Chronology of the western campaign in 1940
Battle of the Netherlands
Maastricht - Mill - The Hague - Rotterdam - Zeeland - Grebbeberg - Afsluitdijk - bombing of Rotterdam
Invasion of Luxembourg
cobblestone line
Battle of Belgium
Fort Eben-Emael - KW line - Dyle plan - Hannut - Gembloux - Lys
Battle of France
Royal Marine - Ardennes - Sedan - Maginot Line - Weygand Plan - Arras - Boulogne - Calais - Dunkirk ( Dynamo - Wormhout ) - Abbeville - Lille - Paula - Fall Rot - Aisne - Alps - Cycle - Saumur - Lagarde - Aerial - Fall Braun
This calendar overview represents a chronology of the western campaign in 1940. It is not an independent representation, but serves primarily to find Wikipedia articles on a date or event or its assignment to a period.
prehistory
→ See main article: Prehistory of the Second World War in Europe
1939
- September 1: Without prior declaration of war marching Wehrmacht in Poland one ( invasion of Poland ). In a speech to the Reichstag, the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler justified the war of aggression .
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September 3: After an ultimatum based on the joint guarantee of March 31, 1939 , France and Great Britain declare war on the German Reich. The ambassadors Robert Coulondre and Nevile Henderson present the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop with notes from their governments.
- The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is a war government . With Winston Churchill he appoints a critic of the policy of appeasement as First Lord of the Admiralty , who had already warned of a threat from the Nazi state during the 1930s .
- Beginning of the Atlantic battle .
- The Kingdom of Italy declares itself "non-belligerent" .
- September 4th: The British Royal Air Force (RAF) flies the air raid on Wilhelmshaven, the first attack on a German city ( see: Air War in World War II ).
- September 5: The United States declares neutrality .
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September 9: After mobilization is complete , the French army can deploy 108 divisions and 2,700 tanks , including the fortress troops of the Maginot Line . The Wehrmacht has only 23 operational divisions on the German western border . Hitler avoids the risk of a two-front war and orders: “In the West it is important to clearly leave the responsibility for opening hostilities to England and France. Minor border violations must initially be countered purely locally. The German western border cannot be crossed at any point without my express permission. "
- Start of the Saar offensive . Without encountering any resistance, units of the French Army Group 2 (Gen. André-Gaston Prételat ) advance up to eight kilometers into German territory in the Warndt and between the Moselle and the Palatinate Forest . There is no attack on the fortified Siegfried Line. In anticipation of an offensive, the German civilian population has been evacuated from the border area into the interior of the country .
- September 12th: The British government sends the first four divisions of an expeditionary force to provide military support to France. By May 1940, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had 394,000 soldiers (twelve divisions). Commander ( General Officer Commanding ) is General Lord Gort appointed as chief of staff acts Lieutenant-General Henry Royds Pownall . With 456 combat aircraft, the Royal Air Force is relocating around a third of its total stock to the continent.
- September 21: The French Chief of Staff Maurice Gamelin breaks off the Saar offensive. He pulls his units back to their starting positions behind the heavily fortified Maginot Line and its northern continuations in the Ardennes . In overestimating the combat strength of the Wehrmacht and, above all, of the German Air Force, the French military doctrine remains strictly defensive and does not envisage an offensive until 1941. First of all, the war economy of the German Reich, which is poor in natural resources , is to be weakened by sea blockades . At the same time the technical armament of France with tanks and airplanes is to be pushed. Thus, there is no effective military relief for Poland.
- October 6: After the surrender of the Polish armed forces, Hitler gives a "peace speech" in front of the Reichstag . He advocates a peace conference, free trade, the restoration of German colonies and arms restrictions to the Western powers . Despite his public declarations of peace, Hitler had the main part of the Wehrmacht relocated to the deployment rooms along the western border. On the western front, the passive phase of the seated war ( La Drôle de Guerre, Phoney War ) begins , which takes the form of a reciprocal propaganda battle.
- October 9th: Even before the Western powers responded to his “peace speech” , Hitler laid down the basic features of military operations in the West in “Directive No. 6” and terminated the attack on November 12th. With reference to the operational readiness and the lack of ammunition supply of the Wehrmacht, the Commander in Chief of the Army , Colonel General Walther von Brauchitsch and Chief of Staff Franz Halder reject this project as impracticable.
- October 19: The OKH 's plan of operations for the invasion of France is based on the Schlieffen Plan , which failed in World War I , and provides for a massive advance by the right wing through Flanders and the Netherlands ( yellow case ). Due to the bad weather and the cold winter, Hitler postponed the attack a total of 29 times.
- November 14: The French and Belgian general staff agree on a common defense strategy ( Dijle plan ) in the event of a German offensive .
