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Close Combat
Field Marshal Rundstedt’s Army Group A roars across the French border on
May 10 against light resistance. General Heinz Guderian, a leading proponent of
German tank tactics, leads one of the Panzer corps driving into France. Bock’s
Army Group B races across Holland and Denmark.
On May 12, the French Seventh Army clashes with the Germans near Tilburg, but
the French wither before a rain of German attacks. French troops are demoralized
by the Germans’ lightning-quick armored attacks; they are further harassed by
attacks from German Stuka dive bombers.
Both Guderian and the commander of the Seventh Panzer Division, Erwin
Rommel, show the world how the tank has changed the modern battlefield. Many
in the German High Command believe rapid advances by armored units will leave
exposed flanks that invite counterattack. In fact, the Panzer units are often ordered
to halt so the rest of the army can catch up. In Western Europe, the rapidly moving
armored columns do indeed expose their flanks, but these columns breed so much
confusion and panic that counterattacks are impossible to organize.
On May 15, the Dutch surrender. Churchill, visiting Paris to meet with French
leaders, asks where the reserves are. He is appalled at the answer: There are no
reserves. On May 17, the Germans enter Brussels, the next day Antwerp. Three
days later, Guderian’s Panzers reach the coast.
The Germans have mowed a swath 20 miles wide from the Ardennes to the
Atlantic. The French and British try to slice through the swath before it can be
strengthened and widened. Rommel’s division is attacked by British Matilda
heavy tanks near Arras. These tanks make good progress because they can with-
stand most of the Germans’ conventional antitank weapons. When the Germans
are on the verge of defeat, some of their antiaircraft gun crews depress the barrels
of their 88-mm guns, take aim at the Matildas, and fire. The result is disaster for
the British
the 88-mm gun proves to be deadly against tanks. The British attack
is blasted to a halt.
By May 26, it is clear the Belgian army is finished, and British units begin to fall
back on the town of Dunkirk on the French coast. Belgium surrenders on May 28;
British and French units race to cover the approaches to Dunkirk.
Confusion and misunderstanding among the German commanders prevent a
coordinated assault on the Dunkirk perimeter. Ultimately the Panzer divisions are
shifted from Dunkirk south to continue the attack toward Paris. The final push at
Dunkirk falls to the infantry and the German air force
the Luftwaffe.
British and French units at Dunkirk put up a heroic fight while every available
ship and boat is put to use evacuating troops to England. Over 220,000 British and
112,000 French soldiers are evacuated; but when the Germans reach Dunkirk early