The following is the news headlines as reported in the German "Rheinische Landeszeitung" newspaper May 1940........

1st May 40. The Führer thanks his soldiers. The Commander in Chief and the Norwegian battlefield. Knights Cross for General Falkenhorst.

3rd May 40. German troops have entered Andalsnes. The English in wild flight. Strong British forces seen off.

4th May 40. Will England take the war to the Mediterranean? World powers are trying to expand the war. Englands intervention in the Balkans. England looks for new Allies.

SS-Obergruppenführer Weitzel is given new duties, he will work in the Düsseldorf area

5th May 40. Englands betrayal of Norway. The black day for the English fleet. At Namsos and Narvik heavy losses for the royal Navy. Strong units of the British fleet destroyed. Heavy ladened transport of 12,000 tons sunk. Enemy submarine sunk. The Luftwaffe show the English what they can do, Stukas sink a battleship.

6th May 40. Where will England attack? The whole world is waiting for the answer.

7th May 40. A secret telephone call between Chamberlain and Reynaud says it all, the Allies will strike on the 20th May 1940.

8th May 40. The fascists will be ready if England attacks, the whole of Italy is ready.

9th May 40. Englands flood of lies to Holland. England sends Holland into panic.

10th May 40. England demands that the neutrals take sides, there is no place for neutrals in this war. (note: The newspapers went to print before the attack on Belgium and Holland had started)

11th May 40. The German army of the west, is about to decide the fate of the Nation. A preventive strike against the Allied plan for an attack against the German Ruhrgebiet. The Wehrmacht have crossed the borders of Holland, belgium and Luxembourg on a broad front. The Führer has taken control of the operations and is with his soldiers. Albert Canal has been reached and the Maas in Holland crossed in several places.

12th May 40. The West Army is in the deciding battle, major advances. First Luftwaffe attacks on enemy airfields. Bombs hit enemy battleship and a cruiser near Narvik.

14th May 40. Liege in German hands. Albert Canal crossed at Hasselt. Contact with the fallschirmjäger in Rotterdam. Success against naval forces off the dutch coast. Troops in Norway increased. 320 enemy aircraft destroyed in one day!

German Panzer troops crossing the border on 10th May 1940

The first Belgian prisoners

Engineers lay pontoon bridges over a river to aid the advance

German forces advancing into Luxembourg, a boarder marker is shown left

The first dutch prisoners

Panzer units during the advance

15th May 40. Holland has capitulated. french forces at Namur have been destroyed by the Luftwaffe. Allied forces have been pushed back from the Dyle-Line. At Sedan 70 enemy aircraft shot down. German troops in Dinant, Givet and Sedan. Cowardly flight of the dutch government to London.

16th May 40. The Führer thanks his soldiers in Holland. The heroic battles fought by the Fallschirmjäger.

17th May 40. Big battles fought between Antwerp and Namur. movement on the Saar front.

More dutch prisoners

Here is a dutch bunker

18th May 40. German troops march into Brussels. The Belgian government flee. Namur has fallen. Panzer forces are west of Dinant.

Members of the French army taken prisoner

A river crossing blown up by the dutch

19th May 40. Advances into the heart of France. The islands at Zeeland have capitulated. 108 enemy aircraft destroyed. A destroyer sunk, hits on a heavy cruiser and a transport. The German battle flag flies from the town hall of Antwerp. The Kriegsmarine have laid mines off the South African coast.

A captured Belgian armoured car

20th May 40. Victory on all fronts! 110,000 prisoners, without including the dutch. Many guns up to 28cm caliber captured. The Schelde crossed beyond Antwerp. Armoured bunkers at Montmedy taken. 147 enemy aircraft destroyed. Again more enemy transports sunk.

Dr.Seyss-Inquart becomes the Reichskommissar for occupied Holland 

Captured enemy equipment on the Saar front

21st May 40. Adolf Hitler- Leader of the people. Commander, genius and statesman, the Führer influences the victory.

22nd May 40. The great victory is calling! Channel Coast is reached.

Germa officers under a white flag in Rotterdam. During the dutch surrender 

The Führer and Feldmarschall Göring at the FHQ. Oberst Schmundt makes a report

23rd May 40. The world marvels at the German Wehrmacht.

24th May 40. The first bombs fall on Dover. enemy breakout attempts foiled. Advances towards calais. Success for the Luftwaffe on the channel coast.       S-Boats sink a destroyer. At Narvik a battle cruiser has been hit.

25th May 40. Luftwaffe attacks sink two British cruisers with seven bombs at Narvik.

26th May 40. Gent and Boulogne taken. Calais encircled. Luftwaffe destroy 20.000 tons of shipping.

27th May 40. Calais taken in a victorious assault. Air bases in east and south England attacked. Advances in Flanders and Artois. The ports of Zeebrugge, Ostend and Dunkirk bombed.

Heavy fighting for a river crossing in Belgium

German Fallschirmjäger buy dutch wooden clogs as souvenirs

28th May 40. Enemy breakout attempts fail. PAK destroy many enemy tanks. Panzers set a destroyer on fire. Dunkirk in flames. Paris airport bombarded.

29th May 40. The end of the Belgian army. The belgian king has surrendered his army. Half a million Belgian sildiers lay down their arms. King Leopold is in a Belgian castle. Now the battle is against the real culprits.

30th May 40. fate of the encircled enemy is sealed. Lille, Brugge and Ostend have fallen, Dixmunde has been reached. The reich battle flag flies over the Langemarck memorial. Dunkirk is under heavy artillery fire.

31st May 40. Great air attacks on fleeing British troops. Three warships and 16 transports sunk. 31 other ships hit. Dockgates at Dunkirk destroyed.