- November 23rd: In an address to the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht , Hitler announced his intention to attack Western Europe "at the most favorable and fastest time" .
- December 18: Due to the losses in the aerial battle over the German Bight , the British RAF Bomber Command largely ceases its day-to-day operations against targets in the German Reich and shifts to attacks during the night.
1940
- January 6: Chief of Staff Gamelin appoints General Alphonse Georges as Commander in Chief of the Northeast Front and separates the two staffs . This decentralized division has a negative effect on the French command structure.
- January 10th: Due to the emergency landing of a German courier aircraft in Belgium, illegally carried secret documents of the planned German western offensive reach the authorities there ( Mechelen incident ).
- January 13: Alarmed by the Mechelen incident and in anticipation of a German offensive, the mobilization of the Belgian army begins . King Leopold III. takes over the military command.
- January 16: After the Mechelen incident, Hitler postpones the date of the attack the following day.
- February 17: Lieutenant General Erich von Manstein , former chief of staff of Army Group A , presents Hitler with an alternative offensive operation for the campaign in the west. Accordingly, the focus of the German attack should not be in the north, but further south in the central section of the front ( “Plan Sedan” ). He proposes occupying the Netherlands and thereby seducing the enemy into setting his strong units on the march north. The own motorized units, on the other hand, are to be grouped together and surprise the Western powers with a thrust through the forest mountains of the Ardennes . Then they should quickly reach the canal coast in the rear of the enemy and cut it off from their starting point. The traditionally thinking OKH expressed strong doubts about a successful advance through the Ardennes and initially rejected Manstein's plans as too "adventurous" due to open flanks and logistical concerns .
- February 24th: Despite the risks associated with the “Plan Sedan” , Hitler accepts Manstein's proposal and orders the OKH to change the case of Gelb accordingly. The preparation of the operational plans will be completed by March 7th in the greatest secrecy .
- March 3: After the hesitant Hitler changed his plans several times, he decided to start the Weser Exercise operation before the campaign in the west .
- March 18: Meeting between Hitler and Benito Mussolini at the Brenner Pass . The Italian dictator declares that his country will enter the war at an “opportune time” .
- 19. – 21. March: Change of government in France. Because of his reluctance during the Soviet-Finnish Winter War is Prime Minister Edouard Daladier overthrown. He will be replaced by the previous finance minister, Paul Reynaud , who is considered a “symbol of life and death war” and an opponent of the appeasement policy of his predecessor. Reynaud only received a majority of one vote in the Chamber of Deputies and left Daladier as Minister of War in his cabinet. In the weeks that followed, Daladier asserted himself several times against Reynaud, who tried in vain to get the Chief of Staff Gamelin removed.
- March 28: Representatives of Great Britain and France sign a joint declaration at a meeting of the Supreme Allied War Council in London . This excludes a separate peace or armistice with the German Reich without mutual agreement.
- March 29: Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov proclaims the neutrality of the Soviet Union in the conflict between the German Reich and the Western powers.
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April 9: The Wehrmacht occupies neutral Denmark . To secure the supply routes for the ore deliveries that are essential for the war effort , it also lands in Norway ( Operation Weser Exercise) and precedes a planned landing by the Western powers ( Operation Wilfred ).
- Due to the German offensive in Scandinavia, the Western Powers have asked the Belgian government in vain to allow troops to enter their territory.
- 14.-19. April: To provide military support to Norway, the Western powers move large contingents of troops (e.g. parts of the Foreign Legion ) to Narvik ( see: Battle of Narvik ).
- April 30th: By order of Hitler, the Wehrmacht is put on alert on the Western Front. The 141 German divisions are divided into three army groups and are now facing 144 divisions on the Allied side.
- 7th-9th May: In the wake of the Norwegian debate in the British House of Commons , Prime Minister Chamberlain is accused of negligence in war policy and he loses the support of numerous Conservative MPs . As a consequence, Chamberlain submits his resignation.
- May 9th: To lead the campaign in the west, Hitler went to the Fiihrer's headquarters in Felsennest in Rodert / Bad Münstereifel and gave the Wehrmacht the order to attack in the case of Gelb ( "Soldiers of the Western Front! This is the hour of the most decisive struggle for the German nation The struggle that begins today will decide the fate of the German nation for the next thousand years ” ).
Fall yellow
→ See main article: Attack on the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg and Battle of the Netherlands
→ See main article: Schematic war organization of the Wehrmacht on May 10, 1940
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May 10: The associations of Army Group A (. GenOb Gerd von Rundstedt ) and B (. GenOb Fedor von Bock ) exceed from 05:35 the boundaries of neutral countries Netherlands , Belgium and Luxembourg . A formal declaration of war is not made.
