The Gathering Storm: Europe on the Brink

In the spring of 1940, Europe stood at a precipice. The German war machine, having already absorbed Austria and Czechoslovakia before crushing Poland in just 36 days, now turned its gaze westward. Britain and France, though nominally at war with Germany since September 1939 following the invasion of Poland, had engaged in what soldiers called the “Phoney War” – eight months of uneasy quiet along the Franco-German border.

This tense calm masked fundamental differences in military thinking. The French high command, led by General Maurice Gamelin, remained wedded to defensive doctrines symbolized by the massive Maginot Line fortifications. Their strategy assumed any German attack would come through central Belgium, as in 1914, allowing Allied forces to meet the invaders on prepared positions. The Germans, however, had developed revolutionary new tactics combining concentrated armor, mobile infantry, and close air support – the blitzkrieg or “lightning war.”

Weathering the Storm: Hitler’s Gamble

The German high command faced agonizing delays as they prepared their western offensive, codenamed Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). Hitler, though confident in his generals’ plans, proved surprisingly hesitant about launching the attack. The operation depended heavily on air support, making weather conditions crucial.

German meteorologists became unlikely key figures in the war’s timing. Hitler postponed the offensive multiple times based on their forecasts, growing increasingly frustrated. The tension produced bizarre episodes – Hermann Göring wasted money on a charlatan claiming to control weather with an “electronic device” (actually just a broken radio), while General Franz Halder considered bribing Hitler’s astrologer to produce favorable omens.

Finally, on May 9, after receiving promising weather reports, Hitler gave the order. Code words “Danzig” and “Augsburg” went out to military units, signaling the attack would commence the next morning. As German forces moved into position, elaborate deception measures kept even Hitler’s inner circle guessing about their destination until the last moment.

The Sickle Cut: Breaking Through at Sedan

At dawn on May 10, 1940, the German offensive began with simultaneous attacks on the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. As planned, this drew the bulk of Allied forces northward into Belgium. Meanwhile, the main German thrust came through the “impassable” Ardennes Forest, where General Heinz Guderian’s panzers achieved complete surprise.

The French had considered the Ardennes too rugged for tanks, defending it with second-rate divisions. Guderian’s XIX Panzer Corps covered 300 kilometers in three days, reaching the Meuse River at Sedan by May 12. The following day, German Stuka dive bombers launched a devastating five-hour attack on French positions, shattering morale before infantry crossed the river in rubber boats.

By nightfall, German engineers had built pontoon bridges for tanks. The French 55th Division collapsed, with terrified soldiers fleeing and spreading panic. One artillery unit destroyed their guns and fled without firing a shot, convinced German tanks were upon them. The “impregnable” Sedan sector had been breached.

The Race to the Sea: Panzers Unleashed

With the Meuse crossed, German armored divisions raced westward with unprecedented speed. Guderian, ignoring orders to consolidate, pushed his tanks relentlessly toward the English Channel. His superior, General Ewald von Kleist, twice ordered halts, concerned about exposed flanks. Each time Guderian found ways to continue advancing under the guise of “reconnaissance in force.”

Meanwhile, Erwin Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division achieved similar breakthroughs further north. The French high command, paralyzed by confusion and outdated doctrines, failed to mount effective counterattacks. A rare French success came on May 17 when Colonel Charles de Gaulle’s 4th Armored Division briefly checked Guderian’s advance at Montcornet, but lacked support to capitalize.

By May 20, just ten days after the offensive began, Guderian’s lead elements reached the sea at Abbeville, cutting off the British Expeditionary Force and French 1st Army Group in Belgium. The Allied northern armies now faced encirclement, with their only escape through the port of Dunkirk.

Shock and Collapse: France’s Downfall

The speed of the German advance created psychological shockwaves. French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud phoned Winston Churchill on May 15, declaring “We are beaten; we have lost the battle.” Churchill, recalling how World War I offensives eventually stalled, initially refused to believe defeat could come so quickly.

French command structures crumbled under the strain. General Gamelin, realizing his strategy had failed, was replaced by Maxime Weygand, who arrived from Syria to find the situation already hopeless. The French air force, though brave, proved no match for the Luftwaffe, while French tanks, often superior individually to German models, were dispersed in small packets rather than concentrated like the panzer divisions.

As German forces turned north along the coast toward Dunkirk, Hitler unexpectedly ordered a halt on May 24, allowing the British to organize their miraculous evacuation. The reasons remain debated – perhaps Hitler hoped to preserve tanks for the coming battle for France proper, or believed Göring’s boast that the Luftwaffe alone could destroy the trapped Allied forces. Whatever the cause, the pause allowed over 300,000 British and French troops to escape across the Channel.

The Fall of France: Legacy of the Blitzkrieg

The campaign’s second phase began on June 5 as German forces turned south. The French, having lost their best units in the north, could offer only token resistance. Paris fell on June 14, and on June 22 France signed an armistice in the same railway carriage where Germany had surrendered in 1918.

The six-week campaign revolutionized warfare. Germany’s combination of concentrated armor, tactical air power, and radio-directed maneuver warfare proved devastating against opponents still thinking in World War I terms. The victory came at relatively light cost – about 27,000 German dead compared to over 90,000 French killed.

Politically, the fall of France left Britain isolated but determined to fight on under Churchill. Hitler, now master of Western Europe, turned his attention eastward toward the Soviet Union, believing Britain would soon sue for peace. The rapid victory also reinforced Hitler’s belief in his own military genius, with disastrous consequences when he later overruled his generals during the invasion of Russia.

The 1940 campaign remains a classic study in military innovation, the dangers of complacency, and how speed and surprise can overcome numerical inferiority. Its lessons about combined arms warfare and the importance of air superiority remain relevant to military strategists today, while its political consequences shaped the entire Second World War and the postwar world order.