June 14, 1940: The Fall of Paris

June 14, 1940: The government of France flees the capital of Paris, for Bordeaux, just ahead of the advancing Heer, the army of Nazi Germany. The City of Light has fallen to the forces of darkness. The Third Republic is dead.

France, along with its ally Britain, had been at war with the Nazis since September 3, 1939, when the Nazis invaded Poland. For a while, it was called a sitzkrieg, a "sit-down war" or a "phony war," because nothing seemed to be happening.

But on May 10, 1940, the blitzkrieg, or "lightning war," began. German forces invaded the Low Countries: Tiny Luxembourg was conquered by the end of the 1st day, the Netherlands fell on May 17, and Belgium was conquered on May 28.

With those events, the British policy of appeasement saw its failure completed. Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister, and Winston Churchill was given the job. On May 13, he gave his first speech to Parliament, saying, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

On that same day, the Germans faced the supposedly unbreachable Maginot Line at Sedan, the site of their greatest victory in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and simply went around it, over ground the French thought couldn't be gone over. The Maginot Line proved to be the most overrated thing since the "unsinkable" cruiseliner RMS Titanic, 28 years earlier.

On May 20, the Nazis opened their largest concentration camp, near Oświęcim, Poland. In German, the town's name becomes "Auschwitz." Their "Final Solution" was still a year and a half away from beginning. On May 26, the 300,000-man British Expeditionary Force began evacuating from France at the port of Dunkirk.

On June 3, The Nazi Air Force, the Luftwaffe, bombed Paris for the 1st time. On June 4, the Dunkirk evacuation was completed. Churchill told Parliament that it didn't matter when, or how, the Nazis came for Britain: 

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen, or may fall, into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. And if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

The Nazi advance continued. On June 7, the royal family of Norway evacuated their country. And on June 13, knowing that the Nazis were now close, the French government declared Paris to be an open city. They fled the next day.

The bad news continued. Also on June 14, on the Eastern Front, the Soviet Union annexed the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. While decrying the "imperialism" of the West. They would hold on to those "republics" for half a century.

It was a great day for Adolf Hitler. It was a great day for Joseph Stalin. It was a great day for the concept of dictatorship in general. It was a horrible day for civilization. It might have been the worst day in human history.

France's humiliation continued. On June 15, the fortress of Verdun, which had famously refused to surrender in World War I, surrendered. On June 16, Philippe Pétain, known as the Lion of Verdun for his refusal to surrender at that place and at that time (declaring, "They shall not pass!"), accepted the post of France's head of state, and began negotiating with the Nazis.

On June 18, General Charles de Gaulle began a series of radio broadcasts from exile in London, calling on French people, wherever they were in the world, to join him in resistance. He said, "France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war."

Also on June 18, Churchill spoke to the world from Parliament:

The Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

On June 23, Nazi Chancellor Adolf Hitler visited Paris, copying the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm I in 1871, and achieving what Kaiser Wilhelm II could not do from 1914 to 1918.

The Battle of Britain began on July 10. No hour in the war seemed to remain the darkest for long.

The film Casablanca dramatized the events of the fall of Paris in a flashback sequence. And there was this sequence in the film's "present," in December 1941, right before the U.S. entered the war, in the title city, in the French colony of Morocco:

Major Heinrich Strasser (played by Conrad Veidt): Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart): It's not exactly MY beloved Paris.

Colonel Heinze (Richard Ryen): Can you imagine us in London?

Rick, knowing they haven't gotten there yet: When you get there, ask me!

Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains): Hm! Diplomats!

Strasser, feeling full of himself: How about New York?

Rick: Well, there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to invade.

On August 25, 1944, after 4 years, 2 months and 15 days of the city under Nazi control, the Allies liberated Paris. On April 30, 1945, Hitler killed himself. On May 8, the Nazis surrendered.

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June 14, 1940 was a Friday. It was the off-season for the NFL and the NHL, and the NBA had not yet been founded. But there was a full slate of Major League Baseball games that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns, 12-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Charlie Keller hit 2 home runs in support of Monte Pearson.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-0 at Ebbets Field. Luke Hamlin pitched a 2-hit shutout.

* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-6 at the Polo Grounds.

* The Boston Bees beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-2 at Braves Field in Boston. This would be the last of the Boston National League team's 5 seasons under the Bees name, as it just didn't catch on, and they once again became the Braves for 1941.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 8-0 at League Park in Cleveland. Johnny Allen pitched a 2-hit shutout.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 10-1 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

* And the Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.