Download Free France: The History and Legacy of the Exiled Free French Government during World War II AudioBook Free
"Whatever happens, the fire of French Resistance should not be extinguished and will not be extinguished." - Basic Charles de Gaulle, radio broadcast from London, June 18, 1940"An excellent man? Why, he's selfish, he's arrogant, he considers he's the guts of the world...you're right, he's a great man!" - Winston Churchill on Basic Charles de GaulleThe French Military crumbled quickly under the powerful blows sent to it in 1940 by Nazi Germany's positive Wehrmacht. Launching an enormous feint into Belgium to lure mobile French armies and the British isles Expeditionary Force (BEF) from the actual point of assault, the weakly guarded Ardennes Forest, the Germans struck past the Maginot Line. In a lightning plan, Heinz Guderian's panzers punched through to the coast, dividing Allied causes with a metal cordon across France and forcing the evacuation of the BEF from the interface of Dunkirk.French morale collapsed very quickly when confronted with the 3rd Reich's onslaught. The French population had not yet recovered from World Battle I's enormous bloodshed, and many French preferred surrender to a second decimation of these young men. Consequently, the Germans seized the north French territories straight, while permitting Marshal Petain, an older warfare hero and right-wing fanatic, to found a rump talk about centered on Vichy. Background dubbed the quasi-independent customer state's federal the Vichy Routine.Not absolutely all French people proved ready to surrender to the Nazi invaders, however.
