The Fall of Paris

The British and France knew that the phony war couldn't last long, and it would only be a matter of time before Hitler struck west of France. In the meantime Britain and France decided to embark on a campaign in Norway to cut off the iron supply to Germany. But Hitler already anticipate British move and on April the 9th Hitler ordered his troops to secure the Norway before the British arrived. On May the 10th Neville Chamberlain forced to stand down as Prime Minister because of The disaster in Norway. And after Lord Halifax refused the post it was offered to Winston Churchill. Across the channel France had prepared for war with Germany for more than a decade it is called the Maginot line(I talked about this in the previous chapter The Maginot Line). Hitler looked at the situation and immediately saw what had to be done. He was simply going to bypass it by going through Belgium and Holland like the kaiser before him in 1914. He paid little interest Belgium's or anyone else's declaration of neutrality if it served his purpose. On May the 10th 1940 Germany struck west quickly over running Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and turning inwards to the heart of France. All the Maginot Line had achieved was to swell the the fighting in the neighboring countries and effectively hand even more of Europe to Hitler. The Germans flooded France making good use of their tanks and air forces despite being out numbered on paper. The Germans tanks were technologically inferior to the Allies in 1940 but the Germans had far superior tactics. In the end the British and France found themselves heavily outclassed by the vaunted German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and sustain heavy losses, but it would be another German plane that would gain notoriety during the Battle of France. The Ju 87 Stuka was a famed dive bomber, but could attacked Tanks and Bridges with extraordinary accuracy and potency striking terror into ground units. Later the aircraft would be fitted with a siren ears wings that would create a terrifying howl when entered a dive making it as much as psychological weapon as a bomber. To compound problems for the allies, the quick German succession and the failure of the Maginot Line to keep Hitler's forces at bay saw French morale in particular suffer terribly. Despite spirited resistance by the French army and the British Expeditionary force a sense of defeatism quickly overwhelmed them.