Fall Gelb

The German happy time

PzKpfw I Ausf. A

PzKpfw IV ausf. D

The western episode of the second world war kicked off near one of my favourite camp sites, so I was able to stand on the bridge where the German first Panzer division took its first steps into enemy territory. This was Fall Gelb -Operation Yellow- and here, I'll tell you some of what happened, with some extra attention to what happened in Luxemburg. Reading it may take a while, so you might want to get a coffee or something first.

Stahlhelm and Chamberlain

After world war one, Germany was a mess on the brink of civil war. Communists (yes, hello, miss Luxemburg), nationalists and opportunists were at war with each other, leaving the man in the street to buy bread with two hundred billion Reichsmark. A lot of people were very angry about this, but in the end some guy stood up and manipulated himself into becoming the country's Great Leader. He reorganized the country, and did it quite well, to be honest. However, once the country was back on its feet, his weird power fantasies started manifesting and he started looking outward. In 1938, he Anschluss'ed his homeland Austria and bluffed Neville into giving him the Sudetenland, a part of the Czech republic. Not a year later, he broke his promise and occupied the whole country. Then, after signing treaties with Italy, Japan and (very cynically, on both sides) Soviet Russia, he invaded Poland on the 1st of September 1939. The British and Frensh had enough - they declared war. But nothing really happened, apart from some fighting up north.

Because they lost the first war, the German army had a long and hard think about their fighting style. What they used to do, clearly did not work. (Please note that the opposing British and French did win that war, and therefore assumed their methods were correct. They were wrong.) Several German officers contributed to their new plans: their attacks would now be fast, sharp and mission-based. Willy Rohr came up with the Stormtroopers, who were supported by Georg Bruchmüller's short, massed artillery barrages. A certain mister Guderian added tanks to the mix, while Ernst Udet imported dive bombing from the USA. All this was tested in Poland and found lacking, so they took some time to fix and upgrade their doctrine before turning it towards their ancient enemy - France.

Plan Sichelschnitt

Actually, it wasn't called that at all, Winston made it up.

At the start of the war, "the Allies" were France (94 divisions), the Belgians (22) and the Dutch (10), reinforced by 10 expeditionary divisions from Britain. That's 136 divisions - more that the German's 112. The Allies simply had more men and more guns; they should have been able to brush aside the German assault. Why, then, did they get their asses handed to them, in under a month? That's because of the previous war - the Allies simply and very firmy believed in a rigid, linear defense (ie. trenches) and were unable to think any further. The supreme French commander, General Maurice-Gustav Gamelin, nor his four aides (Bineau, Georges, Weygand and Billotte) had a single clue about modern warfare. Instead of maintaining a mobile, adaptable defense, they scattered their forces in small pockets, hoping to plug holes in the already obsolete Maginot line. They believed that the coming war would just be a repeat of the last one: the Germans would come through Liege, maybe Sedan, then maybe reach the Marne where they would be stopped just in time for British reinforcements to arrive.

That was NOT the German's plan, though. The German plan of attack was a reworked version of the failed Schlieffen Plan of 1914, brought up to date by Generals Erich von Manstein, Heinz Guderian, Erwin Rommel and others. They devised three Army Groups: AG-A, -B and -C.

Special Operations by Brandenburg

German army officers had long since taken "holidays" in the Low Countries and France. Three bridges provided entry into the Low Countries for the panzers, at Gennep, Roermond, and Stavelot, and it was vital that they remained open. They were known to be mined and had to be taken before the Allies could react. Fortress Eben Emael likewise had to be taken out, because it guarded the juncture of the Albert Canal and the River Maas on the Belgian/Dutch border, just south of Maastricht. This was a job for the German's special operations people, the Brandenburgers. Using disguise, gliders and Fiessler Storchs, they infiltrated their target areas and occupied vital road junctions and bridges.

