After reaching the Channel, the German forces swung north along the coast, threatening to capture the ports and trap the British and French forces.

Ī series of Allied counter-attacks, including the Battle of Arras, failed to sever the German spearhead, which reached the coast on 20 May, separating the BEF near Armentières, the French First Army, and the Belgian Army further to the north from the majority of French troops south of the German penetration. On 14 May, German Army Group A burst through the Ardennes and advanced rapidly westward toward Sedan, turning northward to the English Channel, using Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein's plan Sichelschnitt (under the German strategy Fall Gelb), effectively flanking the Allied forces. Gamelin instead committed the forces under his command - three mechanised forces, the French First and Seventh Armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) - to the River Dyle. German forces had already crossed most of the Netherlands before the French forces had arrived. French planning for war relied on the Maginot Line fortifications along the German–French border protecting the region of Lorraine but the line did not cover the Belgian border. In response, the Supreme Allied Commander, French General Maurice Gamelin, initiated 'Plan D' and British and French troops entered Belgium to engage the Germans in the Netherlands. To the east, the German Army Group B invaded the Netherlands and advanced westward. As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and other Allied forces to Britain from 26 May to 4 June 1940.Īfter the Phoney War, the Battle of France began in earnest on. The Battle of Dunkirk (French: Bataille de Dunkerque) was fought around the French port of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany.

Azino dunkirk