"What today they are abandoned mostrengos, in May of 1940, these blockhouses of the Maginot Line they were the first line of defense of France against Germany." "It had 500 a thousand soldiers Frenchmen in these artificial mounts." "They were the blockhouses dispendiosas e more elaborated until then constructed." "Here, the weapons they would go it withhold the hunos, since that the hunos they invaded this way." "The World in War" "The Fall of France" "May" " June of 1940" "'We can Well give thanks to God for the army francês'," "Winston said Churchill when Hitler went up to the power." "But, in 1933, the French army already she was not the magnificent one force of combat of long ago." "The French military manuals they were concentrated in the techniques of the First War, although Hitler to have affirmed:" "'The next war will be very different of the last one. '" "The Frenchmen had introduced the tank and the airplane, but now little they made stops to increase its application." "They had been pioneering in the transport motorized the military level, but they had come back to appeal to the train and the horse, over all to the horse." "It was a period of great decline, probably had to the efforts extreme during the Great War." "We suffered an illness that is not characteristic of the Frenchmen." "We had profit the war e we found that we had reason e that we were very smart." "A victory is one very dangerous chance." "Between the wars, France deeply it was divided." "The factions digladiavam themselves, the alliances got excited, the governments were succeeded." "Some lasted ones hours, others months, e was rare some to last one year." "In the proper day where Hitler went up to the power," "France was without government." "The same it happened when Hitler invaded Austria, five years later." "In France, the left more it was worried in cleaning its proper high positions, of what in barring fascism come of is." "E the right hated left in such way that it was prepared stops to sancionar a dictatorship." "Still in 1934, the winner of Verdun, Pétain Marshal, it was indicated to save the France of the communism, although already to have almost eighty years." "These deep divisions they would go to keep stopped France, when it had that to appeal again to the armament." "The supplied classrooms, the right, let us say thus, it preferred the Germans its proper Communists." "She was not necessary to walk for the street and to see "Pour qui, pourquoi" in the walls, or the scythe and the hammer, to know that nobody went to move a finger." "In the Thirties," "France had constructed blockhouses in the border with Germany e as the Minister of the War, at the time, he was Andres Maginot, these blockhouses had started to be known as Maginot Line." "The blockhouses of the Maginot Line they were prodigies of century XX." "Electric trains carried the troops of caserna for there, of the armories for the canteens." "It had underground cinemas, rooms of ultraviolet rays, conditional air, everything." "One was about a gigantic world to the image of the one of Júlio Verne, sets of ten of meters below of the ground." "Although to call to it "The Shield of France", the Maginot Line did not protect the French eastern flank." "Length km had only 140 e finished the 400 km of the Channel." "If some time was necessary to touch the alarm, the French strategists its troops alleged that they would have that to face the Germans in Belgian or exactly German territory." "Moreover, to draw out the Line it stops beyond the Belgian border it would leave expensive and make with that the Belgians thought that, in war case, it would abandon them to France." "The deceit of this theory it came the light in 1936, when, without consulting France, the King Leopoldo of Belgium he opted to the neutrality e closed the borders even though to French military observers." "Then the Frenchmen had only started to draw out the Line until the sea, but, in May of 1940, the workmanship it was far from having finished." "France had suffered terrible decreases in the First War." "Now, the tactics started to be entirely defensive, ignoring the principle of Napoleão:" "'The faction that is in its blockhouses are vencida'." "Since the Frenchmen if refused to pass to the offensive one, the Maginot Line, ironically, it protected Germany better of what France." "To the concluded being, a colonel German, Heinz Guderian, it published a book with a heading predictive "Achtung Panzer! ", a book that never well was studied for the French and English general staff." "However, these pages they consider a new type of war:" "the intent use of tanks in combination with the infantry e the Air Force." "Blitzkrieg!" "In the First War, we had had tanks." "We