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[[File:French Prisoners 1940.jpg|thumbnail|300px|left|French Prisoners,1940]]
In September 1939, the Nazi German war machine invaded Poland and World War II began. France and its Britain declared against Nazi Germany in 1939. The French army was in theory as strong as the Germany's. It had a vast Empire and a sophisticated arms industry. It had also established a series of fortifications along the eastern border of the country along Germany, known as the Maginot Line. The Line was designed to keep German forces out of France. Initially, France and Great Britain appeared to be a match for Germany. However, in a period of weeks in the late spring and early summer of 1940, it became clear that that France was woefully unprepared for the German onslaught. France suffered a humiliating defeat and was quickly occupied by Nazi Germany. Its failure was a result of a hopelessly divided French political elite, a paucity of quality military leadership, rudimentary French military tactics. On the battlefield France faced a vastly more prepared German army that utilized both more advanced weapons and sophisticated tactics. It was a mismatch.
====Background====
====Superior German Army and tactics====
[[File: Eric Von Manstein.jpg|thumbnail|300px|left|Eric Von Manstein.jpg 1940]]
The German army developed the [[How Did the German Military Develop Blitzkrieg?|Blitzkrieg tactics]]. This was a tactic based on high-speed and mobile attacks on the enemy’s weak points and it proved devastating in France.<ref> Bond, p. 111</ref> The German victory was founded on a plan developed by the great military strategies, General Erich von Manstein. He adopted the Schlieffen Plan that was used so nearly successful in WW I.<ref> Bond, p. 117 </ref> However, rather than advance on a broad front through Belgium, the Germans focused two-thirds of their forces, including most of their tanks, in the Ardennes region of Belgium. This area was weakly defended, as they believed that the terrain was unsuitable for tanks. When the Germans did attack through the Ardennes they caught the French and their British allies by surprise. French believed it was impassable to tanks. Having successfully made their way into France, German forces then employed a tactic known as the ‘sickle stroke’. Sweeping across the northern plains of France at great speed, they divided the French and British forces into two parts. The British army was left isolated in Belgium and the French were left to bear the brunt of the German forces <ref>Blatt, Joel, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EDY69LI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00EDY69LI&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=98a5e102ae32052fa58ceb0d44dbe87b The French Defeat of 1940: Reassessments]</i> (Providence, RI, Berghahn, 1997), p. 111</ref>.
The German army was much superior to the French and the British. Hitler had built up the Germany army and in particular the air force (Luftwaffe). The Germans had developed superior weapons. In particular, they had developed superior aircraft such as the Stuka dive bomber and the Messerschmitt ME fighter plane, that wreaked havoc on the allies <ref> Blatt, p. 117</ref>. The Germans placed a great deal of emphasis on mobile and armoured warfare. They had superior tanks, such as Panzer Mk iv, which easily overcame the allies in almost every tank engagement in the Battle of France. It must be remembered that although the German army was superior to the French in many ways, that this did not mean that the Fall of France was inevitable.
