Breakthrough at Sedan:German panzers cross the Ardennes in May 1940 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS From September 3, 1939 until May 10, 1940, the "phoney war", a non-war, put the French people to sleep in a strange atmosphere. The French general staff awaits the German attack, imprisoned in a defensive conception of war. However, in barely six weeks, the French army, which some have said is the strongest in the world, is defeated, crushed, humiliated. It's a blitzkrieg (Blitzkrieg) unique and traumatic, who got the better of her. Yet the Germans never imagined such a scenario. Indeed, on May 10, the Wehrmacht launched a dazzling offensive on Western Europe. It passes through the Ardennes before breaking through the Sedan front, where the Allies do not expect them. The element of surprise, combined with the errors of the French high command, is the key to the German victory. The Führer's Offensive Hitler decided to attack west sooner or later, when he invaded Poland in September 1939. After dozens of postponements, the Führer made the decision to launch his armies west in warmer weather. favorable and despite the reluctance of some of its generals, who know that the Allies have as much equipment, or even more – it still has to be operational. The German equipment is not very modern:out of 157 divisions capable of fighting, only 16 are motorized; the others advance at the speed of infantry, as during the Great War. However, the strength of the German attack lies in the concentration of a maximum of planes and armored tanks in the Ardennes; the Allies thus did not have time to gather their troops to block the way to the Wehrmacht. The German command is also very disciplined and they have no problem with the combined use of all arms, while in France only a few officers in the 1930s, including Colonel Charles de Gaulle, pressured the authorities to think of an offensive strategy. On May 10, German paratroopers landed on Dutch soil and took the bridges and border fortifications. Panzers supported by infantry enter the Netherlands at the same time. They then rush towards Rotterdam. Five days later, the Dutch capitulated. At the same time, seven divisions of panzer tanks were launched towards Luxembourg and Belgium. On May 12, the Germans reached the Meuse. Hitler is very surprised by such successes. The Maginot line is useless For his part, General Gamelin, head of the French armies, launched the Dyle-Breda manoeuvre, but fell into the trap of the Manstein plan:the Franco-British Allies rushed towards Belgium when the Germans rushed towards an area where the fortifications masses do not exist. Bypassed by the west, the Maginot line is useless. The Belgian Ardennes are therefore crossed without great difficulty by the Wehrmacht and fighter planes. On May 15, the panzers are in Sedan and Dinant; a "boulevard" emerges, which then makes it possible to reach the Oise, on the 18th. The attackers have just broken the French front line and opened a breach of nearly 90 km. They cause an unspeakable panic in the rear of the French army, totally disrupting communications. The French command seemed to be failing, unable to send a reserve army to prevent the Germans from marching towards the sea and encircling the Allied armies to the north. French and English try to counter-attack between 16 and 22 May. In vain. Abbeville was taken on May 20, and the Channel coasts were reached the following night. In Flanders, the Allies are caught as in a trap. The German command has pulled off a masterstroke by cutting the Franco-British armies in two. Hope arose with a British counter-offensive on the evening of May 21; Hitler is worried about this and asks the panzers to stop their maneuvers which consist in trying to reach the Channel ports, between May 22 and 26. The infantry is lagging behind the tanks. The Germans feared being stuck in Flanders. Hitler and the German leaders remember with dread the battle of the Marne in September 1914, lost, letting slip the possibility of entering Paris. Pugnacity of the French soldiers The Belgian army capitulated on May 28. Weygand, who replaced Gamelin, then had few resources to defend a front 280 km long. Since May 26, the Allied military leaders seem unable to re-establish a continuous front. However, on the ground, the soldiers fight with pugnacity, but they are badly commanded, having to face permanent orders and counter-orders. Weygand fails in his attempt to unblock the situation in Flanders and free the Allied soldiers caught in a trap. And then the French and the English do not always agree on the decisions to be made, which wastes time in the face of dynamic and organized Germans. At the end of May, 45 Allied divisions were forced to withdraw to the Dunkirk region. Nearly a million Allied soldiers are stuck in Flanders between Wehrmacht units. The stopping of the German armored vehicles enabled the Allies to evacuate 338,226 soldiers