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France in WWII
The military history of France during World War II covers the period from 1939 until 1940, which witnessed French military participation under the Third Republic , and the period from 1940 until 1945, which was marked by colonial struggles between Vichy France and the Free French Forces under the command of Charles de Gaulle , fighting in Europe, the eventual Liberation of France by Allied Free French forces and French Forces of the Interior, and French participation in the final phases of the war against Nazi Germany .
France, along with the United Kingdom, was one of the first participants in World War II after declaring war on Germany following its invasion of Poland in 1939. After the Phony War from 1939 to 1940, the Germans conducted a brilliant campaign in the Low Countries and, in the Battle of France , managed to inflict a brutal defeat on the forces of the Third Republic. France formally surrendered to Germany on June 25, 1940, and a collaborationist government, led by Philippe Pétain and centered in Vichy , France, was established. On June 18, 1940, Charles de Gaulle gave a memorable speech to the French people over BBC Radio, telling them that "France has lost the battle, but France has not lost the war." De Gaulle did not recognize the legitimacy of the Vichy government and went on to found the Free French as the true government of France. The number of Free French troops grew with Allied success in North Africa , Italy, and the invasions of France in 1944. On October 23, 1944, Britain , the United States, and the Soviet Union officially recognized de Gaulle's regime as the provisional government of France. Recruitment in liberated France led to notable enlargements of the French armies. By the end of the war in May 1945, France had 1,250,000 troops, 10 divisions of which were fighting in Germany.
 
Main article: Causes of World War II
Following the First World War , dissatisfaction over the Treaty of Versailles led to many political confrontations and some military involvement by the victorious Allies . Economic woes and disillusionment after the war resulted in the establishment of fascist, imperialistic regimes under Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany.
Tensions over the Treaty of Versailles
Main article: Treaty of Versailles
The peace treaty at Versailles did not satisfy many of those involved. The Allies imposed a huge indemnity on Germany and, more controversially, required that Germany accept blame for the war, a clause which outraged many Germans. German military capabilities were also severely restricted. France wanted to punish Germany for four years of horrible fighting, but, while she retrieved Alsace-Lorraine and earned promises of a demilitarized region west of the Rhine , she was not allowed to keep her troops in Germany. Versailles had weakened Germany only enough to make her angry, but not enough to fully incapacitate her and stop future retaliation.
The Ruhr invasion
Main article: Occupation of the Ruhr
In 1923 and 1924, French and Belgian troops invaded the industrialized Ruhr region of Germany as a response of the failure of the Weimar Republic under Wilhelm Cuno to pay reparations in the aftermath of World War I . Initiated by French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré , the invasion took place on January 11, 1923, with the aim of occupying the centre of German coal , iron and steel production in the Ruhr valley. Internationally, the occupation did much to boost sympathy for Germany. The French, with their own economic problems, eventually accepted the Dawes Plan and withdrew from the occupied areas in July and August 1925.
The rise of Hitler and Mussolini
In 1922, Mussolini assumed power in Italy. His fascist regime hoped to aggrandize Italian prestige abroad by colonial conquests and military force. In 1935, Italy invaded and occupied Ethiopia after seven months. Just prior to the outbreak of World War II, Italian forces invaded Albania on April 7, 1939.
Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and Führer following Hindenburg 's death in 1934. Hitler wanted to reverse the decision of World War I and the plight of the German people following the Treaty of Versailles. He broke several Versailles agreements, including the demilitarization of the Ruhr and the limited size of German armed forces, and tried to expand German Lebensraum through various political machinations. In 1938, Germany and Austria were united in the Anschluss . Following the growing German pressure against Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland issue and despite the Franco-Czech military alliance, France, Britain, Germany, and Italy held the Munich Conference later in the year, forcing Czechoslovakia to surrender and hand over this vital part of its territory, making it virtually defenceless. Germany ignored the agreements when it invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Thinking France and Britain would not come to Polish aid, Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Two days later, France declared war.
The Polish campaign and the Phony War
The invasion of Poland was a resounding success for German and Soviet forces, the latter entering Poland on September 17. The Germans routed the Polish army and occupied much of Western Poland. France declared war to honor her military obligations to Poland, but the Saar Offensive , failed in its aim of relieving the pressure on Poland, and French forces withdrew. The resulting Phony War, in which there were no major conflicts in Continental Europe, was broken by the German invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940.
Battle of France
 
The German plan was radically altered, catching the Allied army off guard.
Neither the French nor the British anticipated such a rapid defeat in Poland, and the quick German victory, relying on a new form of mobile warfare , disturbed some generals in London and Paris. However, the Allies still expected they would be able to contain the enemy, anticipating a war reasonably like the First World War , so they believed that even without an Eastern Front the Germans could be defeated by blockade , as in the previous conflict. This feeling was more widely shared in London than in Paris, which had suffered more severely during the First World War in blood and material devastation. The French leadership, in particular Edouard Daladier , Prime Minister of France since 1938, also respected the large gap between France's human and economic resources as compared to those of Germany.
The Supreme Commander of France's army, Maurice Gamelin , like the rest of the French government, was expecting a campaign from the Germans that in the strategic sense would mirror the First World War. The Von Schlieffen Plan , Gamelin believed, was to be repeated with a reasonably close degree of accuracy, and even though important parts of the French army in the 1930s had been designed to wage offensive warfare, it would be preferable to confront such a threat defensively, as the French military staff believed its country was not equipped militarily or economically to launch a decisive offensive initially. It would be better to wait until 1941 to fully exploit the combined allied economic superiority over Germany. To confront the expected German plan - which rested on a move into the Low Countries outflanking the fortified Maginot Line - Gamelin intended to send the best units of the French army along with the British Expeditionary Force north to halt the Germans in the area of the river Dyle east of Brussels until a decisive victory could be achieved with the support of the united British, Belgian, French and Dutch armies. The original German plan closely resembled Gamelin's expectations.
The crash in Belgium of a light plane carrying two German officers with a copy of the then-current invasion plan forced Hitler to scrap the plan and search for an original alternative. The final plan for Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) had been suggested by General Erich von Manstein , then serving as Chief of Staff to Gerd von Rundstedt , but had been initially rejected by the German General Staff. It proposed a deep penetration further south of the original route, which took advantage of the speed of the unified Panzer divisions to separate and encircle the opposing forces. It had the virtue of being unlikely (from a defensive point of view) as the Ardennes were heavily wooded and implausible as a route for a mechanized invasion. It had the considerable virtue of not having been intercepted by the Allies (for no copies were being carried about) and of being dramatic, which seems to have appealed to Hitler.