- The German ground offensive is supported by air strikes and the landing of paratroopers at operationally important positions. Units of the 7th Aviation Division (GenLt. Kurt Student ) land behind enemy lines in the greater The Hague and occupy the Ypenburg , Ockenburg and Valkenburg airfields . However, these are cleared again after high losses and fierce resistance from the Dutch. 1,200 paratroopers are taken prisoner of war.
- According to the joint defense plan ( Dijle-Breda plan ), Allied Army Group 1 ( Gen. Gaston Billotte ) begins a pivoting movement in an easterly direction at the pivot point Givet from 7.30 a.m. In anticipation of the main German thrust through Flanders , it crossed the Belgian border and occupied positions along the Dijle - Breda line .
- Winston Churchill becomes the new British Prime Minister. With the participation of all parliamentary parties, it forms a war government .
- Due to a navigation error, the Air Force mistakenly bombed Freiburg im Breisgau . 57 residents lose their lives.
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May 11: In a coup German airborne troops conquer the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael . This enables the advancing infantry to break into the Liège fortress ring as well as an unhindered passage over the Meuse and the Albert Canal . The rapid incursion into their eastern flank forces the Belgian army to retreat from the border zone onto the main resistance line between Wavre and the Scheldt ( KW line ). There a union with the advancing French-British armed forces is to take place.
- Neutral Luxembourg has no armed forces worth mentioning and after overcoming the roadblocks on the Schuster Line , the country is occupied within a day. Grand Duchess Charlotte can leave for France in good time ( see: Luxembourg in the Second World War ).
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May 12: During the attack by Army Group B in the north, the motorized units of Panzer Group Kleist (Army Group A) crossed the heavily forested Ardennes, which were considered impassable. Largely unnoticed by the Western powers, up to 40,000 German military vehicles are temporarily jammed on the impassable mountain roads .
- The Belgian army blows up numerous Maas bridges.
- The exiled former Kaiser Wilhelm II refuses a request from the Dutch government to leave Haus Doorn .
- 12-14 May: French tank units ( 1er , 2e régiment de cuirassiers and 18e régiment de dragons ) can briefly stop the German advance in Belgium before the XVI. Panzer Corps (Gen. Erich Hoepner ) after massive air support and by focusing on a small section of the front, the breakthrough through the Gembloux position succeeds ( Battle of Hannut ).
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May 13th: After the victory on Grebbeberg , the 18th Army (GenOb. Georg von Küchler ) overcomes the Dutch defensive position on the Grebbe Line . While the defenders retreat to the fortress of Holland , Queen Wilhelmina escapes German access and flees to London with her government.
- The 9th Armored Division (Gen. Alfred von Hubicki ) achieved at Moerdijk , the Hollands Diep and connects with the paratroopers ago. These were able to secure the most important river crossings over Maas, Waal and Lek and keep them open for an advance into the fortress of Holland. The rapid offensive cuts the Dutch army from all land connections to the Allied troops in the south. Therefore the French 7th Army (Gen. Henri Giraud ), which had moved to Breda and Tilburg , had to withdraw to Belgium.
- The tank divisions of Panzer Group Kleist covered 160 kilometers in three days and crossed the Ardennes. After battles with Belgian Ardennes fighters , they reach the Meuse at Sedan , Charleville-Mézières and Dinant ( “In three days on the Meuse, on the fourth day over the Meuse” ).
- Churchill gives his blood-sweat-and-tears speech in front of the House of Commons .
- 13-15 May: With targeted close air support and artillery fire, the XIX. Army Corps ( Gen. Heinz Guderian ) in the battle of Sedan the unexpected breakthrough. Guderian's units cross the Meuse on hastily erected pontoon bridges and form a bridgehead on the southern bank . The XXXXI is forced further north . Army Corps (GenLt. Georg-Hans Reinhardt ) at Monthermé and Dinant the transition.
- May 14th: In an attempt to break the resistance of Fortress Holland and to conclude the ongoing ceasefire negotiations, Kampfgeschwader 54 of Luftflotte 2 (Gen. Albert Kesselring ) is dispatched to an attack on Rotterdam . The Dutch defenders then offer to surrender, but 60 bombers cannot be recalled in time and bomb the city center . The old town of Rotterdam is completely destroyed and 814 civilians lose their lives.
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May 15: In Rijsoord , Colonel General von Küchler receives the formal surrender of the Dutch armed forces, signed by General Henri Winkelman . The surrender will be announced on the radio at 8:30 p.m.
