The Battle of France, spanning May 10 to June 22, 1940, was the brilliant triumph of Germany's Fall Gelb ("Case Yellow") invasion plan, which brought about the ignominious defeat of the forces of France, Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. At the start of the battle, the Allied and German forces looked to be evenly matched. The French army had 104 divisions available (up from 94 at the very outbreak of war eight months earlier), the British Expeditionary Force (BEF, British forces transferred to the Continent) had 10, Belgium 22, and the Netherlands eight, for a total of 144 divisions. Germany invaded with 141 divisions. The Allies had nearly 14,000 guns against 7,378 for Germany, but much of the Allied firepower was obsolescent. Particularly lacking were antitank and antiaircraft artillery. France had 3,063 tanks, and the other Allies a few more, for a total of 3,384, many of them light tanks with inadequate firepower. Germany had 2,445 tanks, most of them more modern than the French vehicles. In terms of aircraft, the French air force had 637 operational fighters, all obsolescent, and 242 bombers. Britain had 262 fighters and 135 bombers based in France, and it had another 540 fighters and 310 bombers based in England. Belgium and the Netherlands contributed a few more of each, so that the total of Allied fighters and bombers available was 1,590 and 708, respectively. Germany substantially outmatched these totals with 1,736 fighters (of which 1,220 were operational at the commencement of battle) and 2,224 bombers (of which 1,559 were operational). The German aircraft, especially the fighters, were of the most advanced type for their day and easily outclassed the French planes.

French military resources looked far better on paper than they were in reality. The army was substantial at some 5 million men, but it was poorly led by a high command that had a weak grasp of strategy, tactics, and execution and that communicated inadequately with commanders in the field. To compound these deficiencies, army commanders consistently failed to coordinate action with air commanders. Perhaps worse, the army was pervaded by an emotion of defeatism, and France's politicians had done nothing to furnish a cogent, let alone inspiring, vision of the nation's war aims. Doctrinally, the French army was also at a grave disadvantage. It had prepared for a static, defensive battle in the manner of World War I's western front. There was virtually no offensive component to this plan, and, even as defense, it was wholly inadequate to the kind of war Germany had already demonstrated in the invasion of Poland: highly violent, highly mobile Blitzkrieg. . .

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