Now, about France in World War n. In this period of time, ominous【T1】 1 began in Germany and Italy. The Germans reclaimed Alsace-Lorraine in 1936, and invaded Poland in 1939. Because Britain and France had【T2】 2 with Poland, they were forced to declare war on Germany. France was overconfident of its famed Maginot Line, a fortified wall stretching across Alsace-Lorraine: the Germans approached from Belgium, surrounded it and seized it handily. In 1940,【T3】 3 collapsed, and Paris was taken without a fight. The country was divided into an occupied zone and an unoccupied zone, with its seat of government in Vichy. A famous World War I general, Henri Philippe Petain, was made leader, and the Vichy government was later judged to have collaborated with the Nazis. General Charles de Gaulle, the Under-secretary of State for National Defense, had fled to London He organized【T4】 4 to support the Free French in their resistance effort When the Allies landed in French North Africa in 1942,【T5】 5 marched into the unoccupied zone. Two long years later, the Allies finally got a foothold on the beaches of Normandy, June 6, 1944, and entered【T6】 6 in 1944. Allied commander Dwight Eisenhower very diplomatically allowed French troops to enter the city first, to riotous cheers, heartfelt embraces, and unashamed tears. 【T1】