WW2 Invasion of France

By May 1940, Europe had been at war for nine months. Yet Britain and France, despite having declared war on Germany in September 1939 following Hitler’s attack on Poland, had seen little real fighting. This tense period of anticipation – which came to be known as the ‘Phoney War’ – met an abrupt end on 10 May 1940, when Germany launched an invasion of France and the Low Countries.

The German plan of attack, codenamed Case Yellow, entailed an armoured offensive through the Ardennes Forest, which bypassed the strong French frontier defences of the Maginot Line. The advance would then threaten to encircle French and British divisions to the north, stationed on the Belgian frontier.

The German offensive quickly overwhelmed Dutch forces, and the bombing of Rotterdam persuaded the Netherlands to surrender on 15 May. And although German forces in the north encountered strong French and Belgian resistance, the main German thrust through the Ardennes met with tremendous success. French second-rate divisions in the area were not prepared or equipped to deal with the major armoured thrust that developed (the forest and poor roads were thought to make this impossible), and were hammered by incessant attacks by German bombers.

Just four days into the invasion German troops crossed the Meuse river, and had broken through the French lines. Attempts by the Allies to launch counterattacks by air and land either failed with heavy losses, or were thwarted by the pace of events. The British Expeditionary Force, along with the best units of the French army, were still in the north and had seen little fighting. But the German breakthrough to the south now forced them into rapid retreat to avoid being cut off with their backs to the sea. On 20 May German tanks reached Amiens and effectively trapped the British, who now made for Dunkirk and an unlikely attempt at evacuation to England.

In these desperate circumstances, an evacuation plan known as ‘Operation Dynamo’ was hastily prepared in Dover by Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay. His strategy included an appeal for all civilian vessels that could cross the Channel to help ferry the troops from the beaches to larger ships offshore, or to evacuate them entirely. Between 26 May and 4 June - a period during which Hitler halted the advance of his troops on Dunkirk - 200,000 British and 140,000 French troops were evacuated to England. Nine allied destroyers and approximately 200 civilian vessels were lost during the evacuation, and the RAF suffered severe casualties covering the operation from the air.

On 5 June, the Germans swung southwards and French resistance finally collapsed, although not without heavy fighting. On 10 June, Italy opportunistically entered the war on Germany’s side. Four days later, the French capital fell, provoking the flight of the French Government to Bordeaux. The Government capitulated on 25 June, just seven weeks after the beginning of the invasion.

The British 51st Highland Division - stationed in the Maginot Line when the fighting started – was forced to surrender at St Valéry. During the final evacuation of British troops from St Nazaire on the Atlantic coast, the troopship Lancastria was sunk with the loss of around 4,000 refugees, British troops and crew.

Reluctant to take the risk that the French Navy would end up under German control, Churchill ordered the Royal Navy to present French warships at Mers-el-Kebir with an ultimatum to sail to Britain or to a neutral port for internment. When this offer was rejected on 3 July, British ships bombarded the fleet, killing 1,600 people. Although this operation did much to assure America of the strength of the British purpose, it and the evacuation of Dunkirk did immeasurable damage to Franco-British wartime relations.

What makes Erwin Rommel a military 'great'?

