In response to Germany's re-armament programme, the French had begun moving troops towards the North and East. During late 1938 and 1939, Rue was home to numerous French troops including the 45th and 51st French Infantry as well as elements of the 124th. On 10 May 1940, over the wireless, it was announced that German troops had made it into France. Immediately, the 45th and 124th regiments headed towards the north-east of France. Within 10 days, the German pincer movement, combined with the ill-prepared French resistance and British Expeditionary Force, trapped the Allied troops in Northern France. The arrival of German tanks in Amiens marked the point where the Allied forces were no longer to sustain an effective counter-offensive. It was the entrapment of the allied troop that led to Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of British and French troops from Dunkirk.