- Delayed counter-attacks by the French 2nd Army (Gen. Charles Huntziger ) near the small Ardennes village of Stonne fail. Despite heavy fighting, the German bridgehead cannot be eliminated. Rather, the Kleist tank group breaks out and pushes into the depths at high speed. The surprised French are not prepared for the tactical-operational concept of a war of movement . Numerous regiments panicked, retreated quickly and tore a gap 80 kilometers wide in the front. In particular, due to the unpredictability and the unauthorized actions of their commanders Erwin Rommel ( 7th Panzer Division ) and Heinz Guderian, the sickle-cut plan gains its own momentum ( leadership from the front ).
- The news of the Sedan breakthrough shocked the French public, who had previously believed that the Maginot Line was insurmountable. In view of the military crisis, Prime Minister Reynaud said to Churchill during a phone call: “We have been defeated ... The front has been broken at Sedan. The Germans are streaming through in large numbers with tanks and armored cars. "
- May 16: As a reaction to the breakthrough at the front in the Ardennes, General Billotte orders Army Group 1 (1st and 7th Army, BEF) under his command to retreat from the Dijle to the Scheldt . The increasing panic of war and millions of internally displaced civilians pouring south from Belgium and northern France are partially dissolving public order. The road network overcrowded with refugees hampers the mobility of the Allied forces considerably, constant air strikes by German Stukas are terrorizing the military and the civilian population.
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May 17: For the first time, Hitler personally intervenes in the campaign and stops the advance of Army Group A. He would like the slowly advancing infantry to catch up with the advancing tanks in order to ensure adequate flank protection. The fast advancing Guderian ignores the orders of his superior Ewald von Kleist and leaves his flanks open. Thereupon he was briefly relieved of his command, but reinstated by Kleist's superior Gerd von Rundstedt. Now it is advancing further along the Somme towards the English Channel.
- Handover of Brussels to the 6th Army (GenOb. Walter von Reichenau ) without a fight . The units of Army Group B are in Belgium on the Mechelen - Leuven - Namur line .
- A French counter-attack at Montcornet fails due to a lack of air support .
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May 18: In order to strengthen the morale of the population, Prime Minister Reynaud appoints the popular Marshal Philippe Pétain ( Hero of Verdun ) to the government and appoints him as his deputy. He also dismisses Édouard Daladier and takes over the war ministry himself, and Georges Mandel becomes the new interior minister .
- The remaining units of the Western powers withdraw from the Dutch province of Zeeland to the south and the Wehrmacht occupies Antwerp .
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May 19: Reynaud dismisses the previous Chief of Staff Gamelin and appoints General Maxime Weygand to head the French army. Weygand is located in the mandate area of Syria and must first be flown into the European theater of war.
- The allies operating in the traditional, linear battle lines of the First World War are inferior to the German Combat of Combined Arms . You are not in a position to oppose the movement war strategy ( Blitzkrieg ) with an effective defense. The French 9th Army is completely crushed at Wassigny , General Giraud becomes a prisoner of war.
- Churchill orders Admiral Bertram Ramsay to prepare for a possible evacuation of British ground forces by the Royal Navy .
- May 20: Just ten days after the campaign began, the Kleist tank group reached the Somme Bay and the English Channel near Abbeville .
- May 21: Franco-British counter-attacks under Major General Harold Franklyn in the Arras area are supposed to cut the lines of communication between the German 7th Panzer Division ( Battle of Arras ). After initial successes, the attacks put Rommel's division under pressure, but they can be repulsed.
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May 22: Army Group A turns north in the direction of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer and completes the sickle-cut plan. As a result, a total of 63 Allied divisions (around 1.2 million soldiers) are cut off from the main force and enclosed in Flanders and the north of Belgium.
- General Alexander von Falkenhausen becomes the Wehrmacht commander in chief of the German military administration in Belgium .
- May 23: On the way back to his headquarters, General Billotte is critically injured in a traffic accident and dies two days later. Thereupon General Georges Blanchard , previous commander of the French 1st Army , takes over command of the Allied Army Group 1.
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May 24th: Since Colonel General von Rundstedt seemed too fast to attack and he shied away from combat in the difficult coastal area, he had the armored units of Army Group A halt while the OKH wanted to advance immediately to Dunkirk, only 18 kilometers away . Finally, Hitler, who wanted to spare the battered armored troops, made an operational decision and withdrew the OKH's power of disposal over the armored divisions and, in agreement with Rundstedt, had the attack on the La-Bassée-Canal stopped ( “stop order” ). After the events of Arras, Hitler wants the infantry to move in to ensure adequate flank protection.
- Army Group B, as the north wing of the German attack wedge, breaks through the Allied defensive position on the Scheldt near Ghent , Oudenaarde and Lille . However, Hitler's order to stop allows the encircled British Expeditionary Corps and the French 1st Army to retreat to the coast in Dunkirk . The troops are to be evacuated by sea via the only port still accessible to them . To cover the rescue operation, they set up a deeply staggered defense ring around the city.