Manstein's aggressive plan was to break through the weak Allied center with overwhelming force, trap the forces to the north in a pocket, and drive on to Paris. The plan benefitted from an Allied response close to how they would have responded in the original case; namely, that a large part of French and British strength was drawn north to defend Belgium and Picardy . To help ensure this result, the German Army Group B was still expected to attack Belgium and the Netherlands in order to draw Allied forces eastward into the developing encirclement, as well as obtaining bases for a later attack on Britain.
The Allied general staff and key statesmen, after capturing the original invasion plans, were initially jubilant that they had potentially won a key victory in the war before the campaign was even fought. Contrarily, General Gamelin and Lord Gort , the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, were shaken into realizing that whatever the Germans came up with instead would not be what they had initially expected. More and more Gamelin became convinced that the Germans would try to attempt a breakthrough by concentrating their mechanized forces. They could hardly hope to break the Maginot Line on his right flank or to overcome the allied concentration of forces on the left flank. That only left the centre. But most of the centre was covered by the river Meuse . Tanks were useless in defeating fortified river positions. However at Namur the river made a sharp turn to the east, creating a gap between itself and the river Dyle. This Gembloux Gap, ideal for mechanized warfare, was a very dangerous weak spot. Gamelin decided to concentrate half of his armoured reserves there. Of course the Germans might try to overcome the Meuse position by using infantry . But that could only be achieved by massive artillery support, the build-up of which would give Gamelin ample warning.
Campaign in the Low Countries and northern France
Germany launched its offensive, Fall Gelb, on the night prior to and principally on the morning of 10 May. During the night German forces occupied Luxembourg, and in the morning German Army Group B (Bock) launched a feint offensive into the Netherlands and Belgium.[1] German Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) from the 7th Flieger and 22nd Air Landing divisions under Kurt Student executed surprise landings at The Hague, on the road to Rotterdam and against the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael on its opening day with the goal of facilitating AG B's advance.
The Allied command reacted immediately, sending forces north to combat a plan that, for all the Allies could expect, resembled the earlier Schlieffen plan. This move north committed their best forces, diminished their fighting power through loss of readiness and their mobility through loss of fuel. That evening French troops crossed the Dutch border.
The French and British air command was less effective than their generals had anticipated, and the Luftwaffe quickly obtained air superiority, depriving the Allies of key reconnaissance abilities and disrupting Allied communication and coordination.
While the German invaders secured all the strategically vital bridges in and toward Rotterdam, which penetrated "Fortress Holland" and bypassed the Water Line, an attempt to seize the Dutch seat of government, The Hague, ended in complete failure. The airfields surrounding the city (Ypenburg, Ockenburg, and Valkenburg) were taken with heavy casualties on 10 May, only to be lost on the very same day to furious counterattacks launched by the two Dutch reserve infantry divisions. The Dutch would capture or kill 1,745 Fallschirmjäger, transporting 1200 prisoners to England.
The French marched north to establish a connection with the Dutch army, which came under attack from German paratroopers, but simply not understanding German intentions they failed to block German armored reinforcements of the 9th Panzer Division from reaching Rotterdam on May 13. The Dutch, their poorly equipped army largely intact, surrendered on 14 May after the Germans bombed Rotterdam. However the Dutch troops in Zeeland and the colonies continued the fight while Queen Wilhelmina established a government-in-exile in Britain.
The centre of the Belgian defensive line, Fort Eben-Emael, had been seized by German paratroopers using gliders on May 10, allowing their forces to cross the bridges over the Albert Canal, although the arrival of the British Expeditionary Force managed to save the Belgians for a time. Gamelin's plan in the north was achieved when the British army reached the Dyle; then the expected major tank battle took place in the Gembloux Gap between the French 2nd DLM and 3rd DLMs (Division Légère Mécanique, "Mechanized Light Division") and the German 3rd and 4th Panzer divisions of Erich Hoepner's XVI Panzer Corps,, costing both sides about 100 vehicles; the German offensive in Belgium seemed stalled for a moment. But this was a feint.
German breakthrough
The German Blitzkrieg offensive of mid-May, 1940.
In the center German Army Group A smashed through the Belgian infantry regiments and French Light Divisions of the Cavalry (Divisions Légères de Cavalerie) advancing into the Ardennes, and arrived at the Meuse River near Sedan the night of May 12/13. On May 13 the Germans forced three crossing near Sedan. Instead of slowly massing artillery as the French expected, the Germans replaced the need for traditional artillery by using the full might of their bomber force to punch a hole in a narrow sector of the French lines by carpet bombing (punctuated by dive bombing ). Sedan was held by the 55th French Infantry Division (55e DI), a grade “B” reserve division. The forward elements of the 55e DI held their positions through most of the 13th, initially repulsing three of the six German crossing attempts; however, the German air attacks had disrupted the French supporting artillery batteries and created an impression among the troops of the 55e DI that they were isolated and abandoned. The combination of the psychological impact of the bombing, the generally slowly expanding German lodgments, deep penetrations by some small German infantry units and the lack of air or artillery support eventually broke down the 55e DI’s resistance and much of the unit went into rout by the evening of May 13/14. The German aerial attack of May 13, with 1215 bomber sorties, the heaviest air bombardment the world had yet witnessed, is considered to have been very effective and key to the successful German river crossing. It was the most effective use of tactical air power yet demonstrated in warfare. The disorder begun at Sedan was spread down the French line by groups of haggard and retreating soldiers. During the night some units in the last prepared defence line at Bulson panicked by the false rumour German tanks were already behind their positions. On May 14 two French tank battalions and supporting infantry from the 71st North African Infantry Division (71e NADI) counter-attacked the German bridgehead without success. The attack was partially repulsed by the first German armor and anti-tank units which had been rushed across the river as quickly as possible at 7:20 A.M. on pontoon bridges. On May 14 every available Allied light bomber was employed in an attempt to destroy the German pontoon bridges; but, despite incurring the highest single day action losses in the entire history of the British and French air forces, failed to destroy these targets [1] . Despite the failure of numerous quickly planned counterattacks to collapse the German bridgehead, the French Army was successful in re-establishing a continuous defensive position further south; on the west flank of the bridgehead, however, French resistance began to crumble.
The commander of the French Second Army, General Huntzinger, immediately took effective measures to prevent a further weakening of his position. An armoured division (3rd Division Cuirassée de Réserve) and a motorized division blocked further German advances around his flank. However the commander of XIX Panzer Corps, Heinz Guderian , wasn't interested in Huntzinger's flank. Leaving for the moment 10th Panzer Division at the bridgehead to protect it from attacks by 3rd DCR, he moved his 1st and 2nd Panzer divisions sharply to the west on the 15th, undercutting the flank of the French Ninth Army by 40 km and forcing the 102nd Fortress Division to leave its positions that had blocked XVI Panzer Corps at Monthermé. While the French Second Army had been seriously mauled and had rendered itself impotent, now Ninth Army began to disintegrate completely, for in Belgium also its divisions, not having had the time to fortify, had been pushed back from the river by the unrelenting pressure of German infantry, allowing the impetuous Erwin Rommel to break free with his 7th Panzer Division . A French armoured division (1st DCR) was sent to block him but advancing unexpectedly fast he surprised it while refueling on the 15th and dispersed it, despite some losses caused by the heavy French tanks.
