The first part of the plan met with complete success. On 1st May the offensive in the west opened; French resistance collapsed every- where almost at once. Holland and Belgium capitulated. The British Army fell back fighting on Dunkirk, where it succeeded in embarking a large part of its personnel, but had to abandon the whole of its guns and equipment. Italy joined Germany on 10th June. France, with her colonies in North Africa, surrendered on 21st June. Great Britain stood alone. But the preliminary to the invasion of England was to be the destruction of the Royal Air Force, with the bombing of London, and in the Battle of Britain the German air fleets were defeated and this part of Hitler's plans was abandoned. Also, on the Egyptian frontier the Italian army was practically destroyed a little later by General Wavell.

It will be seen how later on America and Russia joined the Allies and Japan the enemy, and how the lesser powers in the Balkans and Scandinavia were drawn successively into the war, while Turkey this time remained neutral

The Regiment And The United States Of America

America did not actually enter the war until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December, 1941, but her sympathy for the cause for which England was fighting was shown in many material ways. Americans were enlisting in the British Services and it was only natural that the Royal American Regiment of two hundred years ago should receive special attention in this respect.

In the spring of 1941 the plan to enlist a certain number of American citizens as officers in the Regiment was approved by the American Government with the British War Office and put into effect. The first five candidates, selected from a large number of applicants, joined the Depot at Winchester and after a course of training in the Rifle Officers' Training Corps were granted His Majesty's commission in the 60th. The number of Americans who by this plan became officers in the Regiment was seventeen, three of whom were killed in action and all proved themselves brave and efficient leaders of men. When America entered the war the scheme ceased to operate, but it had revived an old association and added a new and enduring link between the British Army and the United States.

It is of interest that the first American unit to occupy the Ride Depot Barracks, while training for the invasion of France in 1944, was the 60th Regiment, 9th Division, United States Army.