France in World War II

One of the most relevant nations of the Second World War it was France, being one of the greatest powers on the Allied side and being the greatest power that was under the control of the Germans during the war, being therefore very interesting its role to understand the German invasions in Europe. To talk about one of the countries that suffered the most from war, in this lesson from a teacher we must talk about France in World War II.

Index

1. What was the role of France in World War II?
2. When did France fall in World War II?
3. How was France divided in WWII?
4. The Liberation of France: The Normandy Landings

In September 1939, following the invasion of Hitler's Germany on the sovereign nation of Poland, France and the United Kingdom they declared the war on germany, initiating what is known as the Second World War. In this first period of the war the conflict was called as Prank war, being the period started after the declaration of war and that lasted until the German invasion of France.

In this period of the war, the English and French had hardly any movement and had no confrontation with the Germans although in theory they should have entered Poland to save the population by your agreements. Most battles around this time occurred in the sea, without the intervention of either of the two great powers.

It was not until April 1940 that took place the first confrontation between France and the Axis Powers, when they invaded the lands of Denmark and Norway and the French and British had no choice but to intervene, although the number of French envoys was very limited by the great distance that existed between their nation and the states Nordic.

Meanwhile, the German and French armies were in the area of ​​the river Rhine, being what fixed the border between Germans and French and being an area occupied by spies who sought to know all the plans of the adversary before entering a conflict.

Was the May 10, 1940 when the German attack on France, being a known lightning attack that sought to take the entire nation as quickly as possible and prevent the French state from receiving aid. In six weeks the Germans were able to invade almost all of France, occupying the entire northwestern part of France and especially the capital of Paris in the so-called Battle of France.

On June 22, the French government signed the second armistice of Compiegne, an agreement that gave Germany and Italy control almost all of France and that it established the Petain government as the ruler of a France that was now an ally of the Axis Powers.

To talk about France in World War II it is vital to understand that between 1940 and almost the end of the war this nation was occupied by the Germans, being able to speak of two very different France during this period: one being Vichy France dominated by the Germans and the so-called Free France that from outside the French nation sought support to liberate its nation from the oppressors Nazis.

Vichy France

We know as Vichy France by puppet government placed by the Germans in France during World War II and whose leader was Philippe Petain. This government located in the city of Vichy had control of France between 1940 and 1944, being the date on which France was liberated by the Allies.

This new government destroyed parliamentary democracy of France, banned political parties and all the freedoms of the time, thus being an authoritarian regime that sought to create a fascist system similar to that of Hitler and Mussolini.

Among his support for the fascists is to keep the German men who were occupying France, to move Frenchmen to the German region so that their economy does not break down. was affected, exterminate the Jews as was done in Germany and fight against the French who had formed a resistance to try to defeat Hitler

Free France

The other part of France that sought to defeat the Germans to regain the territories invaded by them was the so-called Free France and later like Government of Combatant France, led by a key figure in French history as was Charles de Gaulle.

Within the Allied side, Free France was a group of French who had escaped from the invaders, other French citizens who were still They found in the invaded area, inhabitants of the French colonies in Overseas and members of the Foreign Legion who sought to defeat the fascists and Nazis.

Founded in 1940, Charles de Gaulle demanded from abroad that all the French and the enemies of the Axis Powers unite on the same side with the promise of power. liberate the French state from the German invasion. The union of many colonists in the African zone made the first battles of Free France were in African territories such as Libya, Egypt or Tunisia, where they defeated the Italians.

After years of war, in 1944 all the ideologies of France came together to form a provisional government, declaring the Vichy government illegitimate and initiating efforts to take France.

Image: History classes

In June 1944 took place on Normandy's landing, in which the set of all the Allied armies, including all those French who had joined the Free France, landed in a French zone to initiate the liberation of the French country and at the same time initiate the counterattack against the Germans.

In August 1944 the city of Paris was liberated Nazism, forcing the German troops to return to Berlin by the large number of soldiers who had landed to take France. After the conquest, Gaulle remained an Allied force until the taking of Berlin and the end of the war with the defeat of Germany.

After the taking of France, the Vichy government was overthrown and announced as illegitimate and null and that therefore the French Republic had never ceased to exist. With a key role in the post-war treaties for being one of the main powers of the Allies, France began a process of return to democracy in which they did not take long to initiate democratic elections.

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• Boyero, M. TO. G. (2010). The Vichy Regime: Fascism in "Free" France (1940-1944). Revista de Claseshistoria, (3), 58.
• Marrus, M. R., & Paxton, R. OR. (1995). Vichy France and the Jews. Stanford University Press.
• Beevor, A., Cavalcanti, C., & de Oliveira Brízida, J. (2012). The Second World War. Past present.