In World War II, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium. In the second operation, Fall Rot (Case Red), executed from 5 June, German forces outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France.
France's capital of Paris was occupied on 14 June. On 17 June, Marshal Philippe Pétain publicly announced France would ask for an armistice. On 22 June, an armistice was signed between France and Germany, going into effect on 25 June. For the Axis Powers, the campaign was a spectacular victory.
Germany won the Battle of France in 1940. France formally surrendered to Germany in a railroad car, which was kept in the war museum of Soldier's Hall in Berlin.
During World War II, the Battle of France allowed the Germans to conquer the Low Countries and France, and effectively reduce Britain and her empire to being the only opponents in the fight against the Axis. In the aftermath, the Germans occupied the northern area of France, while France itself was divided into two factions. Free France which sided with the Allies in order to keep up the fight and one day regain the homeland, and Vichy France, which sided with the Axis.
Even after the Race Invasion of Tosev 3 in mid 1942, the battle was still fondly remembered by many Germans, particularly those in the Wehrmacht, as their crowning moment of glory.