Timeline of the Battle of France

September 1939

1:On September 2nd Tensions begin to flare with Germany as Britain and France put Germany on notice for the invasion of Poland. 2:On September 3rd France declares war on Nazi Germany. 3:On September 7th French forces start light skirmishes with German forces near Saarbrucken. 4:On September 10th British forces arrive to reinforce the French.

May 1940

1:On May 3rd Abwehr Colonel Hans Oster who was an anti-Nazi sent a warming to the Dutch Government about the German invasion of. 2:On May 10th at 2:30 Germany invades France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands who was positioned at the Maginot line with his seventeen divisions. Winston Churchill become Prime Minster of Great Britain. 3:On May 11th, British and French forces begin a long line of strategic defenses to defend Belgium in effort to force the Germans to halt there advances. 4:On May 12th, German General Guderian with his three divisions had successfully reached Meuse River. The French believed it would take 4 days to cross the Meuse River but German engineer’s determination even under fire completed the bridgehead at Dinant, Montherme and Sedan in twenty-four hours. 5:On May 13th, the first German forces emerge from Ardennes on the river Meuse facing stiff resistance. 6:On May 14th, German Panzer Corps fifteen, forty-four, and nineteen face light allied forces and are free to set up bridge-heads. Panzer Corps fifteen and nineteen break through Allied forces defenses at Sedan which allowed German forces to bypass the Maginot line. 7:On May 15th planned their final push into France moving all troops and tanks toward Paris and the English Channel coast. The Germans had air superiority and the Maginot line proved to be worth less in French defenses. The Dutch would surrender to the Germans after heavy bombing across Rotterdam. 8:On May 20th, General Maxime Weygand replaces General Maurice-Gustave Gamelin as supreme Allied commander due to major losses across France. Winston Churchill orders preparations of ships and vessels to evacuate British forces from the coast of France. German forces reach the English Channel. 9:On May 17th through the 18th Antwerp and Brussels would fall to Germany; the Allies are forced to retreat to the coastline of France. 10:On May 21st, the allied forces try to counter attack German forces but are repulsed by another advancing German land force near Arras. 11:On May 24th, The Luftwaffe bombers bomb Allied defensive positions around Dunkirk. Hitler orders all his forces to halt and not cross the Lens-Bethune-St-Omer-Gravelines line, which allows Allied forces more time to reach the coast of France. 12:On May 25th, German forces take Boulogne as more retreating Allied forces reach Dunkirk. 13:On May 26th, around 850 British civilian ships and vessels help assist Allied forces of Dunkirk which would become the largest military evacuation in history. On 6:57 PM Operation Dynamo code name for the evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk takes place. Hitler also orders his army forces towards Dunkirk to finally destroy the Allies. HMS Curlew is sunk from the air by the Luftwaffe. 14:On May 27th Allies enter Narvik. 15:On May 28th King Leopold of Belgium had ordered his army to surrender to German forces which gave the Allies need time to evacuate from Dunkirk. With Belgium under complete German control, Germany plans to move towards the French coast to complete eliminate the Allied forces. By nightfall about 25,000 British forces had evacuated from Dunkirk. 16:On May 29th about 47,000 British forces are evacuated from Dunkirk. 17:On May 30th about 6,000 French forces are evacuated with around 120,000 Allied forces evacuated from Dunkirk. 18:On May 31st, around 150,000 Allied soldiers arrive in Britain.

June 1940

1:On June 1st, The French sixteenth Corps takes the defense of the region around Dunkirk. The British and French governments notify the Norwegian government of the evacuation of Dunkirk. 2:On June 3rd, the German Luftwaffe bombs Paris. 3:On June 4th, Allied forces begin to evacuate the area at Harstad. As 40,000 French troops are taken prisoners by the German army after the fall of Dunkirk. Operation Dynamo the evacuation from Dunkirk officially ends as around 338,326 British forces and 113,000 French forces are evacuated from Dunkirk to Britain. The German Luftwaffe cease bombardment of Dunkirk. 4:On June 5th second part of the battle of France begins with the German striking south from the River Somme. 5:On June 9th, German forces launches an offensive on Paris. 6:On June 10th Norway surrenders to German forces and Italy joins the war by declaring war on France and Great Britain. 7:On June 12th Fifty-first Highland Division surrenders to German forces due to being surrounded. 8:On June 13th Paris is declared an open city by the French government as the government flies to Bordeaux. 9:On June 14th, German troops enter the French capital of Paris. 10:On June 16th Marshal Petain becomes the prime minster of France. Operation Ariel and Operation Cycle takes place by evacuating around 150,000 Allied soldiers from French ports of Cherbourg, St. Malo, Brest, St. Nazaire, La Pallice, Nantes, and Le Havre. 11:On June 17th French Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain who replaced ousted Prime Minister Paul Reynaud had asked Germany for armistice terms. Finishing off some Allied resistance the Germans cross the river Loire and reach the Swiss frontier. 12:On June 18th Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet in Munich Germany, General de Gaulle tells the people of France on a broadcast from London on the BBC to resist the Germans. 13:On June 22 France signs an armistice with Germany. 14:On June 23 Adolf Hitler begins to tour the capture city of Paris. 15:On June 24th, the French officially surrender at Compiegne, the site of the German surrender of World War 1.