Liberation of France
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The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance.
Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle speaking from the balcony at Cherbourg City Hall, 20 August 1944
Philippe Pétain meeting Hitler on 24 October 1940. Ribbentrop on the right.
Poster of the 18 June appeal distributed in Occupied France through underground means as pamphlets and plastered on walls as posters by supporters of the Résistance.
Generals Eisenhower and Bradley with a young member of the French resistance during the liberation of Lower Normandy in summer 1944
Battle of France
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The Battle of France, also known as the Western Campaign, the French Campaign and the Fall of France, during the Second World War, was the German invasion of France, that notably introduced tactics that are still used. France and the Low Countries were conquered, ending land operations on the Western Front until the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944.
French soldiers in underground bunkers on the Maginot Line during the Phoney War
French soldier in the German village of Lauterbach in Saarland
The classic characteristic of what is commonly known as "blitzkrieg" is a highly mobile form of infantry, armour and aircraft working in combined arms. (German armed forces, June 1942)
British troops of the 2nd BEF move up to the front, June 1940