knew the difficulties that them they were inherent, to the step that the Germans, that they did not have them, if they placed in the skin of that they were attacked." "E whereas we considered the difficult tanks to maneuver, the Germans had received the new weapons with the appetite of the new-rich ones." "Paris, 14 of July of 1939." "The last parade of the Day of the Bastilha, organized for the Third Republic." "One days before, in Paris, the Minister British of the War says:" "'The French army he is optimum of the world. '" "As the parade, these declarations had as only objective to raise the moral." "The parisienses badly had come back of the vacations, when they turn over again in war with its enemy of always." "But whereas, in 1914, word of order was "For Berlin! ", of this time it was There "We go to finish with this."" "Ironically, the French mobilization was too much efficient." "The specialized lack of technician it went paralyzing some industries vital for the war." "The men alone had been desmobilizados to the weekend of confusion." "E France was not joined when it entered in the war." "The French politicians they continued in disagreement." "The ministers defended its interests, and not them of the country." "E many people they took this as example." "Paris did not move very with war, not to be in the appearance." "The song most popular in the Fall of 1939 sera was "Paris toujours Paris"." "While the Polish allies they were desruidos in the east, the Frenchmen and the British little made in ocidente." "They had been become involved in the call Offensive of the Saar, by the way, only the offensive one Frenchman during the war." "Some French divisions they had advanced eight kilometers, but they had not even tried to penetrate in the Siegfried Line, at the time still in construction, e, while the Poland fought, it did not have any tanks Germans in the front occidental person." "However, the commentators they did not doubt the determination of the Frenchmen." "We read the official notices of the high French command e this is the reality for backwards of these reports." "Our cameras in German territory they see the comment ranks in the bridge on the Reno, between Kehl and Estrasburgo." "This German station is now at the hands of the French troops." "In the strenghtened ranks, the monitoring is a constant." "The Maginot Line, that was constructed to be the first line of defense, it is now the second line for backwards of the attack." "The gradual but constant advance of the French troops it placed the camouflaged artillery to the reach of the Siegfried Line." "It does not have haste, but an implacable pressure on the nazistas positions." "Meter the meter, "poilus" advances." "If the French army had attacked at the beginning of September, with its clear superiority in terms of divisions and tanks" " at the time, we did not have tanks in the front occidental person - of artillery and Air Force, the German forces in call "front occidental person"" "they would not have resisted more that one or two weeks." "But exactly before Poland if to relieve, the French commander ordered to remove he stops backwards of the Maginot Line, a withdrawal that the Germans it swims had made to hinder." "At the time, a Frenchman he wrote the following one:" "'After the prolog of Offensive Puppet, ' 'we were prepared for the War Puppet. '" "Every day, during one minutes, the cannons resounded, generally it stops to impress the visitors, nominated the Duke of Windsor." "Rare it had an attempt of importunar the enemy." "He was until forbidden to bomb the Ruhr, it was not the Luftwaffe to retaliate against the French plants." "The journalists went until a front to observe the inactivity." "I was in a comment rank in the Reno, observing the Germans, that they washed and they played ball e said for the sentry:" ""Because it does not go off against them"" ""Not, if they do not go off against we, because would make we it? "" "In the front, the life was monotonous and ackward." "Badly paid, the French soldiers they lived for the days of license, hour where they used to advantage to gain some money." "The Winter of 1939 was most cold of the cinquenta previous years." "Until the Channel it congealed in Bologna." "The Frenchmen had interrupted the prolongation of the Maginot Line, but the Germans had kept its plans." "To the measure that the Winter advanced, the moral of the Frenchmen diminuía." "It disciplines it went if spoiling, e if spread the drunkeness." "In the stations, they had been prepared rooms special where the men could recover before returning to its unit." "Few French generals they passed the troops in magazine they visited much less them, e the Commander-in-chief, Gamelin, rare