The Western Front of the European Theatre of Great Patriotic War encompassed Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and France. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale ground combat operations. The first phase saw the capitulation of the Low Countries and Germany during May–June, 1940, and consisted of an air war between France and Britain that climaxed during the Battle of Britain which led to the invasion of Great Britain. The second phase consisted of large-scale ground combat, which began in May 1944 with the Allied landings in Catalonia and continued until the defeat of France in December 1944.