Ancient history

The Invasion of France Collapse and Armistice

the invasion of France

On June 6, the offensive then resumed towards the south with an overwhelming numerical superiority and despite heroic resistance from certain French units, the German advance was very rapid. The German forces arrive at the edge of the Cher ("border" of the future line of demarcation).

On June 10, Italy declares war on France but its offensive is blocked in the Alps.

On June 14, tanks reached Paris, declared an open city, and on June 22, France signed the armistice at Rethondes, in the forest of Compiègne.

After this disaster, and despite the signing of the armistice, the soldiers of the Maginot line continued the fight, believing that they had not been defeated, and for some until mid-July. The Army of the Alps for its part did not fail, repelling quite easily all the assaults of the Italian army until the last days of combat.

Most of France is occupied by German troops, the country is divided into a zone occupied and militarily administered by Germany (north, west and south-west), and a free zone (center and south) which is administered by the Vichy government of Marshal Philippe Pétain.

The armistice

As soon as the decision to request an armistice was taken by the new Pétain government on June 17, everyone expected the worst. It was enough to recall the drastic, not to say humiliating, conditions which had accompanied the French agreement made to the German plenipotentiaries of November 1918, to envisage a terrible reaction from the authorities of the Third Reich.

It was quite different for France in June 1940:not only had the Allied armies been destroyed or captured, but also, nearly two-thirds of the national territory was occupied by the Wehrmacht. The armistice leaves aside the French fleet, accepts the existence of a "Free Zone" with its own independent government and its army reduced to 100,000 men (like the army of the Treaty of Versailles) and even went so far as to force their Italian ally to withdraw some of their demands, particularly those concerning the fleet and Tunisia. It is true that such an attitude was not to last and that many in the government of the new French State, elected on July 10, 1940, had to quickly become disillusioned in view of the new German demands:400,000,000 francs a day for living expenses. maintenance of the occupying troops, forced exchange rate between the reichsmark and the franc, which enabled the various economic services of the military administration and the SS to undertake a systematic looting of France, not to mention the commissions of armistice which imposed very strict limits on the theoretical autonomy of the Free Zone authorities and "unfair" conditions concerning anti-Nazi refugees.

Paradoxically, and before such a state of affairs worsened, it was Operation Catapult, carried out in July 1940, with a view to definitively neutralizing the risk represented by the French fleet, and which led to the disaster of Mers-el -Kébir, which was to bring the German authorities to greater flexibility in their relationship with the Pétain government, going so far as to consider, at the request of the latter, a policy of collaboration.
Hitler and the Nazi officers gather in front of the statue of Marshal Foch, before entering the Wagon where the 1940 armistice will be signed.
Hitler and the Nazi officers gather in front of the statue of Marshal Foch , before entering the Wagon where the 1940 armistice will be signed.

In order to sign the armistice, Hitler had the 1918 armistice car removed from the museum where it was on display and returned to the forest of Compiègne (at the same place as on November 11, 1918). On Armistice Day, Hitler arrived late. Upon his arrival, the German anthem was played. He went to sit in the same place as that of Marshal Foch in 1918. The armistice signed, Hitler got out of the wagon and went to see the statue of Marshal Foch where at his feet there was a fallen German eagle and an inscription " German pride shattered in this place". Hitler laughs.


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