British Expeditionary Force

British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the British Army sent to the aid of France in both World Wars.

The first British Expeditionary Force was sent to help France in 1914, and fought in the trenches of the Western Front until 1918.

The second British Expeditionary Force was sent to help France in 1939, after the German invasion of Poland. Following the German offensive which swept through the Low Countries and bypassed the Maginot Line via the Ardennes, France collapsed and the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk, so as to remain avaiable to the British in later parts of the war.

British Expeditionary Force in The War That Came Early
The second British Expeditionary Force was sent to help France in 1938, after the German invasion of Czechoslivakia. Following the German offensive which swept through the Low Countries and bypassed the Maginot Line via the Ardennes, France continued to present a fierce resistance to the invaders. The British Expeditionary Force kept up the fighting retreat along with its French ally and with exiled Czechoslivak and Belgian troops, though cut off from Britian by the German occupation of Dunkirk and other Channel ports. British troops of the BEF had a key role in the Battle of Paris, where the German advance was halted at the very outskirts of the French capital.