France 1940
1940, the year of the defeat of the French army at the hands of Nazi Germany: the German offensive began on 10 May and forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee. On 17 June, the German army crossed the Loire, while on the same day, Marshal Pétain, who had been put to flight, formed his Cabinet. The following day in London, De Gaulle made his appeal to the French to continue to fight the invading forces. France was thereafter split into two, with a zone in the north controlled by the occupying troops and a free zone to the south run by the Vichy Government. While the meeting with Hitler at Montoire on 24 October 1940 was symbolic of the Collaboration of Pétain and his ministers with the Germans, the organization of the Resistance, both abroad, with the Free France started by General De Gaulle, and on French soil, was underway.
