Battle of France (Communist World)

In the Great Patriotic War, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the successful United Allied Coalition invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 6 May 1944, defeating primarily French forces. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Operation Market Garden, this was commenced on 5 May. Operation Market Garden was the code name for the Battle of Catalonia, was a successful combined British and Commonwealth military operation that focused on the liberation of French-occupied Western Europe. It was the largest seaborne operation up to that time. The operation commenced on 6 May 1944 with the Catalonia landings (Operation Daedalus, commonly known as D-Day). A 12,000-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving almost 7,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the Mediterranean Sea on 6 May; more than three million troops were in France by the end of August.

With France western front mostly defeated, Soviet Union launched the second operation, Operation Alexander on September 16, Soviet/British armored units pushed through the Ardennes to cut off and surround the French units that had advanced into Belgium. When French forces were pushed back to the sea by the highly mobile and well organized Soviet operation, the British government decided to invade France and sent the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) as well as several Commonwealth divisions at Dunkirk in Operation Sledgehammer.

The French were now faced by three powerful Allied army groups: in the north British 21st Army Group commanded by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, in the middle the American 12th Army Group commanded by General Omar Bradley, to the South the US 6th Army Group commanded by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers and to the East the 1st Belorussian Front commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov. By mid-September, the 6th Army Group, advancing from the south, came into contact with Bradley's formations advancing from the west and overall control of Devers' force passed from AFHQ in the Mediterranean so that all three army groups came under the central command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower at SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces).

Under the onslaught in the North, South, and East of France, the French Army fell back. Initially the depleted French forces put up stiff resistance, but British air superiority gradually overwhelmed French artillery positions. Soviet forces outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deeper into France as French forces began to collapse. Soviet-led UAC forces arrived in a heavily defended Paris on 14 December and their commanders met with French officials who sought an alliance with Britain. Chief among these was Marshal Philippe Pétain who, contrary to the wishes of many Frenchmen, announced he would seek an armistice. On 19 August, the French Resistance (FFI) organized a general uprising and the liberation of Paris took place on December 25 when general Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque accepted the French ultimatum and surrendered to general Charles de Gaulle, commander of the Free French 2nd Armored Division, ignoring orders that Paris should be held to the last and to destroy the city.On 27 December, an armistice was signed between Vichy France and United Allied Coalition, which resulted in a division of France whereby Germany would occupy Alsace-Lorraine, Soviet and British joint-occupation of northern France, Italy would control a small Italian occupation zone in the southeast, and an unoccupied zone, the zone libre, would be governed by the newly formed republic government led by Charles de Gaulle. France remained under Allied occupation until the 1950s.