German penetration into France

On 5 June 1940 the second phase of the Germans’ Western Campaign begins. Its goal is the total conquest of France: After successful pushes into the North of the country, the Wehrmacht advances rapidly on Paris, which is subsequently occupied on 14 June 1940. Two days later, the new French government under Prime Minister Henri Philippe Pétain offers the Germans a cease fire. It is signed on 22 June 1940 in the forest of Compiègne – at the same place where the Reich had to capitulate in the First World War. To complete the humiliation of the French, Adolf Hitler even has the ceremony take place in the historical train car in which the cease fire of 1918 was negotiated.

© Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin General Keitel reads out the cease fire conditions in the historical train car, to his left Adolf Hitler, 21. Juni 1940

However, the terms of capitulation turn out to be less severe than many Frenchmen feared: Only the North of France is occupied by German troops; the South, with the spa city of Vichy as its capital and Pétain as head of state, retains limited powers of self-government.

In London General Charles de Gaulle establishes a government in exile of the „Free French“ and calls for resistance against the German occupiers.

Source: National Library of Wales The view of the Western World onto the cease fire: Hitler and Mussolini enforce their conditions of surrender to defenseless France