via the Channel – on the beaches of Dunkirk – between May 26 and June 4 (Operation Dynamo), including 123,095 French. On May 29, 120,000 men were able to be evacuated, but German planes strafed the beaches and the boarding pontoons; they sink three destroyers and 21 other boats. Nearly a million Allied soldiers are trapped in Flanders, trapped by Wehrmacht units that are pushing them towards the "Dunkirk pocket". The operation, suicidal in theory, is possible thanks to the pugnacity of Churchill, sometimes against his own cabinet of war. He appeals to all civilian and military ships to save thousands of soldiers from being captured at Dunkirk. They are 370 to answer his call. This evacuation gave rise to very strong tensions between the French and English commands. The English leaders wanted to re-embark the English soldiers as a priority, but the British Prime Minister intervened on May 31, during the meeting of the Supreme Inter-Allied Council in Paris, by imposing the evacuation of the French as well. The 1 st June, French soldiers can also go to sea. The Allied soldiers, too numerous, cannot leave for Great Britain, for lack of time and means of boat. The Germans are already in the sand dunes. Dunkirk is largely destroyed. On the morning of June 4, the last rotation is made between France and England. The Nazi flag immediately floats over the harbour. Some 35,000 Allied soldiers become captives of the Germans, while 500,000 others, trapped in Flanders, are also taken prisoner. In Great Britain, Operation Dynamo strengthened Churchill against his many political adversaries. The French military catastrophe continues in June. The “red plan” is launched:the Germans move south between Montmédy and the mouth of the Somme. The results of the debacle On June 9, it is the rupture of the front of the Somme. The next day, Italy declares war on France. The French no longer measure up, and the German forces outclass them. Despite everything, the French soldiers fought with courage between June 5 and 9. The Germans then opposed 104 divisions to the 64 French and 2 English. Once the line of the Somme was broken, the Wehrmacht could rush on Paris, invaded on June 14. On June 12, the French soldiers received orders to retreat. On June 17, Guderian's panzers arrived at Pontarlier. Nearly 500,000 French soldiers were then surrounded by Guderian in the Belfort region. Panzer units continue their march south until June 25, sometimes without a fight. On this date, the Germans reached, in the South-West, Angoulême, Cognac and Saintes and, in the east, Aix-les-Bains, Romans-sur-Isère, Saint-Étienne, in particular; in the center, Beaune, Le Creusot, Dijon, Nevers are surrounded or occupied by the enemy. The French political crisis is at its height. In a broadcast message, Pétain asks Hitler for the conditions of an armistice on June 17. These are terrible. The balance sheet of the military debacle of 1940 is catastrophic for the French army, whereas on the material and human level it was on an equal footing with the Germans in 1939. On the French side, nearly 55,000 men died and 123,000 wounded, between June 10 and 30, 1940. The Wehrmacht counted 30,000 killed and 117,000 wounded, which proves the bitterness of the fighting. While these estimates are lower than those of the first months of Great War fighting, the numbers are still impressive. Between 1,500 and 3,000 Senegalese tirailleurs were massacred by German soldiers for racism. The May-June 1940 campaign was extremely violent. In addition, the assailants committed numerous abuses against the civilian populations of northern France after having terrorized the Belgians. Between 1,500 and 3,000 Senegalese riflemen were massacred out of racism by German soldiers. The German "sickle blow" to the English Channel, between May 10 and 20 is rapid. From this date, the Germans recorded much heavier losses. In the Nord department, France lost 7,700 soldiers, which was the highest toll of the campaign. The battles on the Somme and in the Aisne ended in heavy losses on both sides. From June 10 to 20, French soldiers fought fiercely; the Germans lose more soldiers than in May. Two thirds of the soldiers – 1.8 million men – of the French army are captured! The Germans also lost a lot of material during the offensives:29% of Panzers and 32% of planes were destroyed. These planes will be partly lacking in the Luftwaffe during the campaign in England. The inability of the French command On the military level, why such a defeat? The great medievalist and reserve captain (executed by the Nazis in June 1944) Marc Bloch summed it up very well, in The Strange Defeat, written in the summer of 1940:“Whatever one thinks of the deep causes of the disaster, the direct cause – which will itself require explanation – was the incapacity of command. The French political class also failed. For de Gaulle, who launched his call for resistance from London on June 18, the