On the 16th both Guderian and Rommel disobeyed their explicit direct orders to halt in an act of open insubordination against their superiors and moved their divisions many kilometers to the west, as fast as they could push them. Guderian reached Marle , 80 kilometers from Sedan, Rommel crossed the river Sambre at Le Cateau, a hundred kilometers from his bridgehead, Dinant . While nobody knew the whereabouts of Rommel (he had advanced so quickly that he was out of range for radio contact, earning his 7th Panzer Division the nickname Gespenster-Division, "Ghost Division"), an enraged von Kleist flew to Guderian on the morning of the 17th and after a heated argument relieved him of all duties. However, von Rundstedt would have none of it and refused to confirm the order.
Allied reaction
The Panzer Corps now slowed their advance considerably but had put themselves in a very vulnerable position. They were stretched out, exhausted and low on fuel; many tanks had broken down. There now was a dangerous gap between them and the infantry. A determined attack by a fresh large mechanized force could have cut them off and wiped them out.
The French high command, however, was reeling from the shock of the sudden offensive and was stung by a sense of defeatism. On the morning of May 15, French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud telephoned newly minted Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and said "We have been defeated. We are beaten; we have lost the battle." Churchill, attempting to console Reynaud reminded the Prime Minister of the times the Germans had broken through allied lines in World War I only to be stopped. However, Reynaud was inconsolable.
Churchill flew to Paris on May 16. He immediately recognized the gravity of the situation when he observed that the French government was already burning its archives and preparing for an evacuation of the capital. In a somber meeting with the French commanders, Churchill asked General Gamelin, "Where is the strategic reserve?" which had saved Paris in the First World War . "There is none," Gamelin replied. Later, Churchill described hearing this as the single most shocking moment in his life. Churchill asked Gamelin when and where the general proposed to launch a counterattack against the flanks of the German bulge. Gamelin simply replied "inferiority of numbers, inferiority of equipment, inferiority of methods".
Gamelin was right; most reserve divisions had by now been committed. The only armoured division still in reserve, 2nd DCR, attacked on the 16th. However the French armoured divisions of the Infantry, the Divisions Cuirassées de Réserve, were despite their name very specialized breakthrough units, optimized for attacking fortified positions. They could be quite useful for defense, if dug in, but had very limited utility for an encounter fight: they could not execute combined infantry-tank tactics as they simply had no important motorized infantry component; they had poor tactical mobility as the heavy Char B1 bis , their main tank in which half of the French tank budget had been invested, had to refuel twice a day. So 2nd DCR divided itself in a covering screen, the small subunits of which fought bravely - but without having any strategic effect.
Of course, some of the best units in the north had yet seen little fighting. Had they been kept in reserve they could have been used for a decisive counter strike. But now they had lost much fighting power simply by moving to the north; hurrying south again would cost them even more. The most powerful allied division, the 1st DLM (Division Légère Mécanique, "light" in this case meaning "mobile"), deployed near Dunkirk on the 10th, had moved its forward units 220 kilometers to the northeast, beyond the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch , in 32 hours. Finding that the Dutch had already retreated to the north, it had withdrawn and was now moving to the south. When it would reach the Germans again, of its original 80 SOMUA S 35 tanks only three would be operational, mostly as a result of break down.
Nevertheless, a radical decision to retreat to the south, avoiding contact, could probably have saved most of the mechanized and motorized divisions, including the BEF. However, that would have meant leaving about thirty infantry divisions to their fate. The loss of Belgium alone would be an enormous political blow. Besides, the Allies were uncertain about German intentions. They threatened in four directions: to the north, to attack the allied main force directly; to the west, to cut it off; to the south, to occupy Paris and even to the east, to move behind the Maginot Line. The French decided to create a new reserve, among which a reconstituted 7th Army, under General Touchon, using every unit they could safely pull out of the Maginot Line to block the way to Paris.
Colonel Charles de Gaulle, in command of France's hastily formed 4th Armored Division, attempted to launch an attack from the south and achieved a measure of success that would later accord him considerable fame and a promotion to Brigadier General. However, de Gaulle's attacks on the 17th and 19th did not significantly alter the overall situation.
Channel attacks, Dunkirk, and the Weygand Plan
While the Allies did little either to threaten them or escape from the danger they posed, the Panzer Corps used the 17th and 18th to refuel, eat, sleep and get some more tanks in working order. On the 18th Rommel made the French give up Cambrai by merely feinting an armoured attack.
On the 19th German High Command grew very confident. The Allies seemed incapable of coping with events. There appeared to be no serious threat from the south - indeed General Franz Halder , Chief of Army General Staff , toyed with the idea of attacking Paris immediately to knock France out of the war in one blow. The Allied troops in the North were retreating to the river Scheldt , their right flank giving way to the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions. It would be foolish to remain inactive any longer, allowing them to reorganize their defense or escape. Now it was time to bring them into even more serious trouble by cutting them off. The next day the Panzer Corps started moving again, smashed through the weak British 18th and 23rd Territorial Divisions, occupied Amiens and secured the westernmost bridge over the river Somme at Abbeville isolating the British, French, Dutch, and Belgian forces in the north. In the evening of the 20th a reconnaissance unit from 2nd Panzer Division reached Noyelles , a hundred kilometers to the west. There they could see the estuary of the Somme flowing into The Channel .
On May 20 also, French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud dismissed Maurice Gamelin for his failure to contain the German offensive, and replaced him with Maxime Weygand , who immediately attempted to devise new tactics to contain the Germans. More pressing however was his strategic task: he formed the Weygand Plan, ordering to pinch off the German armoured spearhead by combined attacks from the north and the south. On the map this seemed a feasible mission: the corridor through which von Kleist's two Panzer Corps had moved to the coast was a mere 40 kilometers wide. On paper Weygand had sufficient forces to execute it: in the north the three DLM and the BEF, in the south de Gaulle's 4th DCR. These units had an organic strength of about 1200 tanks and the Panzer divisions were very vulnerable again, the mechanical condition of their tanks rapidly deteriorating. But the condition of the Allied divisions was far worse. Both in the south and the north they could in reality muster but a handful of tanks. Nevertheless Weygand flew to Ypres on the 21st trying to convince the Belgians and the BEF of the soundness of his plan.