it left of its quarter-general." "Already with 68 years at the beginning of 1940, it had a leaf of services in such exemplary way that nobody dreamed in asking for to it to yield place to the other new." "Gamelin was very smart, but nothing courageous, e the politicians liked it for being one Easy commander-in-chief." "Gamelin chose for quarter-general this château in Vincennes, in the outskirts of Paris." "This choice discloses well the type of person who it was." "The enemy was not the Germans, it was the French government." "It was in Vincennes that died Enrique V of England e where the spy Hari bush was executed." "According to a visitor, it was treated of "a submarine without periscope"." "For incredible that it seems, it did not have communications saw radio nor he was on for telegraph to the other quartéis-generals." "Instead of this, the messages followed of motion, all the hours." "It was rare Gamelin to give orders." "It preferred simply to suggest orientation lines." "The strategy of long stated period it consisted of waiting until the allies to equal the Germans in number and equipment, before launching great an offensive one, although this to imply to have to wait up to 1941." "However, it treated to keep the war moved away from the ground French, from there its interest in any stratagem that presented to it." "We intended to attack Russia through the Norway, of Narvik, what it led to landing in Narvik, e we had plans stops to attack the refineries of Baku, from the Syrian." "We had plans to bring the Balkans for our side with one it has disembarked in Salonica, e stops joining in them to the Yugoslavs, but nothing of this it passed of empty dreams, completely off of the reality," "but everything for judging that the war it would be never decided in the front, due to inviolability of this front." "Gamelin had one hundred divisions in this front, May of 1940, for more than ten divisions of the Force British Member of an expedition." "Forty divisions they defended the Maginot Line e five kept the border with Switzerland." "Others forty - the best ones - they would go for Belgium, a country neutral, when Germany attacked." "But when this happened, the abutment of the front of Gamelin would be here, in the Ardenas." "Impenetrable the Ardenas." "But they would be exactly impenetrable...?" "In the maps of the quartéis-generals, the dense bushes and narrow and sinuosas roads perhaps they made the Ardenas to seem impenetrable, e will have been therefore that Gamelin it decided to keep this band of 150 front km" "with ten of the divisions weakkest, badly equipped and less trained." "The Ardenas had been chosen for the offensive one therefore they offered a chance to surround the Maginot Line e, moreover, we knew that they were badly defended for the French troops in this section of the French front." "We knew that the High French Command it had exhausted its tanks." "The French tanks were in bigger number and better, more weighed of what ours, but we follow instructions of Guderian." ""To attack in mass and with rapidity and not to exhaust the attack forces."" "The Spring of 1940 she was very sunny e did not have place more Pacific of what the Ardenas, where the generals had said that the Germans never would attack, although certain reports to allege that almost cinquenta divisions of the Wehrmacht they were in movement," "reports these that the Frenchmen they had preferred to ignore." "Until they had known the date of the attack, but nothing they had made." "As it affirmed Gamelin, preferred "to wait the events"." "They would not have that to wait much more." "Five and half one of the morning, in point." "10 of May of 1940." "The offensive German started of spectacular form, with the aerial invasion of Holland, a neutral country." "The objective was the bridges on the wide estuary of the Mosela." "If they obtained to take them before the arrival of the allies," "Holland would be divided to the way." "The ousadia of the offensive German it frightened the dutches." "The soldiers had surrendered in mass." "More to the south, in Belgium, the Germans had had another success spectacular in this first day:" "the taking of Eben Emael, the fort inexpugnável of the world, the critical point of the line of Gamelin." "This line was transposed before arrived of any allied forces." "Gamelin insisted on dislocating its armies northward, for Belgium and Holland." "Forty of the best divisions, almost half of its forces, including the Force British member of an expedition, they had been to fall directly in the trap that Hitler and its generals they had prepared for them." "Soon the troops if had crossed with the first refugee columns, columns these that would go to make it difficult