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May 25: The 10th Panzer Division ( Gen. Ferdinand Schaal ) conquers Boulogne-sur-Mer and takes 5000 Allied soldiers prisoner.
- After Leopold III's refusal. to go into exile, the Belgian government under Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot fled to France.
- The Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force , General Field Marshal Hermann Göring, announces that the Allied units in Dunkirk will be eliminated from the air without the support of the Army.
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May 26th: After a four-day siege , the 10th Panzer Division occupies the port city of Calais. 20,000 Allied soldiers are taken prisoner of war.
- When Hitler realizes that the British troops are starting to evacuate in Dunkirk, he cancels his “hold order” of May 24 after 49 hours.
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May 26th - June 4th: Battle of Dunkirk . After Hitler's order to halt, the attack on the Allied defense ring begins. Operation Dynamo started during the fighting . The Royal Navy but also civilian ships and boats can embark a total of 338,226 soldiers (224,000 of them British) from Dunkirk and the surrounding beaches to Great Britain by June 4th. Extensive military equipment such as 65,000 transport vehicles, 20,000 motorcycles, 2,400 artillery pieces , 445 tanks and 147,000 tons of fuel have to be left behind. Large parts of the French armed forces evacuated to Dover are returning to their homeland after the stopover.
- During the aerial battles in the Dunkirk area, the German Air Force lost 132 aircraft of all types and the British RAF 106 fighter aircraft .
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May 27: In the massacre of Le Paradis , soldiers of SS Division Totenkopf murder 99 British prisoners of war.
- Soldiers of the 225th Infantry Division murder 86 civilians in the Belgian municipality of Vinkt ( Vinkt massacre ).
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May 28: After heavy attacks by the 6th Army, King Leopold III. the unconditional surrender of Belgium. The Belgian army (22 divisions) trapped in the Dunkirk pocket ceases fighting at 4 a.m., opening a 32-kilometer-wide breach on the left flank. This can be closed after fierce fighting by British units at Nieuwpoort .
- In view of the military situation, Foreign Ministers Lord Halifax and Neville Chamberlain plead in the British War Cabinet to start negotiations with the German Reich and to conclude a separate peace. Churchill, however, does not believe in acceptable conditions for Great Britain and wants to continue the war. After all, he can assert himself within the government.
- The French 4th Panzer Division under Charles de Gaulle forces the Wehrmacht to withdraw temporarily on the Aisne .
- During the Wormhout massacre , soldiers of the Leibstandarte SS , commanded by Sepp Dietrich , murdered 80 and 97 Allied prisoners of war, respectively.
- May 29th: The occupied Netherlands is placed under German civil administration ( Reichskommissariat Netherlands ). This is subordinate to Arthur Seyß-Inquart , Wehrmacht commander is General Friedrich Christiansen .
- May 31: After a four-day siege of the city of Lille , the remaining troops of the French 1st Army capitulate and 35,000 soldiers are taken prisoner by Germany (including General Gustave Mesny ). During the fighting, parts of the Allied troops were able to cross the Leie into the besieged Dunkirk.
- June 3: At least 700 Luftwaffe aircraft carried out heavy attacks on airfields and aircraft engine plants in the Paris area ( Operation Paula ). 200 people lose their lives.
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June 4th: The Wehrmacht enters Dunkirk and occupies the city. This resulted in around 80,000 French soldiers and taken prisoners of war.
- After Operation Dynamo and in anticipation of a German invasion of the British Isles , Prime Minister Churchill gave his We Shall Fight on the Beaches speech in front of the House of Commons
- French air raid on Munich . The city center and engine works in Allach are bombed.
Fall red
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June 5: The fall of Rot marks the beginning of the second phase of the western campaign. Accompanied by violent Stuka attacks, the Wehrmacht goes on the offensive again from 05:00 on the Somme and Aisne. Army Group B is to advance between Reims and the Channel coast in the direction of Paris, Army Group A from the Sedan area is to roll up the southern wing of the Allied front towards Switzerland .
- The German superiority of 119 divisions is now facing only 65 French and one British, who have to defend a front 540 kilometers in length. In order to repel the attack on the heartland, Weygand hastily built an improvised defensive position south of the Somme, Ailette and Aisne rivers, weakening Army Group 2 on the Maginot Line ( Weygand Line ). With this tactic he moves away from the previous linear combat and organizes a staggered defense in depth.
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June 6th: Hitler moves into the Wolfsschlucht Führer headquarters in Brûly-de-Pesche, Belgium .
- Charles de Gaulle will join the French government as Secretary of State for Defense and will be responsible for coordination with Great Britain. Paul Reynaud dismisses Édouard Daladier and takes over the external department himself .
