and not better equipped. The French and British had more tanks than the Germans and many of them were better armoured. What differed was how they were used: the French dispersed armour among infantry divisions as support, while the Germans concentrated theirs in ten panzer divisions with radios in every tank and close air support on call. The plan that beat them was not the original one. Manstein's revision put the main effort through the Ardennes, which French doctrine held to be impassable to armour, and left the Allies' best divisions advancing north into Belgium where the attack was expected. Seven panzer divisions crossed the Meuse at Sedan on 13 May against reserve formations, and the front was broken in three days. The drive to the Channel cut the northern armies off entirely, and some 338,000 men were evacuated from Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June while the German armour was halted for three days by an order that has been argued about ever since. The French fought on to the Somme with what was left and were overrun. Paris was declared an open city and occupied on 14 June. Pétain asked for terms, and the armistice was signed on 22 June in the railway carriage in which Germany had signed in 1918, which Hitler had brought out of a museum for the purpose. France was divided into an occupied zone and a Vichy state.
- Year: 1940 CE
- Category: Military
