Battle of France

Location
 Result
 Territorial changes
 **Germany**Italy (from 10 June)
* Belgium

United Kingdom
* Netherlands
* Canada
* Poland (Polish Army in France (1939–40))
* Czechoslovakia
 Walther von Brauchitsch
Gerd von Rundstedt
Fedor von Bock
Wilhelm von Leeb
Albert Kesselring
Hugo Sperrle
Prince Umberto
Alphonse Georges
Maxime Weygand
Gaston Billotte **†**
Georges Blanchard
André-Gaston Prételat
Benoît Besson
Lord Gort
Leopold III (POW)

7,378 guns
2,445 tanks
5,638 aircraft
3,350,000 troops
**Italians in the Alps**
22 divisions
3,000 guns
 Allied armies
13,974 guns
3,383–4,071 French tanks
<2,935 aircraft
3,300,000 troops
**French in the Alps**
5 divisions
 **Germany**:
27,074 dead
111,034 wounded
18,384 missing
1,129 aircrew killed[*citation not found*]
1,236 aircraft lost
795–822 tanks lost
**German: 157,621**
**Italian: 6,029–6,040**
**Total: 163,676**
1,756,000 captured
2,233 aircraft lost
1,749 French tanks lost
689 British tanks lost
**Total: 2,260,000**

The **Battle of France** (French: *bataille de France*) (10 May – 25 June 1940) also known as the **Western Campaign** ('**Westfeldzug'**) the **French Campaign**, (German: *Frankreichfeldzug*, *campagne de France*) and the **Fall of France**, was the German invasion of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands during the Second World War. On 3 September 1939, France had declared war on Germany, following the German invasion of Poland. In early September 1939, France began the limited Saar Offensive and by mid-October had withdrawn to their start lines. German armies invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. Italy entered the war on 10 June and attempted an invasion of France. France and the Low Countries were conquered, ending land operations on the Western Front until the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944.

In *Fall Gelb* ("Case Yellow"), German armoured units made a surprise push through the Ardennes and then along the Somme valley, cutting off and surrounding the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium to meet the German armies there. British, Belgian and French forces were pushed back to the sea by the Germans and the British and French navies evacuated the encircled elements of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the French and Belgian armies from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo.

German forces began *Fall Rot* ("Case Red") on 5 June 1940. The sixty remaining French divisions and the two British divisions in France made a determined stand on the Somme and Aisne but were defeated by the German combination of air superiority and armoured mobility. German armies outflanked the intact Maginot Line and pushed deep into France, occupying Paris unopposed on 14 June. After the flight of the French government and the collapse of the French Army, German commanders met with French officials on 18 June to negotiate an end to hostilities.

On 22 June 1940, the Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed by France and Germany. The neutral Vichy government led by Marshal Philippe Pétain superseded the Third Republic and German military occupation began along the French North Sea and Atlantic coasts and their hinterlands. The Italian invasion of France over the Alps took a small amount of ground and after the armistice, Italy occupied a small area in the south-east. The Vichy regime retained the *zone libre* (free zone) in the south. Following the Allied invasion of French Africa in November 1942, the Germans and Italians took control of the zone until it was liberated by the Allies in 1944.