Sun Tzu at Gettysburg by Bevin Alexander

Author:Bevin Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2011-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

Guderian’s and Reinhardt’s panzers were rolling toward the English Channel against virtually no opposition. On the roads, panicked civilians and fleeing soldiers were all mixed together, creating chaos. Infantry divisions had relieved the mobile forces fighting for the Stonne heights, but Wietersheim was having a difficult time getting his motorized divisions forward to seal the flanks. Rundstedt was doing everything possible to bring forward the infantry divisions, but they were marching on foot and the pace was slow. To the orthodox soldiers who made up the German high command, dangers threatened the flanks with every mile that the panzers pressed westward.

The German generals were as bewildered by the pace of the advance as the Allies. They were unable to comprehend what was actually happening. No one had ever seen anything like this. They could not understand that an unprecedented victory was unfolding, and that the speed of the panzer advance alone made it impossible for the French to respond.

Rather, they feared that a disaster was about to descend on the German army in the form of some tremendous counteroffensive launched from somewhere on the flanks. Hitler, above all, was on the verge of distraction. Despite the fact that he had approved the strategy, Manstein’s (and Sun Tzu’s) concepts of uproar east and attack west and of striking into weakness were entirely alien to him. Now that they were succeeding beyond his wildest imagination, he became terrified and uncertain.

Hitler hurried to see Rundstedt at Charleroi, Belgium, and urged him to be cautious. Rundstedt, a very conventional soldier, was also worried. He ordered Ewald von Kleist to stop the panzers in order for the infantry to catch up. Kleist commanded the panzer group made up of the corps of Guderian, Reinhardt, and Wietersheim.

Kleist did not convey the anxieties in the high command to his corps commanders. He simply told them to halt. But Guderian and Reinhardt saw that victory could be ensured only if they continued to drive west at full throttle and not give the confused French a chance to draw a breath, assemble their scattered forces, and actually launch a strike on the flank.

After a heated argument with Kleist, Guderian was able to get him to allow the advance to continue for another twenty-four hours. Guderian then ordered his troops to spring forward without hesitation and without stopping. By nightfall on May 16, Guderian’s spearheads were at Marle and Dercy, on the Serre River fifty-five miles west of Sedan, while his and Reinhardt’s reconnaissance elements were all the way to the Oise River, another fifteen miles west.

Guderian assumed that this spectacular success had quieted the fears back at headquarters, and he sent a message that he intended to continue the pursuit the next day, May 17. Early in the morning, Guderian received a radio flash that Kleist would be flying into Guderian’s airstrip at Montcornet, a few miles east of Marle, at 7:00 a.m. Kleist arrived promptly, didn’t even bid Guderian good morning, and launched into a tirade for his disobeying orders.

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