To Lose a Battle by Alistair Horne

Author:Alistair Horne
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780141937724
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2009-08-11T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The Break-Out

15 May

If our tanks are distinctly superior to those of the enemy, our fighters dominate perhaps even more the enemy air force.

Le Temps, 16 May

Responsible circles lay stress on the fact that north of Sedan, inclusive, a war of movement is in progress, and the conflict must therefore inevitably sway to and fro until the main bodies get to grips and a continuous front is established… Under a seemingly endless torrent of bombs, backed up by artillery barrage from the French forces, the Germans wavered and then began to fall back. They found the roads to their rear choked and blocked in many places by wrecked and overturned lorries, tanks, armoured cars, and supply transport.

The Times, 16 May

Upon the crossing of the Meuse in the area of Sedan, with the closest co-operation of the Luftwaffe, the protective wall of France – the Maginot Line – has been broken in its extension to the north-west.

Wehrmacht communiqué, 15 May

Corap: Another Terrible Day

14 May had been a terrible day for General Corap. What the incessant bombing by the Luftwaffe, which had concentrated its attention on the Ninth Army that day, had done to the morale of his battered divisions made a deep impression upon him. But most of all he was concerned at the growth of Rommel’s pocket west of Dinant; and now Guderian was slicing deep into his other flank. Late that night he took a fatal decision, and at 0200 on the 15th he was telephoning Billotte to report that he intended to abandon the whole line of the Meuse. He proposed withdrawing the Ninth Army behind the French frontier positions which they had left just five days earlier in fulfilment of the Dyle Plan. Billotte raised no objection in principle, but instructed Corap to ‘establish an intermediate stop-line on the line of Walcourt–Mariembourg–Rocroi–Signy–l’Abbaye’ – roughly along the main road running north to south from Charleroi to Rethel. But Billotte’s ‘intermediate line’ existed solely on paper, and in the chaos of communications inside the Ninth Army this order marked the beginning of its disintegration. Some of Corap’s units only received orders to halt on the barrier position which General Martin had been trying to establish behind Florennes the previous evening; others duly pulled back to the ‘intermediate line’. Some were unable to move at all; others, receiving no orders, simply disbanded and straggled westwards of their own accord. In a state of high emotion, Corap telephoned General d’Astier begging for air support at dawn to cover his withdrawal. Although his orders were to devote all forces to Huntziger’s front, d’Astier said he would see what he could do; but Corap was even unable to tell him precisely where his own front lay.

Such was the situation at Army level as dawn broke on the 15th. In effect, Huntziger the previous evening had opened one sluice-gate; Corap was now opening the other. Through the pair of them the flood was about to burst into France.

Rommel Strikes Again

Opposite Rommel’s bridgehead, the ‘stop-line’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.