That same day, May 21, a detachment of the British Expeditionary Force under Major-General Harold Edward Franklyn had already attempted to at least delay the German offensive and, perhaps, to cut the leading edge of the German army off. The resulting Battle of Arras demonstrated the ability of the heavily armoured British Matilda tanks (the German 37 mm anti-tank guns proved ineffective against them) and the limited raid overran two German regiments. The panic that resulted (the German commander at Arras, Erwin Rommel , reported being attacked by 'hundreds' of tanks, though there were only 58 at the battle) temporarily delayed the German offensive. German reinforcements pressed the British back to Vimy Ridge the following day.
Although this attack wasn't part of any coordinated attempt to destroy the Panzer Corps, the German High Command panicked a lot more than Rommel. For a moment they feared to have been ambushed, that a thousand Allied tanks were about to smash their elite forces. But the next day they had regained confidence and ordered Guderian's XIX Panzer Corps to press north and push on to the Channel ports of Boulogne and Calais , in the back of the British and Allied forces to the north.
That same day, the 22nd, the French tried to attack south to the east of Arras, with some infantry and tanks, but by now the German infantry had begun to catch up and the attack was, with some difficulty, stopped by the 32nd Infantry Division .
Only on the 24th the first attack from the south could be launched when 7th DIC, supported by a handful of tanks, failed to retake Amiens. This was a rather weak effort; however on May 27 the British 1st Armoured Division, hastily brought over from England, attacked Abbeville in force but was beaten back with crippling losses. The next day de Gaulle tried again with the same result. But by now even complete success couldn't have saved the forces in the north.
In the early hours of the 23rd Gort ordered a retreat from Arras. He had no faith in the Weygand plan nor in the proposal of the latter to at least try to hold a pocket on the Flemish coast, a Réduit de Flandres. The ports needed to supply such a foothold were already threatened. That day the 2nd Panzer Division assaulted Boulogne and 10th Panzer assaulted Calais. The British garrison in Boulogne surrendered on the 25th, although 4,368 troops were evacuated. Calais, though strengthened by the arrival of 3rd Royal Tank Regiment equipped with cruiser tanks and 30th Motor Brigade, fell to the Germans on the 27th.
While the 1st Panzer Division was ready to attack Dunkirk on the 25th, Hitler ordered it to halt on the 24th. This remains one of the most controversial decisions of the entire war. Hermann Göring had convinced Hitler the Luftwaffe could prevent an evacuation; von Rundstedt had warned him that any further effort by the armoured divisions would lead to a much prolonged refitting period. Attacking cities wasn't part of the normal task for armoured units under any operational doctrine.
Encircled, the British, Belgian and French launched Operation Dynamo and Operation Ariel , evacuating Allied forces from the northern pocket in Belgium and Pas-de-Calais , beginning on May 26. (see Battle of Dunkirk ) The Allied position was complicated by King Léopold III of Belgium 's surrender the following day, which was postponed till the 28th.
Confusion still reigned however, as after the evacuation at Dunkirk and while Paris was enduring its short-lived siege, the First Canadian Division and a Scottish division were sent to Normandy (Brest) and penetrated 200 miles inland toward Paris before they heard that Paris had fallen and France had capitulated. They retreated and re-embarked for England.
At the same time as the Canadian 1st division landed in Brest, the Canadian 242 Squadron of the RAF flew their Hawker Hurricanes to Nantes (100 miles south-east) and set up there to provide air cover.
France defeated
The German offensive in June sealed the defeat of the French.
The best and most modern French armies had been sent north and lost in the resulting encirclement; the French had lost their best heavy weaponry and their best armored formations. Weygand was faced with a haemorrhage in the front stretching from Sedan to the Channel, and the French government had begun to lose heart that the Germans could still be defeated, particularly as the British were evacuating the Continent, a particularly symbolic event for French morale, intensified by the German progaganda slogan "The British will fight to the last Frenchman".
The Germans renewed their offensive on June 5 on the Somme. A panzer-led attack on Paris broke the scarce reserves that Weygand had put between the Germans and the capital, and on June 10 the French government fled to Bordeaux , declaring Paris an open city . Churchill returned to France on June 11, meeting the French War Council in Briare . The French, clearly in a panic, wanted Churchill to give every available fighter to the air battle over France; with only 25 squadrons remaining, Churchill refused, believing that the decisive battle would be fought over Britain (see Battle of Britain ). Churchill, at the meeting, obtained promises from French admiral François Darlan that the fleet would not fall into German hands.
On June 10, Italy declared war on France and Britain. On June 21, Italian troops crossed the border in three places. Roughly thirty-two Italian divisions faced just four French divisions. The Italians suffered casualties of about 5,000 to French losses of only 8 men.
Fighting continued in the east until General Pretelat , commanding the French Second Army group, was forced to surrender on June 22.
A Frenchman weeps as German soldiers march into the French capital, Paris, on June 14, 1940. (This famous photograph is also said to have been taken as French troops were evacuating through Toulon.)
Aftermath
France formally surrendered to the German armed forces on June 22 in the same railroad car at Compiègne that Germany in 1918 had been forced to surrender in. This railway car was lost in allied air raids on the German capital of Berlin later in the war. Paul Reynaud , France's Prime Minister, resigned because he believed a majority of his government favored an armistice. He was succeeded by Maréchal Philippe Pétain , who announced to the French people via radio his intention to stop fighting.
[ edit ] The formation of Vichy France
Metropolitan France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north and west and an unoccupied zone in the south. Pétain set up a collaborationist government in the spa town of Vichy and the regime came to be known as Vichy France .
The formation of Free France
Charles de Gaulle, who had been made an Undersecretary of National Defense by Paul Reynaud , was in London at the time of the surrender: having made his Appeal of 18 June , he refused to recognize the Vichy government as legitimate - the President of France function was vacant - and began the task of organizing the Free French forces. A number of French colonies like French Equatorial Africa joined de Gaulle's fight, while others like French Indochina were soon attacked by the Japanese or remained loyal to the Vichy government. Italy occupied a small area, essentially the Alpes-Maritimes , and Corsica .
Vichy French and Free French Forces
Main articles: Vichy France and Free French Forces
The British began to doubt Admiral Darlan's promise to Churchill to not allow the French fleet at Toulon to fall into German hands by the wording of the armistice conditions. In the end, the British attacked French naval forces in Africa and Europe . This action led to feelings of animosity and mistrust between the Vichy French and their former British allies.