Rommel is well respected for his tactical skill on the battlefield. Given open terrain and the ability to manuver, Rommel was a highly successful commander who was able to outmanuver or overcome the strengths of his enemies in specific instances. Much of this was also shaped by his willingness to put himself in the front lines.
In the Battle of France, his columns were attacked by British tanks near the town Arras. The heavily armored British Matildas were too well protected for the standard German anti-tank guns of the time. To break the British attack, Rommel established a gun line of 88mm Flak batteries which could take out the Matildas. In addition, his division moved with such speed and seemed to come out of nowhere in the battle seemed would earn the division the nickname "Ghost Division," though I cannot be sure who came up with the nickname. Some sources I have would give the origin to Germans because they couldn't get in contact with Rommel and didn't know where he was, and some other sources would say the French/British because he seemed to arrive where he was unexpected to arrive from.
His best campaign was in Africa, where he with a largely Italian force would drive the British from Benghazi, Libya to El Alamien Egypt. Here, with his skills in manuver was able to outflank and inflict heavy casualties on an enemy force that outnumbered him greatly and generally had more high quality troops available to them than were available to Rommel. In Tunisia, he would also rout American units in the Battle of Kasserine Pass and achieved such a victory that he could have broken Eisenhower's entire army in one fell swoop and prolong the African campaign by months.
Following Africa, Rommel was in relative obscuraty in Northern Italy and was partially responsible for disarming the Italian military after the surrender to the Allies in 1943. He would soon find himself back in France, this time to put forth the defense of the Atlantic Wall. Here, Rommel found himself increasingly at odds with other generals under his command and above him in the chain of command (some of this also occured in Africa, but not to the same degree as it was here). Rommel took the position that it would be best that Germany's tanks be placed close to the beaches so that they could hit the Allies while they were disorganized and getting off the landing craft. For, if they were allowed a toehold, the Western Allies' strengths of air power and logistics would easily defeat the Germans. However, his commander here, Gerd von Rundstedt was largely comming from the Eastern Front where Germany managed to maintain some semblence of air power and manuver up until 1943. Rundstedt argued that Germany's tanks would be better served in the interior to counter attack any possible penetration by the Allies. Hitler ultimately agreed with Rundstedt, and Rommel was left to improvise. His solution was to request mines by the millions, which the Reich couldn't provide him... and ultimately when the Allies did land in Normandy, Rundstedt's earlier victories and the Reich's inability to supply him proved Rommel's predictions right. The Allies gained a toehold and then used superior logistics and air power to outlast the Germans in Normandy. In this sense, Rommel accurately predicted how the Allies would win.
As such, Rommel's skills as a tactician were among the best in World War II. This is also not taking into account his career as a junior officer in WWI, which also included some heroic efforts. These efforts won him respect for his skills alone.
However, the respect and "honor" that has been given him doesn't come from his skills alone. His legacy, has largely been built on the fact that Rommel was not member of the Nazi Party and that there have been plenty of incidents that would create the image of an "honorable man" serving a dishonorable system. Rommel would disobey direct orders with regard to Hitler's favorite "no retreat" command. After El Alamien had gone so bad for him, Hitler gave the command as he always did, but Rommel ordered the retreat anyway to try and save the lives of his men. This action would actually set up the Battle of Kasserine Pass due to Rommel's assessment of Montgomery's caution and that it would prevent Monty from rushing to keep pressure on Rommel.
At other times in the African campaign, Hitler had issued orders that demanded the immediate execution of any commandos or Jews taken in Allied uniform. Most sources I've seen say that Rommel deliberately disobeyed these orders.
The biggest evidence of this comes from repeated incidents of criticizing the Fuhrer. Towards the end of the African campaign or while he was in Northern Italy, Rommel is famously quoted as saying that Hitler was living in some sort of "cuckoo land." The clinching factor in this argument comes from supposed connections between Rommel and the Valkyrie plot by Stauffenberg to kill Hitler. Rommel had no knowledge of the plot and wasn't actually a member of the plot, but two men that were implicated Rommel. One of them was also a member of Rommel's staff and had made the implication after being tortured by the SS. Hitler then gave Rommel a choice. He had the option of standing trial, for which he would certainly be found guilty, and his wife and son would also be executed for treason, or he could commit suicide via poison, and Rommel's family would be spared. Rommel took the poison to save his wife and son, which has created the image of an honorable man. The reason for Rommel's death that the Nazi's gave was ultimately that he had succumbed to wounds sustained in an allied air attack on his car on July 17, 1944.
These incidents created the image of an honorable warrior that fought not for Hitler but for Germany.
However, it would also bear to mind various criticisms of Rommel...
While Rommel was a great tactician, he probably was not that great a strategist. He was expressly ordered by Kesselring and by some Italian superiors not to cross into Egypt following the capture of Tobruk. Rommel ignored these orders and advanced into Egypt where he was soon facing a situation at El Alamien where his tactics of going around the flank wouldn't work. In that sense, Rommel set up his own defeat at El Alamein.
In addition, Rommel also mistakenly believed that the main Allied landings on D-Day would be at the Pas Du Calias, because the region would provide the best spot for Allied air cover. This largely left progress in the Normandy sector lacking and would help enable the Allies to win there. Rommel would be quick to realize that Normandy was the real landing zone, but the fact that he guessed wrong can not be denied. In fact, Rommel was not even at his HQ when the Allies attacked. He had gone back to Germany for either his wedding anniversery or his wife's birthday.
In addition, close examination of his political stances, while he wasn't pro-Nazi, he wasn't exactly anti-Nazi either. He has been described as apolitical, which I would agree with, but by being so, it could also mean that while he didn't agree with the Nazis, it was clear that he wasn't going to take a direct stand against them. The fact that he was not part of the Stauffenberg plot is clear of this aspect as well.
However, these things have not totally tarnished Rommel's record or removed his tactical skills.