The Second World War
3 September 1939 France and Great Britain declare war against Germany, after the invasion of Poland.
France plunged into a dark age, occupied by the Nazis with the terrible implications bombing raids, executions, deportations, murders and famine. Slowly the resistance took shape and began to react, but against such a foe little changed. The population waited for liberation, living day by day under a control of an iron fist imposed by the collaboration of the Vichy government, the SS and Gestapo.
Freedom came with the arrival of the Allied Forces and the D-Day landings in Normandy, the French reacted to the calls of their self-exiled leader Charles de Gaulle. However effort to push the Germans back to the river Rhine was still long and heavy on victims.
Events during 1940
10 May : The Germany divisions drive through Holland and Belgium, passing past the French defences via the North.
the French try to hold back at Sedan, but the lines are broken on the 12th of May
27 May to 4 June : Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk, more than 300,000 French and British soilders where evacuated by boats of all types from the beach.
16 to 24 June : Operation Ariel and Operation Cycle, more than 150,000 Allied soldiers evacuated from the ports Cherbourg, St. Malo, Brest, St. Nazaire, La Pallice, Nantes and Le Havre.
14 June : Paris occupied by the Axis forces
16 June : Petain becomes leader of France
18 June : General de Gaulle called for resistance to the Germans in a broadcast made from London on
24 June : France officially surrenders to Germany
25 June : The Germany advance is halted and France is divided into two regions,
The "Zone libre" is placed under the command of the French General Pétain,
who was nothing more than a puppet, actin on behalf of the Nazis.
10 Jully : what is left of the French government hand over all powers to General Pétain,
this is the end of the Third Republic in France, which was now a "State".
3 Octobre : Publication "Statut des Juifs", which authorizes the internement of Jews.
Events during 1941
Autumn 1941, 10000 French join the "Forces Françaises Libres".
This fighting force was not only built of French men, but aslo, men from Senegal, Chad, Cameroon, Algeria, Marocoo and Tunisia.
The "FFL", where placed under the orders of General Leclerc and his
2nd Armed Division 2eme Division Blindées.
Events during 1942
16 July : 12,884 non French Jews in Paris are taken to the Vélodrome d'Hiver and then sent to the concentration camps.
November : The "Zone Libre" is occupied by the Axis.
13 April : Jean Moulin, the most important figure of the French Resistance is parachuted into France. He dies after months of touture in 1943.
Events during 1944
2 April : ASCQ Near Lille 70 killed
6 April : Outrage AT IZIEU Central France capture of young jewish killed all deported
21 May : The massacre of Frayssinet near Tulle, Central France, 15 people killed
5 June : Paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions lauch attack on Sainte-Mère-Eglise
6 June : D-Day landings, Operation Overlord begins with landings on the beaches Silver Utah Gold
9 June : The Tulle Murders near Limoges, Central France, the SS murdered 99
10 June : Oradour-sur-Glane
2nd Waffen SS Panzer Division Das Reich,
drove into Oradour and killed everyone that they could find,
a total of 642 men, women and children, with only 6 people escaping.
26 June : Cherbourg liberated by American troops.
9 July : Caen is liberated by the Allies.
15 August : Landing in Provence
18 August : Liberation of Paris begins and ends 25 August 1944
12 September : Liberation of Dijon
19 September : Nancy liberated by US First Army.
30 September : German garrison in Calais surrenders to Canadian troops.
24 November : Strasbourg liberated by French troops.
16 December 1944: Battle of the Bulge
The end of the war in Europe
1945 Capitulation of Germany and the signature of the Armistice in Reims, which marks the end of the Second World War in Europe.
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