In Luxemburg, which is relevant for this story, some bridges and crossroads had to be secured. Luftlandekommando Hedderich -over a hundred commandos- spread out over Luxemburg that night, by Storch. They landed at Bomisch (where they were just not in time to catch Grand Duchess Charlotte), Luxemburg City, Houx, Bettemburg and Foetz. At Foetz, they managed to block the road to Esch-sur-Alzette with felled trees, stolen trucks and mines, in preparation of their colleague's armoured advance. By first light, however, they were approached by a number of Luxemburg farmers and a policeman. The latter informed the mean-looking, heavily armed troops politely that they were on neutral territory and would they please leave at once. They did not; the policeman was disarmed just as politely and advised to go home.

Panzer Attack!!1!

The morning of the 10th started with Heinkel bombers dropping their load on railway junctions and air bases in northeastern France, Messerschmidts machine-gunning the streets of the Hague and suspicious tourists securing bridges. General Georg von Kuchler’s Eighteenth Army (AG-B) moved across the Dutch border and headed straight for Rotterdam. South of them, General Walther von Reichenau’s Sixth Army crossed the Maastricht bridges and joined the guys who attacked Eben-Emael, clearing his way. The Dutch flooded some of their land as a defensive measure, but the situation was desperate as their army was under-equipped and old-fashioned to start with. The Germans reached the shore of the Zuiderzee (which no longer exists, it's now a lake) and, to the south, the 9th Panzer Division linked up with the paratroops holding the bridge at Moerdijk.

French general Gamelin believed that this was the real attack. He immediately sent his best troops (the First, Seventh, and Ninth Armies plus the British Expeditionary Force) to meet the imagined spearhead of the German attack in Belgium, near the KW-line. General Giraud, commanding the Seventh Army, raced to Breda (in the south of the Netherlands), taking with him the best of France’s armored units and most of the available Allied air cover. However and meanwhile, Rundstedt’s Army Group A was crashing through the “impassable” Ardennes, towards Sedan and Montherme.

The German 1. Panzer Division was part of that effort. One of its commanders writes about his experience: "Behind us lies a long, hot march right across the Eifel, on minor roads widened by the construction battalions. Over there is a signpost: ‘Wallendorf 1 Kilometre’. We have reached our first-stage objective, the Luxembourg border! The sight of the yellow road signs has clearly perked up our tank drivers, after sitting for five hours in this terrific heat behind their gear levers, changing gear — steering uphill and downhill — stopping and starting. It's the afternoon of May 10th 1940 and our lead vehicles are crossing the Sauer Bridge. Luxembourg makes an orderly impression. It seems a clean and affluent country. The inhabitants look at us with curiosity, neither friendly nor hostile. They have probably not yet got over their astonishment at watching an endless procession of German columns with artillery, armoured reconnaissance vehicles, radio cars and now tanks filing past them since early this morning. On the straight, wide, well-paved roads we keep up a good pace. Woods, waving corn-flelds, streams and villages follow each other in quick succession: Reisdorf — Diekirch — the Rivers Alzette end Work — Grossbus — the Forest of Arsdorf — Martelange, then the Belgian frontier!””

Like a flood from a broken dam, the panzer rampage could not be stopped, and there were rumors of German tanks everywhere. Many French units fled in panic and thousands of civilians took to the roads of France. To the north, Giraud’s French Seventh Army was being pushed in disarray from Antwerp, which the Belgians were desperately trying to hang on to, and the French First Army was near collapse. On May 12, Rommel and his tanks, after some sharp fighting with French cavalry, arrived in the evening on the heels of the retreating cavalry at the bridge over the River Meuse at Yvoir. When his armored cars tried to rush the bridge, a Belgian officer destroyed the span with explosive charges.

At the same time, Guderian and Hoth were at the Maas just north of Sedan, that lynchpin of Franco-German relations, which they quickly occupied. The brigde was gone, though, so some German engineers (and, apparently, Guderian himself) had to cross in rubber boats. A bridge was quickly thrown across the river, and tanks began crossing. French resistance began to collapse and fearing a German flanking movement, the Allies retreated deeper into France. Then, on the 13th, Rotterdam was bombed. Many civilians were killed and, in fear of more bombs, the government surrendered on the 14th. That marked the beginning of the end, but we're not there yet. In fact, most German units were now at the Maas river, looking to cross. The 1st Panzer did, and established a bridgehead on the south bank of the river. The French 7th Tank Battalion and 3rd Armored Division counterattacked, but they were easily dispersed by the panzers. The Allies then assembled every available tactical bomber for an attack on the bridgehead, but nearly all the planes were obsolete. German FlaK was deadly, and most of the attacking aircraft were destroyed.

