Episode 50 - The Railway Carriage

This episode of History Date Night covers June 19th through the 21st of 1940. The war is still moving fast, but the center of gravity is shifting as France is collapsing. Italy is now trying, and mostly failing, to grab a piece of the victory. And in a forest north of Paris, a railway carriage that once witnessed German humiliation is about to witness French humiliation in return.

Over these three days the Germans take more French cities, Mussolini launches his long-promised Alpine offensive in a freak snowstorm, de Gaulle speaks again from London claiming to speak for France, The French fleet begins scattering to ports where Germany and Britain can't easily reach it.and Adolf Hitler personally arrives at Compiègne to begin the armistice talks only to walk out early as a deliberate insult. The end of the Battle of France is only hours away rather than days.