The Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries in the Second World War. German forces attacked the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, while the main armoured thrust, following a plan by General Erich von Manstein, passed through the Ardennes forest, which the Allies had thought impassable for tanks. The Germans broke through at Sedan and raced to the English Channel, trapping the British Expeditionary Force and French armies in the north. Some 340,000 Allied soldiers were evacuated from Dunkirk. The Germans then turned south, entered Paris, and France sought an armistice, which was signed in the forest of Compiegne. The country was divided into an occupied zone and a collaborationist state in the south, based at Vichy.
Before and after
- from 9 April 1940 to 10 June 1940Operation Weserübung
- 13 April 1940Birth of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
- 16 April 1940Birth of Margrethe II of Denmark
- 25 April 1940Birth of Al Pacino
- from 10 May 1940 to 25 June 1940Battle of France
- from 10 May 1940 to 15 May 1940German invasion of the Netherlands
- from 10 May 1940 to 28 May 1940German invasion of Belgium
- 14 May 1940Rotterdam Blitz
- 15 May 1940Founding of McDonald's
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 7 November 1917 to 25 October 1922Russian Civil War
- 23 August 1939Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
- from 30 November 1939 to 13 March 1940Winter War
- from 22 June 1941 to 7 May 1945Eastern Front
- from 22 June 1941 to 5 December 1941Operation Barbarossa
- 7 December 1941Attack on Pearl Harbor
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.