Allied Forces Act 1940 Allied Forces Act 1940 The Allied Forces Act 1940 (3 & 4 Geo. VI c. 51) was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in late 1940, after the fall of France. The Act gave legal authority for the recognised sovereign governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland – all countries then under German occupation – to raise, equip and maintain independent armed forces on British soil. A sixth country, France, was provided for by authorising the activity of the Free French forces under General de Gaulle. The forces would be fully independent,
Armistice of 22 June 1940 Armistice of 22 June 1940 The Armistice of 22 June 1940 was signed at 18:36 near Compiègne, France, by officials of Nazi Germany and the French Third Republic. It did not come into effect until after midnight on 25 June. Signatories for Germany included senior military officers like Wilhelm Keitel, the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht (the German armed forces), while those on the French side were more junior, such as General Charles Huntziger. Following the decisive German victory in the Battle of France (10 May–21 June 1940), this armistice established a German occupation zone in Northern and Western France that