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Battle of France: Quick Facts

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The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
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Facts

Date May 10, 1940 - June 25, 1940
Location Limburg • Low Countries • Moselle River • Paris • Rhine River
Participants Belgium • France • Germany • Netherlands • United Kingdom
Context Maginot Line • Phony War • World War II

Photos and Videos

Nazi leaders in Paris
Map of France during 1940-44, showing the division under the June 1940 armistice. Northern and western France are shaded as the German occupation zone, while the southern portion is marked as Vichy France, designated as a free zone until November 1942. Additional areas highlight German-annexed regions in the northeast, Italian occupation zones along the southeastern border, and a coastal military zone along the Atlantic. Boundaries of Axis, Allied, and neutral countries are also indicated.
Gamelin, Maurice
Main entrance to the Schoenenbourg Fort on the Maginot Line, a concrete bunker set into a grassy embankment with trees in the background, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France.
German soldiers man artillery guns at a fortified position in Denmark during World War II. A Nazi flag flies from a pole, and a Danish flag is visible above a nearby building.
Winston Churchill
Map showing the German invasion of the Low Countries and France in 1940 during World War II. The map highlights the movement of German forces with red arrows advancing through the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and into northern France. Allied defensive lines and positions are marked in blue, with key cities, army groups, and the Dunkirk evacuation site indicated. The map also distinguishes between Axis, Allied, and neutral territories at the start of the conflict.
Map illustrating the Schlieffen Plan of 1905, showing the German army's planned invasion routes at the start of World War I. Thick red arrows indicate German advances sweeping through Belgium and Luxembourg into northern France, curving toward Paris, with key cities and rivers labeled across Belgium, France, Germany, and neighboring regions.
Manstein, Erich von
Aerial view of Rotterdam city center after bombing in 1940, with the large 15th-century St. Laurenskerk church standing amid surrounding ruins and debris.
How the halt command saved British troops in Dunkirk
Listen to Winston Churchill delivering his first speech as prime inister in 1940
Learn how Nazi panzers wedged between French and British troops and trapped the latter at Dunkirk
See All Videos, Images and Audio →

Related Topics and References

Topics
Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Timeline

Samuel Bak: Smoke
Holocaust
1933 - 1945
Learn how the Third Reich utilized U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic to destroy Allied supply convoys
Battle of the Atlantic
September 3, 1939 - May 8, 1945
Nazi leaders in Paris
Battle of France
May 10, 1940 - June 25, 1940
Dunkirk evacuation
Dunkirk evacuation
May 26, 1940 - June 4, 1940
Map showing the British and Axis military campaigns in North Africa during World War II, with labeled troop movements, key battles, and shifting front lines from Egypt across Libya to Tunisia along the Mediterranean coast. The map includes arrows and dates marking advances and retreats by both sides, and highlights major turning points and defensive lines.
North Africa campaigns
June 1940 - May 13, 1943
the Blitz
Battle of Britain
July 1940 - September 1940
German bombing of London during the Blitz
the Blitz
September 7, 1940 - May 11, 1941
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
June 22, 1941
Pearl Harbor attack
Pearl Harbor attack
December 7, 1941
Wake Island
Battle of Wake Island
December 8, 1941 - December 23, 1941
U.S. troops advancing on Tarawa, Gilbert Islands, in 1943
Pacific War
December 8, 1941 - September 2, 1945
Bataan Death March
Bataan Death March
April 9, 1942
Doolittle Raid
Doolittle Raid
April 18, 1942
Battle of Midway
Battle of Midway
June 3, 1942 - June 6, 1942
eastern New Guinea, from the 10th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, c. 1902
Kokoda Track Campaign
July 1942 - January 1943
U.S. Marines in combat gear wade ashore from a landing craft onto a sandy beach during the Guadalcanal landing in August 1942.
Battle of Guadalcanal
August 1942 - February 1943
Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
August 22, 1942 - February 2, 1943
Operation Mincemeat documents
Operation Mincemeat
1943
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
April 19, 1943 - May 16, 1943
The Allied invasion of Sicily
Allied invasion of Sicily
July 9, 1943 - August 17, 1943
Italian Campaign, World War II
Italian Campaign
July 9, 1943 - May 2, 1945
Battle of Anzio
Battle of Anzio
January 22, 1944 - June 5, 1944
American soldiers in helmets crouch inside a landing craft approaching a smoke-covered beach during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944.
Normandy Invasion
June 6, 1944 - July 9, 1944
Cowra, New South Wales, Australia
Cowra breakout
August 5, 1944
Battle of Leyte Gulf
Battle of Leyte Gulf
October 23, 1944 - October 26, 1944
Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
December 16, 1944 - January 16, 1945
Battle of Iwo Jima
Battle of Iwo Jima
February 19, 1945 - March 26, 1945
U.S. Marines on Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa
April 1, 1945 - June 21, 1945
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 6, 1945 - August 9, 1945

Key People

Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
president of France
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
German field marshal
Kesselring
Albert Kesselring
German field marshal
Gerd von Rundstedt in German military uniform and cap, shown in a black-and-white portrait.
Gerd von Rundstedt
German field marshal
Heinz Guderian
Heinz Guderian
German general
Manstein, Erich von
Erich von Manstein
German general
default image
Maxime Weygand
French general
Bock, Fedor von
Fedor von Bock
German military officer
Kleist, Paul Ludwig von
Paul Ludwig von Kleist
German general
Gamelin, Maurice
Maurice Gamelin
French army commander
Reichenau, Walther von
Walther von Reichenau
German general
Brauchitsch, Walther von
Walther von Brauchitsch
German military officer
default image
Henri Gerard Winkelman
Dutch military officer

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