Katana VentraIP

France during World War II

France was one of the largest military powers to come under occupation as part of the Western Front in World War II. The Western Front was a military theatre of World War II encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations.

The first phase saw the capitulation of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France during May and June 1940 after their defeat in the Low Countries and the northern half of France, and continued into an air war between Germany and Britain that climaxed with the Battle of Britain.


After capitulation, France was governed as Vichy France headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain. From 1940 to 1942, while the Vichy regime was the nominal government of all of France except for Alsace-Lorraine, the Germans and Italians militarily occupied northern and south-eastern France. France was not liberated until 1944, when the allied invasion restored the French Government.

and Alpine Line of fortifications and defences along the borders with Germany and Italy

Maginot Line

—17:00 on 3 September 1939

French declaration of war on Germany

Phoney War

The in May and June 1940, in which the German victory led to the fall of the Third Republic .

Battle of France

the main leader

Charles de Gaulle

Free France

Liberation of France

Operation Overlord

- advance (as the right flank of the western front) into Alsace-Lorraine in 1944

Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine

- invasion (as the right flank of the western front) of Baden-Württemberg in 1945

Western Allied invasion of Germany

Kedward, Roderick. "France" in I.C.B. Dear and M.R.D. Foot, eds. The Oxford Companion to World War II (2003) pp 391–408. online at Oxford Reference.