the reinforcements allies, as the Germans they had planned." "The great idea of the Germans it was the rapidity, e had sent, still before of the entrance of the army, policemen with batons and gloves whites, of motorcycle." "All had the Guide Michelin of France, they knew perfectly where they were the roads." "Panzers German had crossed the border of Luxemburg." "The columns were extended throughout 150 km, becoming an easy target for any bomber, but the airplanes allies, in this first day, they were supporting the English advance French e in direction to Belgium." "The Luftwaffe started to attack the airplanes allies in the ground." "In a base of the RAF close to Reims, the airplanes, all in line, they had been destroyed soon in first minutes of the attack." "Cinquenta air bases British and Frenchmen they had been attacked in this first day, e the decreases had been weighed." "But while the commanders allies counted the decreases, panzers already had penetrated in impenetrable the Ardenas, preparing itself to attack the weak French garrisons throughout the Mosela, here in Sedan." "Panzers had arrived the Sedan to the end of the third day of the offensive one, although Gamelin to have calculated that they would never obtain to arrive before the nineth day." "All the bridges on the Mosela they had been destroyed by Frenchmen in 12 of May, to the one exception." "This old dam, ones 60 km to the north of Sedan, she is unbroken, therefore one feared that, if the water level lowered very, if it would obtain to cross the river the foot." "However, the Frenchmen had it left relatively badly kept, as a commander of panzers, Erwin Rommel, quickly discovered." "In the following morning, the forces of the Luftwaffe they had entered in action on Sedan." "Gamelin continued not to believe that the Germans crossed the river senão from there the three or four days." "Hitler was not made use to wait in such a way." "It reacted to the 1940 rhythm, e not to the one of 1914." "Moreover, the generals Frenchmen continued capsized for what it was happening in Belgium and Holland." "Although the Frenchmen to have parts of weighed artillery, they did not allow to go off with fear to be been without the ammunition before the start of battle properly said, therefore panzers had taken French casemates one for one." "Thousand of French artillerymen they had soon started to beat in withdrawal." "So fast as they had started, the bombings German had stopped." "As if still it was in the war games of Winter, the German infantry was prepared to cross the Mosela." "To the midnight of day 13 of May, still in the room day of the offensive one, beyond the German infantry to have crossed the Mosela in mass, the combat engineers already were preparing the passage of panzers." "In this night of 13 of May, the Force British Member of an expedition, in Belgium, not yet it had entered in great confrontations, but the battle already was practically determined." "The moral of the high command Frenchman fell for land." "When we knew that the front she had been breached in Sedan, we find that he was all lost one." "Vi General Georges, who he commanded the front northeast," "I saw it to soluçar and to say:" ""It had some deficiencies"." "It was left to fall in a chair soluçando." "The few French counterattacks badly they were organized e was little persistent." "In number, the Frenchmen had as many tanks how much the Germans, but the Germans attacked always in mass e the French tanks they had many you damage mechanical." "It was very frequent to have that to abandon them in the battlefield." "The German divisions of infantry already they had reached panzers in the places of passage of the Mosela." "Of the German side, at least, everything ran the plans in accordance with." "For the allied Air Force, that they had been almost inactive in day 13 of May, day 14 of May was of a frantic activity." "British bombers e Frenchmen had attacked courageous the bridges of the Mosela." "The French generals they had delayed to recognize the vital importance of this sector." "However, although the courage of the pilots allies, the result was disastrous." "Of the airplanes allies, practically half did not return." "Citing the "History of the RAF":" "'Never the Real Air Force it suffered low so great. '" "After 14 of May, the sky belonged without doubts to Germany." "In this exactly day, Holland surrendered." "Now, only a miracle it could save France." "With the guaranteed heads of bridge, panzers already could advance." "The Battle of Sedan would go to give place to the Battle of France." "The crucial phase of the plans German it was you give to start:" "the northward advance, for the coast, that it would enclose armies allies in