Fall of France (1940): Blitzkrieg Through the Ardennes

The Fall of France was Germany’s rapid conquest of France and the Low Countries between 10 May and 22 June 1940. A German armoured thrust through the Ardennes forest broke the French line at Sedan, raced to the English Channel and trapped the best Allied armies in Belgium. Within six weeks France had asked for an armistice, a defeat that shocked the world and left Britain fighting alone.

Background

After Britain and France declared war on Germany in September 1939, following the invasion of Poland, the western front remained largely quiet for months, a period known as the Phoney War. France relied on the Maginot Line, a chain of fortifications along its border with Germany, and planned to meet any German attack in Belgium.

The original German plan resembled that of 1914, with the main attack through central Belgium. After a German officer carrying plans crash-landed in Belgium in January 1940, and with strong advocacy from General Erich von Manstein, Hitler adopted a bolder scheme. Army Group B would invade the Netherlands and Belgium to draw the Allies north, while the main armoured force, in Gerd von Rundstedt’s Army Group A, would pass through the hilly, wooded Ardennes, which the French considered unsuitable for large armoured forces.

The opposing forces

The two sides were roughly equal in numbers of soldiers, about 3.3 million Allied troops against about 3.3 million Germans committed in the west. The Allies had more tanks and artillery. Germany’s advantages lay in its air force, its concentration of ten panzer divisions with radio communications, and a flexible command style that encouraged initiative.

The French commander-in-chief, General Maurice Gamelin, planned to send his best armies and the British Expeditionary Force into Belgium as far as the Dyle river, and in a variant called the Breda plan, into the Netherlands. This placed the strongest Allied forces exactly where the Germans wanted them.

The breakthrough at Sedan

On 10 May 1940 Germany attacked the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Airborne troops seized the Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael and key bridges, and the Allies advanced into Belgium as planned. The Dutch army surrendered on 14 May, after the bombing of Rotterdam.

In central Belgium, French cavalry divisions met German panzers near Hannut on 12–13 May, in one of the first large tank battles in history, and then held the Germans at Gembloux on 14–15 May. These were genuine defensive successes, but they drew attention and reserves towards the north, as the German plan intended.

Meanwhile, columns of German armour moved through the Ardennes almost unnoticed. On 13 May, after heavy dive-bomber attacks, General Heinz Guderian’s corps crossed the Meuse at Sedan, while Erwin Rommel’s division crossed further north at Dinant. French reserve divisions at Sedan collapsed, and counter-attacks over the following days came too late and were poorly coordinated.

Guderian and other commanders then drove west instead of south towards Paris. On 20 May German tanks reached the Channel coast near Abbeville, cutting the Allied armies in two. On 19 May Gamelin had been replaced by General Maxime Weygand.

Dunkirk and Belgium

The trapped Allied forces in the north fought back, notably in a British counter-attack at Arras on 21 May, but could not break out. Belgium capitulated on 28 May. Between 26 May and 4 June more than 338,000 British and French soldiers were rescued in the Dunkirk evacuation, though they left almost all their equipment behind.

The collapse of France

On 5 June the Germans launched the second phase of the offensive, Fall Rot (Case Red), against the new French line along the Somme and Aisne rivers. French units fought hard in places, but they were outnumbered and the line broke within days. On 10 June Italy declared war on France and Britain, and the French government left Paris.

In the last days German forces broke through the Maginot Line in places and encircled its garrisons from behind, while in the Alps a small French army held off the Italian offensive of 21–24 June with few losses. These local successes could not change the outcome of the campaign.

German troops entered Paris, declared an open city, on 14 June. The government moved to Bordeaux, where Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned on 16 June. His successor, the 84-year-old Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of the First World War, announced on 17 June that France must seek an armistice. The next day, from London, General Charles de Gaulle broadcast his Appeal of 18 June on the BBC, calling on the French to continue the fight.

The armistice at Compiègne

The armistice was signed on 22 June 1940 at Rethondes in the forest of Compiègne, in the same railway carriage where Germany had signed the armistice of 11 November 1918. General Charles Huntziger signed for France and General Wilhelm Keitel for Germany. A separate armistice with Italy was signed on 24 June, and fighting ended early on 25 June.

Germany occupied northern France and the Atlantic coast, about three-fifths of the country. France kept its fleet and its empire and a government based at Vichy, but had to pay the costs of the occupation. Around 1.8 million French soldiers were taken prisoner, most of whom spent the rest of the war in Germany.

A demarcation line divided the occupied zone from the unoccupied south, and crossing it required German permission. Alsace and part of Lorraine were effectively annexed by Germany, while Italy occupied a small zone in the south-east. The occupation costs, set at 20 million Reichsmarks a day, drained the French economy for the next four years.

Consequences

On 10 July 1940 the French parliament voted full powers to Pétain, ending the Third Republic and creating the authoritarian Vichy regime, which collaborated with Germany. De Gaulle’s Free French movement continued the war from London and parts of the French empire. Fearing that the French fleet would fall into German hands, Britain attacked it at Mers-el-Kébir in Algeria on 3 July, killing nearly 1,300 French sailors.

With France defeated, Britain faced Germany alone in western Europe, leading to the Battle of Britain. France would not be liberated until 1944.

Myths and facts

• Myth: the French army did not fight. French troops fought hard in many battles, such as Gembloux and Stonne, and around 55,000–90,000 French soldiers were killed, according to different estimates. German losses were about 27,000 killed.
• Myth: Germany had more and better tanks. The Allies had more tanks, some of them heavier; the difference lay in how they were organised and used.
• Myth: blitzkrieg was a long-prepared master plan. Historians such as Karl-Heinz Frieser have argued that the decisive dash to the coast owed much to improvisation by commanders such as Guderian and Rommel.

Timeline

• 1940, 10 May: Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
• 1940, 13 May: German forces cross the Meuse at Sedan and Dinant.
• 1940, 14 May: Rotterdam is bombed; the Dutch army surrenders.
• 1940, 20 May: German tanks reach the Channel near Abbeville.
• 1940, 28 May: Belgium capitulates.
• 1940, 4 June: the Dunkirk evacuation ends.
• 1940, 14 June: German troops enter Paris.
• 1940, 17 June: Pétain announces that France will seek an armistice.
• 1940, 22 June: the armistice is signed at Compiègne.

Why it matters

The Fall of France transformed the war, giving Germany control of western Europe and ending the Third Republic. It forced Britain to fight on alone and left a deep mark on French memory, debated for decades in terms of military failure, collaboration and resistance.