News of the day and the final hours before the official surrender of France to Germany on June 20, 1940 as reported by NBC Radio during their News Of The World.
June 20, 2011

German-Army-In-france-1940-.jpg
Germans on the outskirts of Paris - no longer days but hours.


News of this particular day in June 1940 was very bad if you were Paris right now since surrender of France was imminent. The French Army had been cut off and isolated and was forced to give up what was determined to be a losing War.

So the news, as reported on this broadcast of News Of The World indicated, it was just a matter of waiting for the German High Command to accept the terms and hostilities would cease.

And this was grave news for the rest of the Allies (i.e. Great Britain) since the Germans had captured many key ports facing the English Channel, it was without doubt inevitable that Britain would be next in line for invasion and certainly the stepped up daily air raids over London and outlying manufacturing centers convinced everyone the final phase would come shortly.

And Stateside, FDR announced the establishment of a bi-partisan coalition to oversee our further involvement in the European War. This came as a surprise to many in Capitol Hill as FDR announced the inclusion of many key Republicans to posts in the new Cabinet. The move took a goodly amount of thunder out of the GOP Platform convention being held on the same day.

But the news was primarily about the inevitable fall of France on June 20, 1940.

Many nervous days ahead.

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