© Press Agency photographer/public domain
Aftermath
The rapid German advance left many Allied soldiers in danger of capture. Further amphibious evacuations, Operation Cycle and Operation Aerial, between 10 and 25 June resulted in another 192,000 troops (British, Canadian, French, Polish and Czech) and civilians being rescued and taken to safety by the Royal Navy from ports in Brittany and western France.
Many also lost their lives, including those at sea aboard HMT Lancastria, which was sunk off Saint-Nazaire by German aircraft. Between 3,000 and 6,000 people are thought to have died, the worst naval disaster in British history. Elsewhere, thousands were left behind, including over 10,000 men of the 51st Highland Division, who became prisoners of war.
The terms of the Armistice allowed the southern half of France, except the extreme south-east (which was occupied by Germany’s ally, the Italian Army) and the Atlantic seaboard, to remain under French civil administration. France also retained her colonies in North Africa and elsewhere, but in every other respect France became a puppet state of Germany. The new French government was based on the city of Vichy in central France. But in late 1942 it effectively lost power when German and Italian forces took over, after the Allies invaded North Africa, to safeguard southern France.
The liberation of France had to wait almost two more years, following the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
By Paul Pattison,Senior Properties Historian, English Heritage
Top image:German tanks advancing through difficult terrain in the Belgian Ardennes, May 1940 (©ullstein bild/Getty Images)
