 We speak of the breakthrough at Sudan, but actually the break was along a wide front extending for 50 miles from Namur in Belgium to Sudan. Further north, the Allied armies had swung like a gate into these positions. The German armies had swept over Holland, broken the line of the Albert Canal, and for all anyone new, were preparing to smash against the Allied front with all their power. That was the situation, dangerous but obscure, on the evening of May 13th. On the 14th and 15th, it became clear that the German breakthrough south of Namur was in the greatest strength, and that the French 9th Army, attacked while moving into position, had been shattered. Without doubt, this was the point of mortal danger, and the French High Command ordered the abandonment of these positions, although they had not yet been attacked. Those positions were abandoned solely because of the situation developing along the mercs near Sudan. In the meantime, the French 7th Army had been ordered to make its historic forced march far to the south into the area threatened by the rapidly advancing German spearheads. This army was not used to attack the German flank, but rather was used as a plug to restore the broken front. Throughout, the Allies had placed their faith not in offense but in defense, and the defense was doomed to failure because it was confronted with an entirely new technique in warfare, the plain tank infantry team in action. The world was staggered by the speed with which the German armoured columns moved. What was the secret that enabled armies to move so far so rapidly? The secret lay in the organization of the striking spearhead. Armoured forces came first, closely followed by motorized divisions, which peeled off, forming solid walls, and through the corridor, thus formed, raced the supply trucks to feed the ever-lengthening column. It was obvious that if the Allied situation was to be restored, the German column would have to be cut. On May 17th, General De Gaulle attacked the German flank and captured a few prisoners, but his light mechanized forces were like a pin pricking the side of a rhinoceros. A subsequent attack met with even less success. The means for a really successful counter-attack against the German corridor simply did not exist. Where numbers of divisions were required, only handfuls of companies and battalions were available. A valiant attempt to cut the German corridor was made by a group of slow-moving British tanks just south of Ara. But lack of sustained striking power doomed this valiant unit to destruction. On May 21st, the German spearhead reached the Channel Port of Abbeyville. Protecting their flank along the Somme, the Germans fanned out to the north and east. This was to be the perfect battle of annihilation. On May 28th, the Belgian army compressed into a small space and weary of battle lay down its arms. That left the desperate French and British defenders with their backs to the sea at the small Channel Port of Dunkirk. One of the greatest disasters in history seemed in the making, an entire British army faced annihilation. But out of the fog and the mist, shrouding the Channel came a strange armada of navy craft, fishing boats, treasurions, anything that would float. The sea-going people of Britain had come to rescue their army. High overhead British fighter planes bought the Luftwaffe to a standstill. Small Allied suicide units held the Germans back long enough for the miracle of Dunkirk to take place. Over 3,500 British troops, plus 112,500 French and Belgian, were rescued. Over 300,000 battle-tested men grimly determined to go back again with new tools, new weapons with which to blast the hated Nazis out of this world. For free men are like rubber balls. The harder they fall, the higher they bounce. Leading the British by this time was a man who had been bouncing all his life, Winston Churchill, who had tried for years to warn the world about Germany. Meantime, the situation that faced France was as nearly hopeless as a military situation can be. Two-fifths of the French army was lost. There were fewer than 50 divisions left to defend the front almost 200 miles long, running from the northern end of the Maginot Line to the sea. And behind that thin front line, there were no reserves. Despairing people of Paris sent their children south, praying that some miracle would keep them from harm. The hopeless men of the French army without adequate arms or equipment braced themselves for the coming blow. The first blow fell on June 5th. The French resistance was determined, but by June 8th the left flank army had been shattered and a general withdrawal was ordered to the line of the Marne and the Seine. On June 9th, the German main attack came. Within two days, the German armoured and motorized divisions roared out into the open terrain. With this breakthrough, the issue of the Battle of France was decided and from that time on there was official talk of an armistice. Now, what about the famous Maginot Line? Let's go back and take a look. On June 14th, the Germans launched two attacks against the Maginot Line. In both cases, penetrations were affected, but we must remember that this was against fortifications defended by men devoid of hope. In the meantime, Mussolini, now thinking it's safe, sent his divisions racing across the border. The hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor. Organized resistance in France was no longer possible. The government faced two alternatives, retire to North Africa and carry on from there or give up the struggle. France's leaders were old and tired, and the oldest and most tired was Marshal Pétain, egged on by men like Laval, who saw in a German victory his chance for personal power. On June 16th, Pétain asked for an armistice. The news is carried to Hitler, who received this word of a great nation's fall in a characteristic manner. Also characteristic were his terms for the armistice. It must be signed in the coach where Marshal Fosch met the defeated Germans in the last war. French delegation arrives to pay the final price of French disunity and the treachery of some of its leaders. Final price. A price that for centuries to come, the French won't forget. More than three-fifths of their country was to be blacked out by a military occupation. The remainder was to be controlled by a French government acceptable to Hitler. A tax of 400 million francs a day was to be imposed on the French people to support the German army of occupation. Nearly two million French prisoners of war were to be taken into Germany and kept there as hostages to work as slaves or rot of hunger, tuberculosis, or other diseases in concentration camps. Men deliberately and permanently separated from their families in order to decrease the French birth rate and thus eliminate France as a world power in future generations. French civilians, men, women, and children must slave on farmer in factory for the Nazi master race, or starve. There will be a class of subject alien races. We need not hesitate to call them slaves. French children were to grow up on such inadequate food that many would reach the age of 12 before they grew new teeth. And for any attempts to protest against these restrictions, thousands of innocent French civilians would be executed. This was the price the French were to pay as they signed the armistice. And the master of the master race must go to Paris on the streets of what was once the city of light. You notice no cheering crowds here to welcome in the new order. When the people of Paris come to the streets again, it is to hear the voice of dictators, telling them what they must do, how they must live, what they must say, what they must think, telling them how to be slaves. Gone is the Republic of France. Gone is free speech and a free representative government. Gone is liberty, equality, fraternity. These are the French. With their ears they listen. But their minds and their hearts, these are down on the Mediterranean where the battle colors of the regiments are being taken to Africa, out of the Nazi grasp. The people weep as their glory departs, they don't as yet know that France has hope, a rallying point. Charles de Gaulle, a soldier in the great tradition of Foch, is not surrendering. He will continue to fight, gathering about him loyal Frenchmen from all over the world, to become the free French army, the fighting French. Yes, the people weep as they watch their colors go. Not knowing that two years later, those same flags would again be unfurled in North Africa, alongside the stars and stripes, alongside the Union Jack. Once more, their leaders, General de Gaulle and the famous General Giro, stand united in the common cause with the leaders of their allies. Once more, the red, white and blue of France is raised on high. For out of the ashes of the defeat and the humiliation of France, her soul has been born again.