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June 8th: Due to the situation in Western Europe, the Allies withdraw their forces from Scandinavia. Two days later Norway has to surrender ( see: Norway under German occupation ).
- First air raid on Berlin . A single Farman F.220 the French air force bombed an industrial district.
- 9/10 June: After heavy resistance, the French 6th Army (Gen. Robert-Auguste Touchon ) is thrown back by the Wehrmacht on the Aisne ( Battle of the Aisne ). The positions of the Weygand Line are broken in several positions. In the northern section of the front, German units cross the Seine at Rouen and advance towards Paris, while Army Group A is advancing in a south-easterly direction towards the Marne line.
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June 10: The French government leaves Paris and resides in Tours .
- Italy declares war on France and Great Britain . In the western Alps , the Army Group West ( 1st , 4th and 7th Army ) is brought together, which initially remains militarily inactive.
- 10-13 June: In Operation Cycle, 11,000 Allied soldiers (mainly British) are evacuated from Le Havre .
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June 12th: In order to avoid being completely enveloped, Weygand orders the retreat of the French army on the line Caen - Alençon - Loire - Dole - Swiss border.
- The French 10th Army (Gen. Robert Altmayer ) is pushed back from the Somme to Normandy , surrounded and smashed. The British 51st (Highland) Division assigned to it was taken prisoner of war near Saint-Valéry-en-Caux with 10,000 soldiers.
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June 13: During the last meeting of the Allied Supreme War Council in Tours, Churchill appeals to France's loyalty to the alliance and calls for stiff resistance. The French are supposed to retreat to the "fortress of Brittany " and appeal to the United States for help. Churchill rejects the relocation of the Royal Air Force to the continent, which is demanded in return, with reference to the necessity of his own national defense.
- In a briefing, Weygand explains that the army is no longer capable of military operations, and that a retreat to Brittany is impossible. He calls on the government to put an end to the destruction of the French army and to ask the German Reich to announce the terms of the armistice. As a result, two camps are formed within the French cabinet: Prime Minister Reynaud, Interior Minister Mandel and de Gaulle want to continue the resistance at all costs, if necessary from within the colonial empire . Other ministers around Marshal Pétain are calling for immediate negotiations on a ceasefire.
- After negotiations between the military governor Henri Fernand Dentz, who was only appointed on June 5, and parliamentarians of the Wehrmacht, the troops of the French 7th Army evacuate Paris. The capital is declared an open city .
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June 14th: The 18th Army marches into Paris, which seems deserted. At the Place de la Concorde , the General von Bock and Kuchler take a military parade of the 30th Infantry Division from.
- The units of the previously passive Army Group C (GenOb. Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb ) go on the offensive: The 7th Army (GenOb. Friedrich Dollmann ) crosses the Rhine near Breisach and takes action against Colmar , while the 1st Army (GenOb. Erwin von Witzleben ) crosses the border river in Wörth . It then went to the frontal attack on the Maginot Line, which was broken between Saint-Avold and Sarralbe .
- The French constitutional organs reach Bordeaux . Prime Minister Reynaud suggests that the army capitulate while the government withdraws to French North Africa and continues the resistance with British support.
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June 15: In a telegram to Prime Minister Reynaud, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that he had rejected the United States' entry into the war, which had been requested the day before.
- The 1st Army conquers Verdun .
- June 15-25: During Operation Ariel, approx. 174,000 Allied soldiers embarked for Great Britain from Cherbourg , Brest , Nantes , La Rochelle and Saint-Malo .
- June 16: Churchill makes the French government an offer to form a state union immediately . This is to give them the opportunity to move to North Africa and continue the resistance against the Axis powers . However, the majority of French ministers believe that Great Britain will face an imminent military defeat and that further fighting is hopeless, which is why the proposal is not approved. Since Prime Minister Reynaud receives little support in the cabinet, he is stepping down from office. In the evening, President Albert Lebrun charged 84-year-old Philippe Pétain with forming a new government.
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June 17: At 00:30, France's new Prime Minister Philippe Pétain asks the German Reich to announce the terms of the armistice. At noon, Pétain informs the population of this step in a radio address. As a result, parts of the French army believe that the fighting will stop immediately and that numerous regiments are disbanded or taken prisoner. It is now impossible for the French high command to build up a new unified defensive front.
- After the note from the French government arrived at the German headquarters, Colonel General Wilhelm Keitel ( head of the OKW ) describes Hitler as "the greatest general of all time."
- The newly established Guderian Panzer Group reached the Swiss border in a large operational movement near Pontarlier .
- After Rommel's 7th Panzer Division had advanced 150 miles, it was able to occupy Cherbourg the following day.