Prelude
General Charles de Gaulle was a member of the French cabinet during the Battle of France , in 1940. As French defence forces were increasingly overwhelmed, De Gaulle found himself part of a group of politicians who argued against a negotiated surrender to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy . These views being shared by the President of the Council, Paul Reynaud , De Gaulle was sent as an emissary to the United Kingdom, where he was when the French government collapsed.
On the June 16, the new French President of the Council, Philippe Pétain , began negotiations with Axis officials. On the June 18, De Gaulle spoke to the French people via BBC radio. He asked French soldiers, sailors and airmen to join in the fight against the Nazis . In France, De Gaulle's " Appeal of June the 18th " (Appel du 18 juin) was not widely heard, but subsequent discourse by De Gaulle could be heard nationwide. Some of the British Cabinet had attempted to block the speech, but were over-ruled by Winston Churchill . To this day, the Appeal of June 18 remains one of the most famous speeches in French history. Nevertheless, on the June 22, Pétain signed the surrender and became leader of the puppet regime known as Vichy France . ( Vichy is the French town where the government was based.)
De Gaulle was tried in absentia in Vichy France and sentenced to death for treason; he, on the other hand, regarded himself as the last remaining member of the legitimate Reynaud government able to exercise power, seeing the rise to power of Pétain as an unconstitutional coup.
Cross of Lorraine
The French flag with the Cross of Lorraine , emblem of the Free French
The capitaine de corvette Thierry d'Argenlieu suggested the adoption of the Cross of Lorraine as symbol of the Free French, both to recall the perseverance of Joan of Arc , whose symbol it had been, and as an answer to the nazi cross .
In his general order number 2 of July 3, 1940, Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier , chief of the naval and air forces of the Free French, created the bow flag displaying the French colours with a red cross of Lorraine, and a cocarde also featuring the cross of Lorraine.
Despite repeated broadcasts, by the end of July that year, only 7,000 people had volunteered to join the Free French forces. The Free French Navy had fifty ships and some 3,700 men operating as an auxiliary force to the British Royal Navy .
A monument on Lyle Hill in Greenock , in the shape of the Cross of Lorraine combined with an anchor, was raised by subscription as a memorial to the Free French naval vessels which sailed from the Firth of Clyde to take part in the Battle of the Atlantic , and is also locally associated with the memory of the loss of the Maillé Brézé which blew up at the Tail of the Bank .
Mers El Kébir and the war in Africa
In German and Italian hands, the French fleet would have been a grave threat to Britain and the British Government was unable to take this risk. In order to neutralise the threat, Winston Churchill ordered that the French ships should rejoin the Allies, agree to be put out of use in a British, French or neutral port or, as a last resort, be destroyed by British attack ( Operation Catapult ). The Royal Navy attempted to persuade the French Navy to agree to these terms, but when that failed they attacked the French Navy at Mers El Kébir and Dakar (see [1] ), on July 3, 1940. This caused bitterness and division in France, particularly in the Navy, and discouraged many French soldiers from joining the Free French forces in Britain and elsewhere. Also, the attempt to persuade Vichy French forces in Dakar to join De Gaulle failed. (See West African campaign and Operation Menace ).
In the autumn of 1940, the French colonies of Cameroon and French Equatorial Africa joined the Free French side. French colonies in New Caledonia , French Polynesia , Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and the New Hebrides joined later. French Indochina and the colonies of Guadeloupe and Martinique in the West Indies remained under Vichy government control.
Battle of Dakar
The Battle of Dakar , also known as Operation Menace, was an unsuccessful attempt by the Allies to capture the strategic port of Dakar in French West Africa (modern-day Senegal ), which was under Vichy French control, and to install the Free French under General Charles de Gaulle there.
De Gaulle believed that he could persuade the Vichy French forces in Dakar to join the Allied cause. There were several advantages to this; not only the political consequences if another Vichy French colonies changed sides, but also more practical advantages, such as the fact that the gold reserves of the Banque de France and the Polish government in exile were stored in Dakar and, militarily, the better location of the port of Dakar for protecting the convoys sailing around Africa than Freetown , the base the Allies were using.
It was decided to send a naval force of an aircraft carrier , two battleships (of World War I vintage), four cruisers and ten destroyers to Dakar. Several transports, would transport the 8,000 troops. Their orders were first to try and negotiate with the Vichy French governor, but if this was unsuccessful, to take the city by force.
The Vichy French forces present at Dakar were led by a battleship, the Richelieu , one of the most advanced in the French fleet. It had left Brest on the June 18 before the Germans reached it. Richelieu was then only about 95% complete. Before the establishment of the Vichy government, HMS Hermes , an aircraft carrier, had been operating with the French forces in Dakar. Once the Vichy regime was in power, Hermes left port but remained on watch, and was joined by the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Australia . Planes from Hermes had attacked the Richelieu, and had struck it once with a torpedo. The French ship was immobilised but was able to function as a floating gun battery. Three Vichy submarines and several lighter ships were also at Dakar. A force of three cruisers (Gloire, Georges Leygues, and Montcalm) and three destroyers had left Toulon for Dakar just a few days earlier. The Gloire was slowed by mechanical troubles, and was intercepted by Australia and ordered to sail for Casablanca. The other two cruisers and the destroyers outran the pursuing Allied cruisers and had reached Dakar safely.
On September 23, the Fleet Air Arm dropped propaganda leaflets on the city. Free French aircraft flew off from Ark Royal and landed at the airport, but the crews were taken prisoner. A boat with representatives of De Gaulle entered the port but were fired upon. At 10:00, Vichy French ships trying to leave the port were given warning shots from Australia. The ships returned to port but the coastal forts opened fire on Australia. This led to an engagement between the battleships and cruisers and the forts. In the afternoon Australia intercepted and fired on the Vichy destroyer L'Audacieux , setting it on fire and causing it to be beached.
In the afternoon, an attempt was made to set Free French troops ashore on a beach at Rufisque , to the northeast of Dakar, but they came under heavy fire from strongpoints defending the beach. de Gaulle declared he did not want to "shed the blood of Frenchmen for Frenchmen" and the attack was called off.
During the next two days, the Allied fleet attacked the coastal defences, as the Vichy French tried to prevent them. Two Vichy French submarines were sunk, and a destroyer damaged. After the Allied fleet also took heavy damage (both battleships and two cruisers were damaged), they withdrew, leaving Dakar and French West Africa in Vichy French hands.
The effects of the Allied failure were mostly political. De Gaulle had believed that he would be able to persuade the Vichy French at Dakar to change sides, but this turned out not to be the case, which damaged his standing with the Allies. Even the successful Battle of Gabon , in November 1940, did not wholly repair this damage.
