The
Battle of France, also known as the
Fall of France, was the German invasion of
France and the
Low Countries during the
Second World War. Beginning on 10 May 1940, the battle defeated primarily French forces. The German plan for the battle consisted of two main operations. In the first,
Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armoured units pushed through the
Ardennes and then along the
Somme valley to cut off and
surround the
Allied units that had advanced into Belgium to meet the German threat. When British, Belgian and adjacent French forces were pushed back to the sea by the highly mobile and well-organized German operation, the British government decided to evacuate the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF) as well as several French divisions at
Dunkirk through
Operation Dynamo.