The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-12-30

the frontiers Ot Belglum the | Netherlands and Luxembourg in the start of the years most impor- tant military move.
 Dutch Army Yields
 The Northern German flank broke the Yssel and Grebbe de- fense lines and on May 13 the Reich war flag was hoisted, over the citadel of Liege. The next day Rotterdam, which had been the scene of bloody street fighting, fell and the Netherlands army capitu- lated
 Thereafter, the German armies led by a powerful spearhead of thousands of tanks and motorized troops, crashed forward with time tablelike precision.
 On May Is, German Panzer di- visions forced a crossing of the Mouse between Namur and Givet and the next day they broke through the northern extensions of the Maginot line between Mau- beuge and Carignan, starting the famous bulge" which sWelled un- til all of the allied northern forces were cut off in Flanders.
 Shortly after the first clash be- tween advancing German troops and allied mobile forces, Brussels fell. That was May IT. Antwerp fell on May Is and Laon was en- tered on May 20.
 Continuing their drive, German motorized columns smashed their way through Arras, Amiens and Abbeville to the channel coast and locked up an estimated 100000 Allied soldiers.
 Without pausing to rest, the ex- treme left wing of the German Boulogne and Calais. With the army pressed northWard, taking ring around the allied forces steadily tightening. King Leopold capitulated on May 28.
 British Retreat Heroic
 In the face of murderous air bombing and Sledge-hammer blows by German land forces, the British | navy managed to evacuate the great | CT part of the trapped British Ex- peditionary Force and remnants of the French northern armies from the open beach at Dunkirk.
 Without a respite, Hitler launched the second phase of Germany's of fenSive on June along 150-mile | front between the channel coast and | Laon.
 The bitter Battle of Laon marked | the beginning of the end for France A Panzer division smashed through | the hastily reconstructed "Weygand | Line" and began the pursuit of the weary, broken French armies toward | the Seine and Paris. On Junue g. German forces crossed the Seine and | the Oisne canal and four days later | a frontal attack was launched | against the Maginot Line.
 Paris Not Defended.
 From this. point the campaign be- came more and more one of pur- suit. On June IA, the Germans tri- umphantly marched into Paris, which the French at the last mo- ment decided not to defend Yer dun fell as German troops advanced | across the lower Rhine. On June IT, German troops reached the Swiss frontier, having cut off the Maginot | Line from the rear and the same | day Marshal Henri Philippe Petain announced France had appealed to | Hitler for an armistice.
 On June 18, Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at Munich to confer | on armistice terms and three days later in the historic setting of Com piegne forest, Hitler and French | plenipotentiaries sat in the same salon car where Marshal Foch in 1918 had received armistice delegates from beaten Germany.
 An armistice was signed with | Germany on June g and Franco Italian armistice was concluded | two days later At 12::35 A. M. of | June 25, hostilities between Ger many, Italy and France ceased | with Frances full military defeat. |
 Under terms of the armistice, | German troops occupied more than one half of France, including the entire channel and Atlantic coast as far as the Spanish frontier.
 Prepare For IncasiOn
 With the elimination of France, 1 German and Italy, which had enter ed the conflict on June 10, were confronted by their last foe-Great Britain. A two-month lull followed as Germany maSsed thousands of troops, transport ships and planes along the coast facing Britain.
 On Aug. ?. Germany declared a total blockade of Britain and al- most simultaneously blitzkrieg air attacks on the British Isles were begun.
 Throughout the fall, Germany carried on diplomatic offensive In an attempt to line up a solid bloc" against Britain. On Sept. 27, the Berlin-Rome- Tokyo military alliance was signed at Berlin ap- parently with the primary design of neutralizing the United States.
 On Oct. 4. Hitler and Mussolini met in the Brenner Pass and short ly thereafter German troops march, ed into Rumania under an agree ment with the new regime of Premier Ion Antonescu to guard" the oil fields.
 Hitler met Pierre Laval, then French vice-premier, in France on Oct. 22. He conferred the next day With Generalissimo Francisco Fran co on the Franco-Spanish frontier and received Marshal Petain on Oct. 24. Four days later Hitler met Mus solipl again at Florence.
 The second stage Of the diplo- matte offensive was marked by the three-day visit Of Soviet Foreign Commissar V. M. Molotov to Ber- lih. On Nov. %. Hungary signed q pact adherIng to the Berlin. Rome Tokyo alliance and. in quie:s suc- ceAsion. Rumanln and aloyakia followed suit.