ABSTRACT
The European states that had assumed a position of neutrality when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, soon found themselves unable to maintain that status very long. After a winter of little action in the west Sitzkrieg), German forces suddenly invaded Denmark, Norway, Holland, Luxemburg, and Belgium in April-May of 1940. France, next on the list, agreed to an armistice that permitted the southern portion of the state to remain virtually unoccupied as the Paris government took up its function in the town of Vichy. With all of western and northern Europe under German domination, and now with plans to incorporate it into a greater Germany, and place some of the administration under military authorities, the functions of the AO in that entire area became somewhat superfl uous.