Battle of Kufra
France had fallen, her empire in tatters, but her flag still flew from the isolated but strategically important ex-Italian fort of El Tag which dominated the Kufra oasis in Southern Libya. Free France had struck a blow, a beginning in the campaign to recapture France and defeat the Axis .
Colonel Leclerc and the intrepid Lt Col d’Ornano (commander of French Forces in Chad ), on the orders of De Gaulle in London, were tasked with attacking Italian positions in Libya with the motley forces at their disposal in Chad which had declared for Free France. Kufra was the obvious target. The task of striking at the heavily defended oasis at Kufra was made all the more difficult by the use of inadequate transport to cross sand dunes and the rocky Fech Fech , considered to be impassable to vehicles.
Fortunately for the French, assistance was received from Major Clayton of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), who was keen to join with the Free French to test the Italians. Clayton had under his command G (Guards) and T (New Zealand) patrols, a total of seventy-six men in twenty-six vehicles.
In order to assist in the attack against Kufra, a raid was mounted against the airfield at the oasis of Murzuk , capital of the Fezzan region of Libya. Ten Free French (three officers, two sergeants and five native soldiers) under D’Ornano met with Clayton’s LRDG patrols on January 6, 1941 at Kayouge. The combined force reached Murzuk on January 11. In a daring daylight raid, they surprised the sentries and swept through the oasis, devastating the base. The majority of the force attacked the main fort, while a troop from T patrol under Lieutenant Ballantyne engaged the airfield defences, destroying 3 Caproni aircraft and capturing a number of prisoners.
The success of the raid was tempered by the loss of a T patrol member and the intrepid d’Ornano. Another wounded French officer cauterised his leg wound with his own cigarette, much to the admiration of the LRDG. A diversionary raid by mounted Meharistes Colonial Cavalry failed after it was betrayed by local guides, prompting Leclerc to relegate these troops to recon duties only.
After the success of the Murzuk raid Leclerc, who had assumed overall command, marshalled his forces to take on Kufra itself. Intelligence indicated that the Oasis was defended by two defensive lines based around the El Tag fort which included barbed wire, trenches, machine guns and light AA defences. The garrison was thought to comprise a battalion of Askaris (Colonial Infantry) under Colonel Leo, plus supporting troops.
In addition to the static defences, the oasis was defended by La Compania Sahariana de Cufra , a specialist mobile force and the forerunner of the famous “ Sahariana ” companies of the mid war period. The company was composed of desert veterans crewing various Fiat and Lancia trucks equipped with HMGs and 20 mm AA weapons, together with some armoured cars . The company also had the support of its own air arm to assist in long range reconnaissance and ground attack.
Leclerc could not pinpoint the Saharianas, so he tasked the LRDG with the job of hunting them down and robbing the defenders of their mobile reserve.
Unfortunately for the LRDG, a radio intercept unit at Kufra picked up their radio traffic and they were spotted from the air. The defenders had been on their guard since Murzuk.
G patrol had been kept in reserve and Major Clayton was leading T patrol, 30 men in 11 trucks.
The patrol was at Bishara on the morning of January 31 when an Italian aircraft appeared overhead.
The trucks scattered and made for some hills, and the plane flew away without attacking them. The patrol took cover among some rocks in a small wadi at Gebel Sherif and camouflaged the trucks, before preparing to have lunch. The plane returned and circled over the wadi, where it directed a patrol of the Auto-Saharan Company to intercept the LRDG.
During fierce fighting, the LRDG patrol came off second best to superior Italian firepower and constant air attack. After severe losses, the surviving seven trucks of the patrol were forced to withdraw, leaving behind their commanding officer, who was captured along with several others. Other survivors embarked on epic journeys to seek safety. After this reverse, the LRDG force was forced to withdraw and refit, leaving Leclerc the services of one LRDG vehicle from T patrol crucially equipped for desert navigation.
Leclerc pressed on with his attack, in spite of losing a copy of his plan to the enemy with the capture of Major Clayton. After conducting further reconnaissance , Leclerc reorganized his forces on February 16. He abandoned his two armoured cars and took with him the remaining serviceable artillery piece, a crucial decision.
On the 17th, Leclerc’s forces brushed with the Saharianas and despite a disparity in firepower were able to drive them off, as the Kufra garrison failed to intervene.
Following this, El Tag was surrounded, despite a further attack from the Saharianas and harassment from the air, the French laid siege to the fort. The lone 75 mm gun was placed 3000m from the fort, beyond range of the defences and accurately delivered 20 shells per day at regular intervals.
Despite having superior numbers, Italian resolve faltered. Negotiations to surrender began on February 28 and finally on March 1, 1941 the Free French captured El Tag and with it, the oasis at Kufra.
Battle of Bir Hakeim
The Battle of Bir Hakeim (May 26, 1942 - June 11, 1942) was fought between the Afrika Korps and the Free French Brigade, with support from the British 7th Armoured Division . The German commander was Generaloberst Erwin Rommel and the French commander was General Marie Pierre Koenig . The outnumbered Free French Brigade heroically resisted for 16 days. It allowed the Allied Forces to regroup and prepare for the battle of El Alamein .
The Germans attacked Bir Hakeim on May 26, 1942. Over the next two weeks, the Luftwaffe flew 1,400 sorties against the defenses, whilst 4 German/Italian divisions attacked. On June 2, 3, and 5, the German forces requested that Koenig surrender, he refused and launched counterattacks with his Bren gun carriers . Despite the explosion of the defence's ammunition dump, the French continued to fight using ammunition brought in by British armored cars during the night. Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force dropped water and other supplies.
On June 9, the British Eighth Army authorized a retreat and during the night of June 10/June 11 the defenders of Bir Hakeim escaped.
Subordinate units of the defending 1st Free French Brigade were:
a light medical ambulance
Growth and organization
In September 1941, De Gaulle created the Comité National Français (CNF; French National Committee ), the Free French government-in-exile. On November 24 that year, the United States granted Lend-Lease support to the CNF.
During Operation Torch , the Allied invasion of Vichy-controlled French North Africa in November 1942, many Vichy troops surrendered and joined the Free French cause. Vichy coastal defences were captured by the French Resistance. Vichy General Henri Giraud rejoined the Allies, but he lacked the authority that was required and De Gaulle kept his leadership of the Free French, despite American objections.
The Nazis suspected Vichy determination after Torch and they occupied Vichy France in November, 1942, (Case Anton). In response, the 60,000-strong Vichy forces in French North Africa - the Army of Africa - joined the Allied side as the French XIX Corps . They fought in Tunisia alongside the British 1st Army and the US II Corps for 6 months until April, 1943. Using antiquated equipment, they took heavy casualties - 16,000 - against modern armour and a desperate German enemy.
