Lim Word - All in order. Win the war

German fighter “Messerschmitt Focke-Wulf 190”, the basis of German achievement of domination in the air of the first half of the war. Takeoff weight 2200 kg., The maximum speed after the replacement of the engine in 1938 – 570—580 km. h. Armament – four 7.92 mm. machine gun, or two machine guns and 20 mm. a gun. During the war years, 33,000 units were manufactured (the most massive combat aircraft in history)

Places of battle are moving to French Dunkirk. The movement of the German panzerwaffe is hampered by the rugged terrain; They also do not aspire to enter the zone of action of the large-caliber naval artillery of the British. Surrounded by Anglo-French troops, taking advantage of the bad weather, interferes with the actions of aviation, they are evacuated by the sea, leaving all their heavy equipment to the enemy. The idea to create here a springboard, a splinter in the body of fascist Continental Europe, is not considered. Photo – the evacuation of British soldiers on ships that came almost right to the shore. Dunkirk, June 1940

Italy enters the war on the side of Germany; although its 300,000-strong army does not have much success, it completely demoralizes the French, and, on June 21, in the Compiegne Forest, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed 20 years ago, France’s surrender is announced. The loss of Belgium: 6,000 people irrevocably, 202,000 prisoners, as well as 112 aircraft, France 84,000 killed, 1.8 million prisoners (the majority are sent to forced labor in Germany), 50 aircraft. Great Britain – 68,000 people, about 1,000 aircraft, 64,000 vehicles, Germany – 18,000 soldiers and officers on German data and 45,000 according to estimates of English historians, 432 aircraft. In addition to the developed French economy, Germany receives 2,000 combat tanks (used against guerrillas or converted into ACS), 1,400 aircraft and a 7,000-strong French volunteer legion. Photo – the rescued British “Tommy” are moving to the shores of the Foggy Albion, the Strait of Pas-de-Calais, June 1940

Burning oil storage Dunkirk. On the right – patrol British plane

Dunkirk through a German camera

The car in Compiegne Forest (France), the very one in which the Treaty of Versailles, humiliating for Germany, was signed 22 years ago. The capitulation of France, or, more precisely, of its northern half, is taken once by the glorious Marshal Petain, the hero of the First World War (right in the center)

The occupation of half of France, Germany and Italy, 1940. In Toulon, the main part, maintaining a high degree of combat capability, is based on the French fleet. The resort city of Vichy becomes the capital of the new government

German children and soldiers welcome the success of Nazi Germany, 1940.

On the night of July 3, 1940, British divisions seized the French warships stationed in British ports. It does not do without bloody incidents, several people die on both sides. The meaning of this operation is not to allow the French, if they so suddenly wish, to transfer their fleet to the Germans (or, even more so, to go over to their side). Similar actions are also being taken in all the bases of the Mediterranean Sea, where the ships controlled by the Vichy government are located. In the Egyptian port of Alexandria, the initiative of the British captain-negotiator allows us to arrive at a reasonable compromise. In July 1943, the battleship, four cruisers and several destroyers join the Anglo-American allies. But, in other places everything is much, much more complicated. Photo – Mers-el-Kebir Harbor, June 1940.

To neutralize part of the French fleet, which is in the harbor of Mers-el-Kebir (Algeria), the British are equipped with a squadron of three battleships, two cruisers, an aircraft carrier and eleven destroyers. In the ultimatum, the French demanded: go to the ports of the West Indies, or flood their own ships. The British commander orders to open fire at 16.45, without waiting for the expiration date of the note presented to him. Shells cover the bored, anchored battleships, cruisers, destroyers, navigational vessels and submarines. Three battleships receive hard-to-repair damage and are stranded. Survivors finish off torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier “Ark Royal”. One battleship, the newest “Strasbourg”, taking advantage of the short-lived lull and the help of a destroyer who removed some of the minefields, leaves for Toulon. On the way this serious ship meets almost board to board, almost defenseless now, the British “Ark Royal”, but the captain orders the fire not to open. The English do not appreciate such a nice gift and send six “Swordfish” to Strasbourg. Anti-aircraft guns left without damage to the battleship knocked down two aircraft

Similar battles will also take place in Dakar (French North Africa, now Sinegal). Attack on a group of ships in the West Indies, the island of Guadalupe, prevents the intervention personally of the US President, Franklin Roosevelt. For two days “Catapults” France loses 1,400 people, England -2 pilots and 6 aircraft. In addition, tens or hundreds of thousands of French with an easy heart become collaborators. Photo – French ships breaking from the harbor of Mers-el-Kebir

The Richelieu battleship (displacement 27,000 tons), which was seriously damaged in the port of Dakar, is subsequently bought from France by the US government. Powerful 380 mm. guns are drilled to the appropriate American standard, and, after this war they are firing off the coast of Burma. But the most interesting is contained in the holds of this elegant, aureole-covered secrets of the ship. It was the gold of the French National Bank, and also of Poland, Belgium, and the Netherlands, only $ 2.5 billion of that time. What happens to the precious metal further, and by what agreement it falls into the hands of the Americans, we just do not know. It is believed that in 1945 its monetary equivalent was transferred to the countries of Europe, under the Marshall Plan, as a loan for exclusively American goods