a short time, Norway was captured, and Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian sympathetic to Hitler, was made Minister President of Norway.
Land occupied by Germany ‘Puppet’ government Land occupied by USSR German invasions Italian attack on France
Iron ore
FINLAND NORWAY SWEDEN
IRELAND
UNITED KINGDOM
HOLLAND Dunkirk BELGIUM
Maginot Line
VICHY FRANCE YUGOSLAVIA SPAIN ITALY
ROMANIA BULGARIA
Hitler's conquests, 1939–40
The invasion of France, 1940 On 10 May 1940, Hitler began his attack on France. He again used blitzkrieg tactics of control of the air, rapid tank movement and infantry mopping up. He caught the French and British by surprise, as German tank divisions advanced quickly through the Ardennes Mountains in Luxembourg. They cut off French and British troops who had invaded Belgium. The defeated armies were pushed back to Dunkirk on the English Channel.
Dunkirk At this point, Hitler ordered his troops to halt and this gave the British and French time to organise the mass evacuation of troops from Dunkirk. In Operation Dynamo, Britain sent all available boats – naval vessels, tug boats, even paddle steamers – to