defeat was due to the errors of the high command, surprised by the German force. For his part, Pétain seeks leaders in all directions, except in the world of army chiefs. For him, the French armies lost because the French did not have "the spirit of sacrifice" and have not had enough children to rejuvenate the country since 1918. He also blames the lack of weapons. Either way, he's wrong. These are not the primary reasons for the military crisis. The two armies are almost equal in manpower and equipment in May 1940. The French even have more tanks than the Germans. However, the latter had an undeniable advantage in the air with the stukas. The Allies have more planes, but many, barely out of the factories, are not operational. In the 1930s, France did not make significant enough efforts to equip and modernize its armies. Similarly, when the German tanks, better connected by radio, are refueled with cans, those of the Allies are supplied by large trucks, which is slower. France, one of the greatest democratic powers in the world, no longer had an army at the end of the Franco-German armistice on June 24, 1940. The French high command was tactically overwhelmed, unable to recover from the initial strategic surprise. He did not know how to read the German war of movement in time; the big chiefs still had the lead in the previous war. The enemy was able to massively regroup a maximum of forces in the Ardennes with fighter planes and armored vehicles. The French came into contact with the attacker with dispersed, poorly combined forces. Pétain will obviously not talk about these realities, preferring to make the French feel guilty by incriminating their alleged relaxation and their too great confidence in parliamentary democracy. France, one of the greatest democratic powers in the world, no longer had an army at the end of the Franco-German armistice on June 24, 1940; only a small army of a few tens of thousands of men is conceded to it, the "armistice army". The lack of preparation for a modern war cost the French more than four years of occupation and daily suffering. The country is divided into several zones, and the German looting begins immediately. The country is bruised for decades. To go further 1940. The dark year , by Jean-Pierre Azéma, Points, 2012.France during the Second World War. Historical Atlas , by Jean-Luc Leleu, Françoise Passera, Jean Quellien, Michel Daeffler, Fayard/Ministry of the Armed Forces, 2010. Timeline May 10, 1940 German offensive. The army group commanded by General Von Bock invaded the Netherlands, which capitulated on May 15.May 15 The panzers pierced the front of Sedan and rushed towards the west and the sea, so as to encircle the Franco-British armies that had ventured into Belgium.May 26-June 4 Operation Dynamo:the stopping of the German armored vehicles allows the Allies to evacuate, via the Channel, the soldiers withdrawn into the Dunkirk pocket.June 5 "Red Plan":the Germans move south between Montmédy and the Somme. Despite the courage of the French, the Weygand line gave way.June 12 Allied general withdrawal. Weygand considers it necessary to ask for an armistice. He signs the general retreat order on the Loire.June 17 Cessation of hostilities at the request of Pétain, the new head of the French government. General de Gaulle flies to London.June 25 The Franco-German armistice comes into effect. The country is divided into two zones, one occupied by the Germans, the other called "free". Maurice Gamelin Born into a family of generals, a brilliant student at Saint-Cyr, Maurice Gamelin (1872-1958) was in 1940 the commander-in-chief of the Allied land forces since September 1939. Gamelin developed a risky maneuver on May 10 1940, in order to direct the troops towards Belgium. It is failure. The Germans descend on France. The lack of coordination with his officers and the geographical dispersion of the troops are the main reasons for this. Dismissed on May 17, he was immediately replaced by Weygand. He was arrested by the Vichy regime on September 6, 1940. A scapegoat for defeat, he was the only soldier in the dock at the Riom trial (1942) and was deported to Germany after November 11, 1942. The diktat of the armistice On June 21, 1940, in the clearing of Rethondes, the French plenipotentiaries discovered the humiliating articles of the Franco-German armistice; a real diktat:the division by a line of demarcation of France into two zones (one zone occupied by the Germans and another called “free”); the cost of the occupation borne by France; the 1.8 million prisoners of war held captive until the day of peace; the German or Austrian political refugees present on French soil to be delivered to the occupier. Other articles are less severe:maintenance of a French government; colonial empire spared; fleet left to the vanquished. The plenipotentiaries then go to Turin for the armistice with the Italians, who occupy a few square kilometers in the Alps.
