Stackpole Military Photo Series - Blitzkrieg France 1940

As June began, the situation in France was bleak for the Allies. With the evacuation of the BEF, the French Army and remaining British troops were left to defend a long front from the Channel to Sedan with minimal forces and no reserves.This was compounded by the fact that much of their armor and heavy weapons had been lost during the fighting in May. On June 5, the Germans renewed their offensive and quickly broke through the French lines. Nine days later Paris fell, and the French government fled to Bordeaux.
With the French in full retreat south, the British evacuated their remaining 215,000 troops from Cherbourg and St. Malo (Operation Ariel). On June 25, the French surrendered, with the Germans requiring them to sign the documents at Compiegne in the same rail car that Germany had been compelled to sign the armistice ending World War I.