On 9 June, just fourteen days after the start of the French campaign.

The British began to develop their usual style of betraying their allies. The commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Admiral Haig, did not inform the French 6th Army, which was fighting alongside him, and ordered the British troops to begin to retreat from the Arras line.

The French army under the command of General Fayole stubbornly resisted the attack of the German 3rd and 7th armies on the Somme line, and because the two German corps suffered huge losses in the just-concluded Battle of Arras, they did not have time to replenish and recover before they were thrown into the battle again, so the attack was weak and could not break through the positions defended by the French army.

Due to an error in the judgment of the direction of the retreat of the British troops, the armored forces of the German and Austro-Hungarian forwards, having bypassed the line of defense outside Paris, did not advance along the Seine towards the sea, but turned their aim to Amiens in the north. Unlike the already hopelessly incorrigible line of defense on the Maas and eastern Somme, the French forces defending the line of the Oise and Arras were well preserved, and the entire line of defense was held on and was not broken through by the Germans.

The Austro-Hungarian 39th Army, led by Lieutenant General Miller, joined up with the vanguard of the German 9th Army on the banks of the Oise River east of Carlyle to prepare for a forced crossing of the Oise. However, the French Reserve Army Group under the command of General Foss had already built a strong defensive line along the Oise River, and the German-Austrian attack did not have an effect, but suffered heavy losses.

The problem now was that the High Command was not sure about the goal of the attack, and the Germans advocated taking the besieged Paris first, while the Austrians wanted to give priority to the destruction of the enemy's mobile corps and temporarily abandon Paris. This caused the offensive to be uncoordinated, and rich time was wasted on the bickering of senior generals on both sides, and due to insufficient troops, the German-Austrian army was never able to break through the French line of the Oise.

On the west bank of the Oise, the French army relied on the terrain to build well-built field fortifications, and the two sides engaged in fierce artillery battles across the riverbank, and the French artillery positions were hidden in some villages or woods, which were difficult to destroy. By the time the main forces of the Austrian 7th Army arrived at the line of the Oise River, the two sides had been facing each other along the river bank for a full week.

It was because of this week's time that nearly 700,000 British troops had retreated smoothly across the Seine and began to retreat towards the Cotentin Peninsula. Cursing the treacherous British army, General Fayole fought and retreated, retreated across the Somme, and joined up with Foy's forces.

Admiral Fouche received Milner and Churchill from England at his headquarters in Amiens, and he was outraged that the British had fled without a fight. But what made him even more resentful was the politicians who controlled the government, and it was precisely because of their infighting that France today fell into a desperate situation from which it could not extricate itself. If they had chosen either him, Petain, or Castano to take over as commander-in-chief of the French army when they had been relieved of his post as commander-in-chief, they would not have been in the current situation.

Now he was faced with a choice: whether to lead his more than 600,000 men to retreat with the British to the Cotentin Peninsula, and then retreat to the British to continue the resistance, or to wait for surrender.

After weighing for a long time, at the instigation of Churchill, Fuxi still made up his mind to retreat to Britain first.

In this way, it may also preserve the strength of France to fight for rights and interests in the post-war period.

Without further ado, Fu Xi gave the order to retreat overnight.

The general offensive of the Austro-Hungarian army began at dawn on June 17. It was dawning, the banks of the river were still covered with morning mist, and the shelling began, and the French artillery immediately began to return fire. All of a sudden, the entire banks of the Oise River were shrouded in smoke and artillery fire. Fuxi left all his artillery units, but only four divisions of infantry were retained to defend the riverbank. The French spared no expense and consumed hundreds of thousands of artillery shells in one day, and with such heavy artillery fire that the Austro-Hungarian troops preparing to attack could not approach the river bank at all.

That night, the French threw down all their heavy equipment and artillery and fled in the middle of the night.

The next day, after encountering only slight resistance, the Austro-Hungarian army crossed the Oise River lightly. However, they went in the wrong direction, and the avant-garde pursued in the direction of Amiens, while the main force of Fouche withdrew from Rouen to the south of the Seine. On 19 June, the Austro-Hungarian army captured Amiens by the air, and under the reconnaissance of the air force, it became clear that the main force of the Anglo-French army had retreated towards the Cotentan Peninsula.

The British and French, after withdrawing across the Seine, blew up all the bridges over the river, which greatly slowed down the Austrian advance, and the Austro-Hungarian side did not have enough troops to catch up, and Admiral Covis had to advance cautiously to avoid being surrounded by the Anglo-French counterattack.

Under the personal supervision of Heldon, Ludendorff reluctantly transferred the 3rd and 9th armies to join the Austro-Hungarian pursuit of the Anglo-French forces.

The Anglo-French forces had already built strong fortifications along the Orne River, and since the Battle of Cotentin began on 21 June, this line has gathered the densest army in the world. Due to the special topography of the peninsula and the fact that the British still controlled the sea, the attacking forces could not spread out on such a narrow terrain, and the two sides engaged in a tug-of-war here for two months.

During the two-month Battle of Cotentin, both the attacking German-Austrian forces and the defending Anglo-French forces suffered heavy losses, with 280,000 German-Austrian casualties and 220,000 Anglo-French casualties.

This was the only major battle in the entire European War in which the Germans suffered more casualties than the British and French.

The British side advertised this battle as a great victory, but it is true that the German-Austrian side forced an attack on the peninsula that was advantageous to defense, and the losses were higher than those of the opponent.

Britain was determined to continue the fight against the Allies, but it was clear that he could not pose a threat to the continent for the time being.

The French government hastily evacuated Paris before the German-Austrian coalition encircled, the cabinet collapsed, and they formed a provisional government headed by Clemenceau in Bordeaux. But it didn't help.

The German and Austrian High Command issued an ultimatum to the defenders of Paris, demanding that they surrender by 25 June.

On the afternoon of 24 June, General Pétain, in order to avoid the destruction of the entire city, declared Paris an undefended city, and the 500,000 defenders laid down their arms. The German crown prince led the German 8th Army into Paris, and the Austro-Hungarian side sent only a symbolic infantry regiment.

On the day the Germans occupied Paris, Clemenceau's government asked Germany and Austria for an armistice.

France capitulated.

I1153