Written by Background
By the spring of 1940, Europe was already deeply entangled in the escalating conflict of World War II. After the rapid and shocking conquest of Poland in September 1939, Nazi Germany turned its eyes westward. Although Britain and France had declared war on Germany following the invasion of Poland, little action took place on the Western Front in what came to be known as the “Phoney War.” However, Adolf Hitler and his military command were planning something far more devastating and swift than the trench warfare of World War I.
Germany’s strategy relied on a new form of warfare known as Blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,” which emphasized speed, coordination, and surprise. The French military, expecting a repeat of World War I’s static trench combat, had heavily fortified its eastern border with the Maginot Line—a chain of defenses that would ultimately be bypassed.
What Happened
On May 10, 1940, Germany launched a large-scale invasion of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The assault began with Luftwaffe bombing raids and rapid armored advances through the Ardennes Forest—a region the French had considered impenetrable to tanks. This brilliant strategic maneuver took the Allies completely by surprise. Within days, German panzers had outflanked the Maginot Line and cut through northern France.
By mid-May, German forces had reached the English Channel, trapping thousands of Allied troops in northern France and Belgium. The infamous Dunkirk evacuation (Operation Dynamo) followed, as hundreds of civilian boats helped evacuate over 330,000 British and French soldiers to safety between May 26 and June 4. However, Paris fell to the Germans on June 14, and the French government officially surrendered on June 22, 1940. France was subsequently divided into a German-occupied north and the Vichy-controlled south, which collaborated with the Nazi regime.
Impact for the Future
Germany’s rapid conquest of France had a cascading impact on the rest of World War II. It shocked the world, especially Britain, which now stood virtually alone in Western Europe against Hitler’s regime. The fall of France marked the beginning of a long and brutal German occupation, during which resistance movements and underground networks grew across the country.
Militarily, the invasion demonstrated the terrifying effectiveness of Blitzkrieg tactics, prompting major shifts in how modern wars would be fought. Strategically, the occupation of France gave Germany access to valuable resources and a strategic launchpad for future campaigns, including the planned invasion of Britain (Operation Sea Lion, which never materialized).
In the longer view of history, the occupation galvanized French nationalism, and post-war reconstruction efforts led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community—an early step toward European unification and eventually the European Union. The trauma of invasion and occupation also reshaped global alliances, solidifying the need for stronger collective security efforts like NATO.