In the early morning hours of May 28, 1940, French Premier Paul Reynaud made a radio address to the people of France to tell them of the surrender of Belgium and Holland to advancing German armies with the situation as Reynaud put it, "dark" and "grave".
Reynaud urged the people of France to continue fighting, and tried to offer some hope that the tide could be turned in the Allies favor. Both Britain and France were harsh in their criticism of the Dutch and Belgians for surrendering so quickly (the German invasion of the Low Countries had taken place on May 10th). However, the criticism belied the fact that now both France and Britain were in line for invasion. Less than a month later France would surrender, leaving only Britain to continue the war.
Here is most of the Reynaud address, since it was broken up by bad atmosphere conditions in the Shortwave transmission. There is commentary by Robert Trout of CBS Radio and breaking news reports during the broadcast. A momentous day and one filled with uncertainty in 1940.