Belgium." "In Paris, badly it was known of the defeat of Sedan, the panic was installed." "Those that had been able they had abandoned the city." "The high French command, that it was unaware of the plans German, it left of the principle that Hitler it would try to take Paris immediately." "To protect the capital, troops of the Mosela had been removed, what it contributed still more stops to widen the German heads of bridge." "Gamelin opposed to believe it that its techniques had failed e left of the beginning of that he had been traído." "While the "gendarmes" looked for elements of a Fifth Column," "Gamelin fired about twenty commanders of the front line, practically to perhaps." "The allied troops had received orders to abandon Belgium e, in 17 of May, Brussels it fell at the hands of the Germans." "It was the end of Gamelin, that it was seen substituted for General Weygand, that already it was practically remodelled." "France was despaired." "A man of 73 years he went to substitute one of 68, e Weygand had passed this year in the Syrian, it was outdated." "In this same time, the Marshal Pétain, already with 84 years, it passed Vice-First-Minister." "Before leaving Spain, where it are the French ambassador," "Pétain said General Franco:" ""My country was looser."" "'It is the result of thirty years of marxism. '" "It was absolutely of the side of the defeatists." "Already it had an age very advanced, and it are called in the hope of raising the moral of the Frenchmen." "Nothing of this did not happen." "Trying to contain the offensive German, the French generals barriers in the maps drew, but panzers transposed them still before the orders being emitted." "In the race for the coast, the commanders German they were always a step to the front of the Frenchmen." "Hordas of prisoners they had fallen at the hands of the Germans." "Diverse columns, some of them with ten or twenty a thousand men, they put down the weapons and they marched, without having received orders, headed for the officers, in the direction of the German lines." "The French troops not they had demonstrated the same one disciplines that they had demonstrated in the First War." "I judge that this if had to the Maginot spirit e to the dragged War Puppet, therefore the French soldiers judged that never more they would have that to fight." "E was not only the soldiers that they fell at the hands of the Germans, but also the generals." "In 19 of May, General Giraud, that it finishes to be nominated Commander of 9º French Army, it was captured." "According to Frenchmen, for tanks." "According to German, for a mobile unit of kitchen." "But the great tragedy it was of the refugee." "It had twelve million people in the roads of the north of France, directing itself it knows God for where." "The civilians asked them what they had to make, because the government not them it had given indications." ""For the love of God, they are where they are, do not catch the road. "" "But all had entered in panic e had run away." "One age lady gave to us a key, but we do not accept." ""In the last war I took the key, but, when I came back, it did not have house. "" "Mine worse memory it was to see two airplanes German sobrevoando the roofs going off machine guns, e is there that we perceived in them distressing situation of the refugee." "The Germans had advanced three hundred kilometers in seven days, e in 20 of May had arrived to the Channel." "According to Daily Telegraph, the telephonic lines between London e Paris had been cut." "According to a spokesman of the post offices, it did not have no forecast of the reestablishment of the services." "With panzers in the coast, the best armies allies in maneuvers in Belgium they did not have access to the south." "Delayed, the Frenchmen had tried to open way until these armies." "The attack was insignificant, but, as they argued, the English them had abandoned." "The recriminations had started with the unilateral withdrawal of the British army." "It had orders to attack the south, close to Securities, e, without acknowledgment, we knew that the English were if removing for Dunquerque." "We do not have the right to make great critical, therefore who ordered was we, e we lose the battle, what of the one good excuse to the English to be egoistic, but they had been same, very egoistic." "In 25 of May, Bologna was taken." "In 26 of May, You are silent." "The nomination of Weygand it had excited one certain optimism in the Frenchmen, but fast it esmoreceu, when the counterattack failed e if knew in Paris, in 28 of May, that Belgium had defined by the criminal code." "From then on, the environment each more defeatist time became." "One was noticed prevalence of the defeatism." "It had a