Free French forces also fought Italian troops in Ethiopia and Eritrea and faced French troops loyal to Vichy France in Syria and Lebanon . (See Syria-Lebanon campaign .)
In November, 1943 the French forces received enough military equipment through Lend-Lease to re-equip 8 divisions and allow the return of borrowed British equipment. At this point, the Free French and ex-Vichy French Corps were merged to form the French Expeditionary Corps (Corps Expéditionnaire Français, CEF).
The air war
Main article: History of the Armée de l'Air (1940-1945)
There were sufficient Free French pilots, mainly from African colonial bases, to man several squadrons based in Britain and North Africa. They were initially equipped with a mixture of British, French and American aircraft. They had mixed success at first, and French army - air cooperation was often poor.
At De Gaulle's initiative, the Groupe de Chasse 3 Normandie was formed on September 1, 1942, for service on the Eastern Front . It served with distinction and was awarded the supplementary title Niemen by Stalin.
The Forces Françaises Combattantes and National Council of the Resistance
The French Resistance gradually grew in strength. Charles De Gaulle set a plan to bring together the different groups under his leadership. He changed the name of his movement to Forces Françaises Combattantes (Fighting French Forces) and sent Jean Moulin back to France to unite the eight major French Resistance groups into one organisation. Moulin got their agreement to form the Conseil National de la Résistance ( National Council of the Resistance ). He was eventually captured, and died under brutal torture.
French contribution to the Italian Campaign
The 1st group, Ist Landing Corps (1er groupement du Ier corps de débarquement), later redesignated CEF participated in the Italian Campaign with two divisions and two separate brigades from late 1943 to July 23, 1944. In 1944 this corps was reinforced by two additional divisions and played an essential role in the Battle of Monte Cassino . After the Allied capture of Rome the Corps was gradually withdrawn from Italy and incorporated into the B Army (Armée B) for the invasion of Southern France.
In September-October 1943, an ad hoc force (ca. 6,000 troops) of the French Ist Corps liberated Corsica , defended by the German 90th Panzergrenadier Division and the Sturmbrigade Reichsführer-SS (ca. 30,000 troops) (45,000 Italians were also present, but at least part of that force joined the Allies). Thereby Corsica became the first French department liberated in World War II.
This success was followed in June 1944 by the invasion of Elba in which the 9th Colonial Infantry Division (9 DIC) and Choc ( special forces ) battalions of I Corps assaulted and seized the heavily fortified island, defended by German fortress infantry and coastal artillery troops. Combat on the island was characterized by close-in fighting, use of flamethrowers , well-ranged German artillery, and the liberal use of mines .
Liberation of France
During the Italian campaign of 1943, 130,000 Free French soldiers fought on the Allied side. By the time of the Normandy Invasion , the Free French forces numbered 500,000 regulars and more than 100,000 FFI. The Free French 2nd Armoured Division , under General Philippe Leclerc , landed at Normandy and eventually led the drive towards Paris. The FFI began to seriously harass the German forces, cutting roads, railways, making ambushes as well as fighting battles alongside their allies.
Heroics of the 2nd Division
Arms of the 2ème D.B., the Second Armoured Division commanded by Leclerc. The Division's emblem features the Cross of Lorraine .
The 2nd Division landed in Normandy on August 1, 1944, about two months after the D-Day landings , and served under General Patton 's Third Army . The division played a critical role in Operation Cobra , the Allied breakthrough from Normandy, when it served as a link between American and Canadian armies and made rapid progress against German forces. They all but destroyed the 9th Panzer Division and defeated several other German units. During the Battle for Normandy, the 2nd Division lost 133 men killed, 648 wounded, and 85 missing. Division material losses included 76 armored vehicles, 7 cannons, 27 halftracks, and 133 other vehicles. In the same period, the 2nd Division inflicted losses on the Germans of 4,500 killed and 8,800 taken prisoner, while the Germans' material losses in combat against the 2nd Division during the same period were 117 tanks, 79 cannons, and 750 wheeled vehicles. [2]
The most celebrated moment in the unit's history involved the Liberation of Paris . Allied strategy emphasized destroying German forces retreating towards the Rhine , but when the French Resistance under Colonel Rol staged an uprising in the city, Charles de Gaulle pleaded with Eisenhower to send help. Eisenhower agreed and Leclerc's forces headed for Paris. After hard fighting that cost the 2nd Division 35 tanks, 6 self-propelled guns, and 111 vehicles, von Choltitz , the military governor of Paris, surrendered the city at the Hotel Meurice. Jubilant crowds greeted French forces, and de Gaulle conducted a famous parade through the city.
Subsequently, the 2nd Division campaigned with American forces in Lorraine , spearheading the U.S. Seventh Army drive through the northern Vosges Mountains and forcing the Saverne Gap. Eventually, after liberating Strasbourg in November 1944, defending against the German Nordwind counter-offensive in Alsace in January 1945, and conducting operations against the Royan Pocket on the Atlantic coast of France, the 2nd Division finished its campaigning at the Nazi resort town of Berchtesgaden , in southeastern Germany, where Hitler's mountain residence, the Berghof, was located.
The invasion of southern France
Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France, on August 15, 1944, as part of World War II . The invasion took place between Toulon and Cannes . During the planning stages, the operation was known as Anvil, to complement Operation Hammer, which was at that time the codename for the invasion of Normandy . Subsequently both plans were renamed, the latter becoming Operation Overlord , the former becoming Operation Dragoon; a name supposedly picked by Winston Churchill , who was opposed to the plan, and claimed to having been "dragooned" into accepting it.
The plan originally envisaged a mixture of Free French and American troops taking Toulon and later Marseille , with subsequent revisions encompassing Saint Tropez . The plan was revised throughout 1944, however, with conflict developing between British military staff — who were opposed to the landings, arguing that the troops and equipment should be either retained in Italy or sent there — and American military staff, who were in favour of the assault. This was part of a larger Anglo-American strategic disagreement.
The balance was tipped in favour of Dragoon by two events: the eventual fall of Rome in early June, plus the success of Operation Cobra , the breakout from the |Normandy pocket, at the end of the month. Operation Dragoon's D-day was set for August 15, 1944. The final go-ahead was given at short notice.
The U.S. 6th Army Group , also known as the Southern Group of Armies, commanded by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers was created in Corsica and activated on August 1, 1944 to consolidate the combined French and American forces that were planning to invade southern France in Operation Dragoon. At first it was subordinate to AFHQ (Allied Forces Headquarters) under the command of Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson who was the supreme commander of the Mediterranean Theater . One month after the invasion, command was handed over to SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces) under U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower , the supreme commander of Allied forces on the Western Front .
