<P> After the withdrawal of the BEF, the German forces began Fall Rot (Case Red) on 5 June . The sixty remaining French divisions made a determined resistance but were unable to overcome the German air superiority and armoured mobility . German tanks outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France . German forces occupied Paris unopposed on 14 June after a chaotic period of flight of the French government that led to a collapse of the French army . German commanders met with French officials on 18 June with the goal of forcing the new French government to accept an armistice that amounted to surrender . </P> <P> On 22 June, the Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed by France and Germany, which resulted in a division of France . The neutral Vichy government led by Marshal Philippe Pétain superseded the Third Republic and Germany occupied the north and west . Italy took control of a small occupation zone in the south - east, and the Vichy regime was left in control of unoccupied territory in the south known as the zone libre . The Germans occupied the zone under Fall Anton in November 1942, until the Allied liberation in the summer of 1944 . </P> <P> During the 1930s, the French had built the Maginot Line, fortifications along the border with Germany . The line was intended to deter a German invasion across the Franco - German border and funnel an attack into Belgium, which could then be met by the best divisions of the French Army . A war would take place outside of French territory avoiding a repeat of the First World War . The main section of the Maginot Line ran from the Swiss border and ended at Longwy . The area immediately to the north was covered by the heavily wooded Ardennes region . General Philippe Pétain declared the Ardennes to be "impenetrable" as long as "special provisions" were taken . If so, he believed that any enemy force emerging from the forest would be vulnerable to a pincer attack and destroyed . The French commander - in - chief, Maurice Gamelin also believed the area to be safe from attack, noting that it "never favoured large operations". French war games held in 1938, with the scenario of a German armoured attack through the Ardennes, left the military with the impression that the region was still largely impenetrable and that this, along with the obstacle of the Meuse River, would allow the French time to bring up troops into the area to counter an attack . </P> <P> In 1939, Britain and France offered military support to Poland in the likely case of a German invasion . In the dawn of 1 September 1939, the German Invasion of Poland began . France and the United Kingdom declared war on 3 September, after an ultimatum for German forces to immediately withdraw their forces from Poland was not answered . Following this, Australia (3 September), New Zealand (3 September), South Africa (6 September) and Canada (10 September) declared war on Germany . British and French commitments to Poland were met politically but they had adopted a long - war strategy and mobilised for defensive land operations against Germany, while a trade blockade was imposed and the pre-war re-armament was accelerated, ready for an eventual invasion of Germany . </P>

Why did the maginot line cause the loss of france
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