- Wilhelm II, sends a congratulatory telegram to Hitler “under the profound impression of France's extension of arms” .
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June 18: Charles de Gaulle calls on the French to continue resistance against the German Reich (appeal of June 18). His speech will be broadcast to France by the BBC .
- Churchill gave his This Was Their Finest Hour speech in front of the House of Commons
- Admiral François Darlan moves a large part of the French Navy from Brest to Mers-el-Kébir ( French North Africa ), the battleship Richelieu is sent to Dakar ( French West Africa ). The move is to prevent German access to the Navy and its possible use against Great Britain.
- After the French request for an armistice, Hitler meets with Mussolini in Munich to agree on the terms of the armistice.
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June 19: Hitler declares his readiness to announce the conditions for the initiation of armistice negotiations. A prerequisite is that the French government contacts Italy in the same way.
- At Belfort , parts of Army Group A advancing from the north unite with Army Group C advancing west. This encircles three French armies and parts of the Maginot Line (approx. 400,000 soldiers) in the "Trap of Lorraine" between Metz and Besançon . Lyon is occupied further south .
- Army Group B conquered Le Mans and Brest . German associations reach the lower reaches of the Loire .
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June 20: The Polish government in exile under General Władysław Sikorski moves from Bordeaux to London after the military collapse of France. Parts of the army in exile are evacuated from Bayonne to Great Britain (around 35,000 soldiers).
- In Chasselay , members of the Greater Germany Regiment and the SS Totenkopf Division murder 188 Tirailleurs sénégalais prisoners of war .
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June 21: The French armistice delegation under General Huntziger arrives in the clearing of Rethondes . Especially for this occasion, Hitler had Marshal Foch's railroad car , in which the armistice agreement of 1918 was signed, brought up. The German delegation under Colonel General Keitel dictates the text of the armistice conditions, which are not the subject of negotiations.
- Regardless of the French request for a ceasefire, Mussolini gave his armed forces the order to attack. The Italian 1st and 4th armies go on the offensive on the Ligurian coast , at the Col de Montgenèvre , the Little Saint Bernard and the Col du Mont Cenis . Against stiff resistance from the numerically inferior French Alpine Army (Gen. René Olry ), only minimal gains in land ( Battle of the Western Alps ) were achieved.
- An Italian air raid on the Old Port in Marseille kills 143 people.
- June 22nd: After Huntziger sent the ceasefire conditions to the government, the government asks for a mitigation, which the Germans refuse. At 6:30 p.m. the French delegation signs the Compiègne armistice . Wilhelm Keitel signed on the German side. The treaty divides the territory by a demarcation line into a northern and western part under German military administration ( “Zone Occupée” ) and an unoccupied southern part ( “Zone Libre” ), which covers around 40 percent of the country's area. The departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais are subordinate to the military administration in Belgium and northern France . The cost of the occupation (20 million Reichsmarks per day) has to be paid by the French state (see: German occupation of France in World War II ). To maintain internal order, France is allowed to maintain a 100,000-man army without heavy armament, and the 1.85 million prisoners of war are not to be repatriated until a final peace has been concluded. The navy will not be demobilized and the status of the French colonies will not be affected.
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June 23: In the early hours of the morning Hitler and his entourage (including Albert Speer , Arno Breker ) visited occupied Paris.
- The Italian 1st Army occupies Menton on the Côte d'Azur .
- June 24th: Marshal Pietro Badoglio and General Huntziger sign the Franco-Italian armistice in Rome . This creates demilitarized zones in the French mainland and Tunisia , but does not provide for any occupation outside the conquered areas.
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June 25: At 1:35 a.m., the ceasefire agreements come into force and the fighting ceases.
- Hitler proclaims a proclamation "at the end of the war in the West" and orders a ten-day flag for the Reich territory.
After the campaign
- June 28: De Gaulle founds the Forces françaises libres (Armed Forces for a Free France) in London and is recognized by the British government as the leader of the Free French .
- June 30th: In Wiesbaden , the German Armistice Commission begins its work under the leadership of General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel . The administrative body has the task of overseeing compliance with the ceasefire conditions imposed on France, particularly in military terms.
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July 1: The French government moves its seat from Bordeaux to the unoccupied zone in Vichy . The health resort, located near the demarcation line, has good road and rail connections and a modern telephone switchboard. The numerous hotels offer the ministries, authorities and embassies sufficient accommodation options.
- German troops occupy the British Channel Islands of Jersey , Guernsey and Alderney . Around 23,000 islanders (just under a quarter of the population) have been evacuated to the UK.
