What saved many British and French forces from the Germans in 1940?
Answers
Battle of France
Part of the Western Front of the Second World War
Battle of France collage.jpg
Clockwise from top left: German Panzer IV tanks passing through a town in France; German soldiers marching past the Arc de Triomphe after the surrender of Paris, 14 June 1940; column of French Renault R35 tanks at Sedan, Ardennes; British and French prisoners at Veules-les-Roses; French soldiers on review within the Maginot Line fortifications
Date 10 May – 25 June 1940 (46 days)
Location Low Countries, France
Result German victory
Territorial
changes Parts of France placed under German and Italian military occupation
Belligerents
Germany
Italy (from 10 June)
France
Belgium
United Kingdom
Canada
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Commanders and leaders
Nazi Germany Erich Von Manstein
Walther von Brauchitsch
Gerd von Rundstedt
Fedor von Bock
Wilhelm von Leeb
Albert Kesselring
Hugo Sperrle
Heinz Guderian
Kingdom of Italy Umberto di Savoia Maurice Gamelin (until 17 May)
Alphonse Georges (until 17 May)
Maxime Weygand (from 17 May)
Belgium Leopold III (POW)
United Kingdom Lord Gort
Netherlands Henri Winkelman (POW)
Poland Władysław Sikorski
Czech Republic Jan Kratochvíl
Units involved
Axis armies
Allied armies
Strength
Germany: 141 divisions[1]
7,378 guns[1]
2,445 tanks[1]
5,638 aircraft[2][a]
3,350,000 troops
Alps on 20 June
300,000 Italians Allies: 144 divisions
13,974 guns
3,383–4,071 French tanks[1][3]
<2,935 aircraft[4][b]
3,300,000 troops
Alps on 20 June
~150,000 French
Casualties and losses
Germany:
27,074 dead[c] 111,034 wounded, 18,384 missing,[5][6][7] 1,129 aircrew killed[8] (c. 27,000 dead)
1,236 aircraft lost[5][9]
795–822[10] tanks destroyed[d]
157,621 total casualties
Italy: 6,029–6,040[e]
Total: 163,676 casualties 360,000 dead or wounded,
1,900,000 captured
2,233 aircraft lost[15]
4,071 French tanks[f]
Total: 2,260,000 casualties
vte
Campaigns of World War II
Europe
Poland Phoney War Winter War Denmark & Norway France & Benelux Britain Balkans Eastern Front Finland Western Front (1944–45)
Pacific War
China Pacific Ocean South-East Asia South West Pacific Japan Manchuria (1945)
Mediterranean and Middle East
North Africa Horn of Africa Mediterranean Sea Adriatic Malta Yugoslavia Iraq Syria–Lebanon Iran Italy Dodecanese Southern France
Other campaigns
Atlantic Arctic Strategic bombing America French West Africa Madagascar
Contemporaneous wars
Soviet–Japanese border conflicts Franco-Thai War Ecuadorian–Peruvian War Ili Rebellion
vte
Western Front of
World War II
prelude
1939
Phoney War Saar The Heligoland Bight
1940
Luxembourg The Netherlands The Hague Rotterdam Zeeland German bombing of Rotterdam Belgium Fort Eben-Emael Hannut Gembloux La Lys France Sedan Montcornet Arras Lille Boulogne Calais Abbeville Paula Dunkirk Dunkirk evacuation Italian Invasion of France Saumur Britain Kanalkampf Adlertag The Hardest Day Battle of Britain Day Sea Lion