Table of Contents
What happened at Dunkirk in May 1940?
On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, pushing the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), along with French and Belgian troops, back to the French port of Dunkirk. A huge rescue, Operation ‘Dynamo’, was organised by the Royal Navy to get the troops off the beaches and back to Britain.
What happened to the French army in ww2?
It is estimated that between 50,000 and 90,000 soldiers of the French army were killed in the fighting of May and June 1940. In addition to the casualties, 1.8m French soldiers, from metropolitan France and across the French empire, were captured during the Battle of France and made prisoners of war (POWs).
What happened on May 10th 1940?
Germany attacked in the west on May 10, 1940. German Invasion of Western Europe, May 1940 – Photograph Belgium and the Netherlands surrendered in May. More than 300,000 French and British troops were evacuated from the beaches near Dunkirk (Dunkerque) across the English Channel to Great Britain.
What happened on the 27th of May 1940?
This short programme re-lives the events of the British evacuation of Dunkirk during World War II, when a flotilla of nine hundred naval and civilian craft managed to rescue 338,226 people.
What caused the battle of France?
The battle began when German forces invaded France through the Ardennes Forest near southern Belgium. France believed that the Ardennes Forest was too thick for Germany tanks and forces to move through and did not extend the Maginot Line any further north.
Why did France not fight in ww2?
France surrendered to the Nazis in 1940 for complex reasons. Instead of fleeing the country and keeping up the fight, as the Dutch government and a residue of the French military did, the bulk of the French government and military hierarchy made peace with the Germans.
How big was the French army in 1940?
The French Army on the eve of the German attack in 1940 was commanded by General Maurice Gamelin with its headquarters in Vincennes, on the outskirts of Paris. It consisted of 117 divisions, with 94 committed to the North-Eastern front of operations.
What happened to France’s fleet in 1940?
By June 10, 1940, the French Army was shattered, but the French Navy was amazingly intact. François Darlan, the Admiral of the French Fleet told Churchill point-blank that the Fleet would be sunk before it was surrendered to the Germans. On June 17, France pressed for peace with Germany.
What happened at the Battle of France in 1940?
The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries during the Second World War. France had previously invaded Germany in 1939. In the six weeks from 10 May 1940, German forces defeated Allied forces by mobile operations and conquered France, Belgium,…
How did the French military compare to the Germans in WWI?
French tactical deployment and the use of mobile units at the operational level of war was also inferior to that of the Germans. The French had 3,254 tanks on the north-eastern front on 10 May, against 2,439 German tanks.
What part of France did Italy occupy after WW2?
The Italian invasion of France over the Alps took a small amount of ground and after the armistice, Italy occupied a small area in the south-east. The Vichy regime retained the unoccupied territory in the south (the zone libre ).
How many German soldiers were mobilised for WW2?
Germany had mobilised 4,200,000 men of the Heer, 1,000,000 of the Luftwaffe, 180,000 of the Kriegsmarine, and 100,000 of the Waffen-SS. When consideration is made for those in Poland, Denmark and Norway, the Army had 3,000,000 men available for the offensive on 10 May 1940.