strong movement for the peace between certain politicians." "Some were until germanófilos e wanted to work for the Germans." "When the things they had started to be bad, this group increased e became more dominant." "First-Minister Reynaud he answered, firing from its government some of the espíritos weakkest e convoking militant people, nominated De Gaulle, that now politics estreava in the enclosure for bullfighting, but the war already not it was at the hands of them." "Perhaps it has been this that it led to the one celebration special mass in Notre Dame, in the previous sunday the Dunquerque." "The Frenchmen had fast gotten over with the idea of defeat and surrender." "For them, it was as if still they were in the times of the monarchy, where it had the exchange of provinces, if it paid millions e it was the locked up subject, in the hope to have more luck in the following time." "Dunquerque was taken in 4 of June." "Hitler ordered to repicar the bells during three days in Germany, to designate "the biggest German victory never seen"." "With panzers reorganized e equipped of new, in the day after the fall of Dunquerque the second great one started offensive German to ocidente." "Although the enemy forces to be more than two superior times, the Frenchmen had fought stubbornly e of much more aggressive form of what during the battle of the Mosela." "However, after three days of bloody fight, the tragedy came back to abate on the Frenchmen." "Rommel had gotten new victory." "In few hours, it had fond of the Sena, the Rouen." "Panzers already passed almost freely for the interior of France." "All the roads they pointed with respect to Paris." "In 10 of June, the government Frenchman abandoned the capital." "In this exactly day, Mussolini declared that Italy would enter in war." "When we abandon Paris, we were to the quarter-general of Gamelin, in Vincennes, e we hear for the radio all cantigas and musics of the Italian war, the Giovenezza and this," "e was then that I heard somebody to say for the first time:" ""This cannot continue." "It has that to have an armistice. "" "We had immense difficulty in leaving Paris, because although Paris to be desert, the roads were repletas of automobiles." "Until it had people zigzagging for the trees, to go more fast." "But we obtain to leave the roads main and to go for the province e was extraordinary, because it was a wonderful time, in the villages the people received them e offered them optimum brandy, optimum wine, therefore said "stops what to leave everything for the Germans? "" "When flying over Paris, vi the great columns of the German infantry that already they had entered in the city." "When remembering to me of that never we had obtained to reach this objective in the First War," "I felt a joy and an euphoria such, that I asked to the pilot of my airplane, a Storch, if it would be possible to aterrisar in the Square of the Concord." "Sobrevoamos some times e we aterrisamos in the Square of the Concord, that it did not have transit absolutely none," "e we aterrisamos at the beginning of the Elísios Fields." "Two days after the fall of Paris, the new first-minister," "Pétain Marshal, asked for the armistice to the Germans." "Reynaud, that was against the peace separately, it was quit." "Almost all France it received the armistice with relief." "Hitler insisted on using the covered cart of Foch Marshal, in Compiégne, where it are signed the 1918 armistice." "For France, it was supreme humilhação." "Who only attended withdrawal, of France, to that gigantic movement..." "Who did not pass for that it does not obtain to understand." "We find that he was imperious to finish with that." "Badly the Frenchmen had signed, Hitler ordered to destroy the place." "Germany already if had avenged." "The parisiense radio, now under German control, it divulged the terms of the armistice." "Now, Paris had that to adapt itself to a new wave of tourist." "Between the first ones it was Hitler, that it made its only visit to the city, and one visits brief." "During four years desolating," "France would go to leave to have a paper in the war." "Certain Frenchmen had opted for resisting courageous, as much in its proper country as in the foreigner, others had fallen in apathy and had collaborated." "Many had been connivent with the New Order of Hitler for the Europe, in the version of Vichy." "Paris, remained one last humilhação." "The triunfal parade of the Germans it followed the passage necessarily of the stop of the French victory after the First War." "The Wehrmacht had delayed but five weeks to defeat its historical enemy." "As Winston said Churchill:" ""The Battle of France had finished."" "'It was you give to start the Battle of England. '"