- July 3: In order to prevent extradition to the German Reich, the British government finally demands the surrender or demobilization of the French fleet that called at the naval port of Mers-el-Kébir . After the ultimatum expires, the Royal Navy Force H bombs this fleet ( Operation Catapult ), killing 1,297 French navy members. At the same time, all French warships in British ports are captured and confiscated ( Operation Grasp ). In response, Pétain breaks off diplomatic relations with Great Britain on July 5th.
- July 6th: Hitler returns to Berlin . The triumphant entry into the capital from the Anhalter Bahnhof to the New Reich Chancellery is cheered by the population.
- July 10: In the wake of the catastrophic military defeat ( "Le Dêbacle" ), the National Assembly, at Pierre Laval's instigation, authorizes Pétain with 569 to 80 votes to draw up a constitution for the État français that guarantees the rights of work, family and fatherland . That is the de facto end of the Third Republic and the beginning of the authoritarian État français ( Vichy regime ). This strives for a policy of collaboration with the German Reich ( see: Collaboration in France )
- JULY 19: On the occasion of the victory over France, Hitler appointed at the Berlin Kroll Opera nine army generals (Keitel, von Bock, von Brauchitsch, von Kluge, List, von Leeb, von Reichenau, von Rundstedt, von Witzleben) and three of the Air Force ( Milch, Kesselring, Sperrle) to field marshals . Hermann Göring receives the superior rank of Reichsmarschall .
- August 2: Per leader decree is Alsace-Lorraine subject to the German civil administration ( CdZ area Lorraine ).
literature
- Raymond Cartier : The Second World War, Volume 1. Lingen, Cologne 1967,
- Karl-Heinz Frieser : Blitzkrieg legend. The western campaign in 1940 (= operations of the Second World War. Volume 2). 3. Edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-56124-3 .
- Janusz Piekałkiewicz : The Second World War. Econ, 1985. ISBN 3-430-17479-1 .
- Gerhard Schreiber : The Second World War. Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-44764-3 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klaus Larres: Churchill's Cold War. The Politics of Personal Diplomacy. New Haven 2002, p. 31 f.
- ^ Raymond Cartier: The Second World War. Volume 1. Lingen Verlag, 1967, p. 66.
- ↑ The German Reich and the Second World War . Volume 2. Stuttgart 1979, p. 272.
- ^ Robin Holmes: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, 1939: The Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe's Baptism of Fire. Grub Street, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-906502-56-0 .
- ^ Raymond Cartier: The Second World War. Volume 1. Lingen Verlag, 1967, p. 66ff.
- ↑ John Keegan. The Times Atlas of the Second World War. London: The Times. pp. 16-17. | access-date = requires | url = (help)
- ^ Raymond Cartier: The Second World War. Volume 1. Lingen Verlag, 1967, p. 89.
- ↑ Medard Ritzenhofen: A spark - not a flame of resistance. De Gaulle's appeal of June 18, 1940 and its effects. Ingo Kolboom: Nation and Europe. Charles de Gaulle - as a symbol for a misunderstanding. Ernst Weisenfeld: Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. A magic formula - a vision - a policy. Pierre Maillard: Germany with France - an "unfinished dream". In: Documents / Documents. Journal for the Franco-German Dialogue (PDF; 15.63 MB).
- ↑ Peter Taghon: Vinkt, Meigem et Deinze. Quand les légends deviennent des vérités. In: Frances Balace (ed.), Jours de Guerre. Volume V. Brussels 1995, pp. 19-35.
- ↑ Joachim Scholtyseck : The Blitzkrieg against France - Return to the “normal” war? In: Manuel Becker (ed.): The military resistance against Hitler in the light of new controversies. Lit, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-8258-1768-8 , pp. 51-80, here p. 68; William T. Allbritton / Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr: SS-Oberstgruppenführer and Colonel General of the Waffen-SS Joseph (Sepp) Dietrich. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. 68 CVs. Primus, 2nd edition, Darmstadt 2011, ISBN 978-3-89678-727-9 , pp. 308-315, here p. 310.
- ↑ Le bombardement de Paris le 3 juin 1940 , Radio France International, January 16, 2010 (French)
- ↑ Werner Girbig: On the approach to the Reich capital. Documentation of the bombing raids on Berlin . Stuttgart 2001, pp. 19-21.
- ↑ According to Laurenz Demps ( air raids on Berlin , 2nd edition 2014, p. 237) there was no air raid
- ^ Karl-Heinz Frieser: Blitzkrieg legend. The West Campaign 1940. 3rd edition Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, p. 377, ISBN 3-486-57824-3 .
- ^ Karl-Heinz Frieser: Blitzkrieg legend. The western campaign in 1940 (= operations of the Second World War. Volume 2). 3. Edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-56124-3 .
- ↑ Götz Aly: Hitler's People's State. Robbery, Race War and National Socialism. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 170.