Battlefields: "Fall of France" 2 of 12

At dawn on Friday, 10 May 1940, Adolf Hitler plunged his bloody fists into the Low Countries and headed for France; at 5:00 PM that same evening, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain. The new Prime Minister felt confident of victory then, but the French high command had made a grave miscalculation. Believing that the enemy would be coming through Belgium, as in 1914, the sixty-seven-year-old generalissimo Maurice Gamelin had sent the flower of the French troops and the entire British army?the British Expeditionary Force, or B.E.F. into Flanders. Instead, Nazi tanks struck through Ardennes Forest and crossed the Meuse. When the French defenders panicked, the panzers rolled up the entire Allied line all the way to the sea, trapping the Allies' force.
On the fifth day of the enemy offensive, the extent of the disaster began to emerge. Paul Reynaud, the French Premier, wired Churchill: "The German army has broken through our fortified lines south of Sedan." He then asked for ten more Royal Air Force squadrons "immediately." The Prime Minister sent four squadrons, then decided it was "imperative to go to Paris." At 3:00 PM on May 16th, he took off in an unarmed Flamingo, a civilian passenger plane, accompanied by Generals Hastings Ismay and Sir John Dill and his bodyguard Walter Thompson, an inspector from Scotland Yard.
Over the French coast Churchill peered down, and Thompson saw his face go grey. He was looking, for the first time, at the war's refugees. There were seven million of them fleeing from the Germans, swarming down the highways, shuffling, exhausted, aching from the strain of heavy loads on their backs. Barns, sheds, and garages had vomited into roads an extraordinary collection of vehicles: tumbrels, trucks, horse-drawn carts, and ancient automobiles with sagging loads of mattresses, kitchen utensils, family treasures, and bric-a-brac. Churchill later wrote: "Not having had access to official information for so many years, I did not comprehend the revolution effected since the last war by the incursion of a mass of fast-moving heavy armour." This German drive would not have to pause for supplies. As Charles de Gaulle had foreseen, the panzers would be filling their tanks at the filling stations of northern France.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• World
• war
• WW2
• battlefields
• France
• blitzkrieg
• lightning
• hitler
• axis
• allies
• waffen
• SS
• wehrmacht
• panzer

[frisbeeswagstersowda]

I have the whole series on vhs. I love this!

[Hippophilee]

@adaseth In 1939 Germany's western border was far from "unprotected", with the fortified Siegfried line facing Maginot line. The French in 1914-1918 had assaulted similar fortifications over and over, losing 1.5 million men; and in 1939 they didn't want to resume this bloody experience. Moreover, the left-wing Front Populaire government had promised "peace" and disorganized the weapon industry. When Stalin in turn invaded Poland, there were also plans to bomb the USSR… Unrealistic dreams…

[adaseth]

How THE FUCK Poland's geographical location prevented Britain and France from intervening directly?! Will someone explain this bullshit to me? More so, it is documented that at the time Germany's western border was practically unprotected and Poland was fighting much longer than Hitler had planned.

[PesarTarofi]

Why are french and british allies here they have been at war with each other for so long it would of been awesome if they were allied to germany

[13341ggcaus]

French fries...hahahhaaaha fucking frech race is pussy race, they could not fight at all...shut the fuck up french fries.

[silver610310]

@Tyco200 thanks for the note. not sure what are you talking about - who stole what, and waht is "german t34".... T34 was the best tank of ww2, it is a fact acknowledged by everyone, and, yes, germans had radios before the russians, and that helped them to last longer. Not sure what is your point. panzer Iv was a gasoline tank of an older design, produced in a relatively small numbers. what is so special about it?

[Tyco200]

@silver610310 Actually, Germany outright stole the STG-44 and gave it a larger bullet. Also, German T-34 was inferior, even in only matched by the Panzer IV. T-34-76 did not have a three man turret, 80mms of armor or that good a gun as later Panzer IVs would receive (long barreled 75.) Panzer IIIs could also use their superior radio equipment to smash a T-34.

[Tyco200]

@MilosKole And Gadahfi can have a nice day in hell, by the way. 

[Tyco200]

@MilosKole Wow, little pig boy apparently believes america didn't help anyone... How about France, Britain and even Russia's early majority of tanks? What about the bombings? What about the 4.5 million Russian/German women raped by Russian pigs (who truly were 'scum')? What about the fact that the Panzer III was absolutely outclassed by most tanks in France? You're a very sad individual.

[Tyco200]

@njchampnj Besides, Stalin, the idiot of all idiots, was too busy having his field marshals executed, and one of the finest of all men beaten to bloody hell (Truvachesky), who could have saved the weak and pathetic Russia. He had well though tactics, but Stalin was too busy beating him to force him into stating how he was "A Nazi!" Sure. Poor socialists. That's how they fail.