The assault troops were formed of three American divisions of the VI Corps , reinforced with a French armoured division. The 3rd Infantry Division landed on the left at Alpha Beach ( Cavalaire-sur-Mer ), the 45th Infantry Division landed in the centre at Delta Beach ( Saint-Tropez ), and the 36th Infantry Division landed on the right at Camel Beach ( Saint-Raphaël ). These were supported by French commando groups landing on both flanks, and by Rugby Force, a parachute assault in the LeMuy-Le Luc area by the 1st Airborne Task Force: British 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade , the U.S. 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team , and a composite U.S. airborne glider regimental combat team formed from the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, the 550th Glider Infantry Battalion, and the 1st Battalion, 551st Parachute Infantry regiment. The 1st Special Service Force took two offshore islands to protect the beachhead.
Naval gunfire from Allied ships, including battleships Lorraine , HMS Ramillies , USS Texas , Nevada and Arkansas and a fleet of over 50 cruisers and destroyers supported the landings. Seven Allied escort carriers provided air cover.
Over ninety-four thousand troops and eleven thousand vehicles were landed on the first day. A number of German troops had been diverted to fight the Allied forces in Northern France after Operation Overlord and a major attack by French resistance fighters, coordinated by Captain Aaron Bank of the OSS , helped drive the remaining German forces back from the beachhead in advance of the landing. As a result, the Allied forces met little resistance as they moved inland. The quick success of this invasion, with a twenty-mile penetration in twenty-four hours, sparked a major uprising by resistance fighters in Paris.
Follow-up formations included US VI Corps HQ, US Seventh Army HQ , French Army B (later redesignated the French First Army) and French I and II Corps.
The rapid retreat of the German Nineteenth Army resulted in swift gains for the Allied forces. The plans had envisaged greater resistance near the landing areas and under-estimated transport needs. The consequent need for vehicle fuel outstripped supply and this shortage proved to be a greater impediment to the advance than German resistance. As a result, several German formations escaped into the Vosges and Germany.
The Dragoon force met up with southern thrusts from Overlord in mid-September, near Dijon .
Operation Dragoon included a glider landing ( Operation Dove ) and a deception ( Operation Span ).
A planned benefit of Dragoon was the usefulness of the port of Marseilles . The rapid Allied advance after Operation Cobra and Dragoon slowed almost to a halt in September 1944 due to a critical lack of supplies, as thousands of tons of supplies were shunted to NW France to compensate for the inadequacies of port facilities and land transport in northern Europe. Marseilles and the southern French railways were brought back into service despite heavy damage to the Port of Marseilles and its railroad trunk lines. They became a significant supply route for the Allied advance into Germany, providing about a third of the Allied needs.
Struggle for Toulon and Marseilles
The French First Army under Jean de Lattre de Tassigny performed spectacularly in the capture of Toulon and Marseilles .
"The original plan intended to attack the two ports in succession. The accelerated landings of de Lattre's French forces, however, and the general situation allowed concurrent operations against both. De Lattre ordered Lt. Gen. Edgard de Larminat to move west against Toulon along the coast, with two infantry divisions supported by tanks and commandos. Simultaneously, a second force, under Maj. Gen. Goislard de Monsabert and consisting of one infantry division and similar supporting forces, would advance in a more northwesterly direction, encircling the naval port from the north and west and probing toward Marseille. De Lattre knew that the German garrisons at the ports were substantial: some 18,000 troops of all types at Toulon and another 13,000, mostly army, at Marseille. However, Resistance sources also told him that the defenders had not yet put much effort into protecting the landward approaches to the ports, and he was convinced that a quick strike by experienced combat troops might well crack their defenses before they had a chance to coalesce. Speed was essential.
On the morning of August 20, with the German command in Toulon still in a state of confusion and the Nineteenth Army more concerned with Truscott's westward progress well north of the port, de Larminat attacked from the east while Monsabert circled around to the north, quickly outflanking Toulon's hasty defenses along the coast. By the 21st Monsabert had cut the Toulon-Marseille road, and several of his units had entered Toulon from the west, penetrating to within two miles of the main waterfront. Between 21 and 23 August the French slowly squeezed the Germans back into the inner city in a series of almost continuous street fights. As the German defense lost coherence, isolated groups began to surrender, with the last organized resistance ending on the 26th and the formal German surrender occurring on 28 August. The battle cost de Lattre about 2,700 casualties, but the French claimed 17,000 prisoners, indicating that few Germans had followed the Fuehrer's "stand and die" order.
Even as French forces occupied Toulon, Monsabert began the attack on Marseille, generally screening German defenses along the coast and striking from the northeastern and northern approaches. Early gains on the 22d put French troops within five to eight miles of the city's center, while a major Resistance uprising within the port encouraged French soldiers to strike deeper.
Although de Lattre urged caution, concerned over the dispersion of his forces and the shortage of fuel for his tanks and trucks, Monsabert's infantry plunged into the heart of Marseille in the early hours of 23 August. Their initiative decided the issue, and the fighting soon became a matter of battling from street to street and from house to house, as in Toulon. On the evening of the 27th the German commander parlayed with Monsabert to arrange terms and a formal surrender became effective on the 28th, the same day as the capitulation of Toulon. At Marseille the French took over 1,800 casualties and acquired roughly 11,000 more prisoners. Equally important, both ports, although badly damaged by German demolitions, were in Allied hands many weeks ahead of schedule."
End of the war
Moving north, the French First Army liberated Lyon on September 2, 1944 [3] and moved into the southern Vosges Mountains , capturing Belfort and forcing the Belfort Gap at the close of November 1944. [4] Following the capture of the Belfort Gap, French operations in the area of Burnhaupt destroyed the German IV Luftwaffe Korps. [5] In February 1945, with the assistance of the U.S. XXI Corps , the First Army collapsed the Colmar Pocket and cleared the west bank of the Rhine River of Germans in the area south of Strasbourg . [6] In March 1945, the First Army fought through the Siegfried Line fortifications in the Bienwald Forest near Lauterbourg . [7] Subsequently, the First Army crossed the Rhine near Speyer and captured Karlsruhe and Stuttgart . [8] Operations by the First Army in April 1945 encircled and captured the German XVIII. S.S.-Armeekorps in the Black Forest [9] and cleared southwestern Germany. On May 7, 1945, the Germans signed the Instrument of Surrender at Rheims , France, officially ending the war in Europe.
Manpower in the last year of the war
By September 1944 the Free French forces stood at 560,000 (and the FFI at 300000), which rose to 1 million by the end of 1944, and were fighting in Alsace , the Alps and Brittany . By the end of the war in Europe (May 1945), the Free French forces comprised 1,250,000, including 7 infantry and 3 armoured divisions fighting in Germany.