On the afternoon of May 15, general Guderian left 10th Panzer behind, to guard the Meuse bridgeheads until relief arrived. He then led his 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions west and reached Marle and Dercy, 55 miles west of Sedan, on the following day. At Dercy he took several hundred French soldiers prisoner and almost without incident captured a tank company from Colonel Charles de Gaulle’s 4th Armored Division. Rommel, too, had crossed (at Houx and Dinant, on the 13th). He started hitting the French supplies and, when the French 1st Armored Division tried to retreat, the two panzer divisions destroyed almost all of its tanks. The French withdrawal became a rout as the troops panicked in the face of fast-moving armor and Stuka attacks. On May 15th, General Gamelin reported to the French government that the French Army was nearly defeated and for his efforts, he was replaced by the 73-year-old General Weygand. As you might imagine, this did not accomplish anything.

The Engländer join the fight

On the evening of May 18th, Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division reached Cambrai and stopped for rest and resupply. The BEF's headquarters wasn't far away, at Arras, and they felt the storm coming. Their divisions were set up in a defensive line but the rapid advance of German Army Group A, to their south, was threatening to cut them off. The only thing for it, then, would be to attack. The French leadership had realy already given up, but they were still pressured into providing some forces. The combined attack group was commanded by British Major-general Giffard Martel and consisted of 74 tanks and less than 3,500 men. Warned by intelligence of British and French tank movements in the Vimy area, Rommel began on May 21 to move his 7th Panzer Division around the west flank of Arras, while the 5th Panzer Division deployed to the east. They were still to the south of the town when Martel’s tanks attacked.

However, after having captured Warlus and Berneville, Rommel’s 7th Rifle Regiment and part of the SS Totenkopf began to rally. Machine guns and mortars cut down almost half of the Allied soldiers and a Stuka raid made the rest take cover. Only the Matilda tanks kept going. As they approached the village of Wailly spraying machine-gun bullets, German artillerymen began to desert their howitzers, but Rommel himself ran from gun to gun, giving his gunners specific targets. This inspired his men (as it should - lead by example! -ed.) and they kept up their fire, forcing the British into a retreat. From now on, the war in France was really lost.

Timeout

While Rommel was fighting the Allies at Arras, Guderian and his panzer corps were moving towards the coast. By May 22, they had cut off Boulogne and by the next day Calais, while forward units were pushing on to the Aa Canal, only 10 miles from Dunkerque. The British forces in and around Arras were 46 miles away, cut off, and soon would be forced to capitulate. However, for vague fears of being flanked, Hitler ordered a halt to combat operations. No one was to advance another step beyond the Aa Canal (12 miles from Dunkerque) for three days, to enable the infantry to catch up and form a flank shield for the tanks. (Okay, this is in fact quite sensible and the reason that we now have APCs. - ed)

However, "schnelle" Heinz Guderian did not listen and kept going, for which he was fired by his superior officer, whose decision was again overturned by the Commander in Chief, Rundstedt. He was told to obey the Führer's orders, but he would be allowed “reconnaissance in force” which Heinz saw as an invitation to keep pushing on. His 1st and 2nd Panzers reached St. Quentin and crossed the Oise and the Somme near Peronne. On May 19th, they drove across the World War I Somme battlefields where a brief French attack (Colonel de Gaulle’s 4th Armored Division) was beaten off. Guderian just kept driving, totally unhindered, and he took Abbeville on the French coast on the 20th. This trapped the BEF near Dunkerque, prompting the largest sea evacuation ever seen.

Operation Dynamo

Guderian’s panzer corps had (illegally, he was still doing recon!) taken Boulogne and by nightfall on May 25 was within 20 miles of Dunkerque. The Royal Navy was able to extrack twenty-eight thousand of the soldiers, but many more remained. Then, on the early morning of May 27, Hitler ordered his tanks to resume their attacks. Two task forces were deployed: one was ordered east along the coast from Gravelines, and the other to advance northeast to Armentières, cutting off the Allies from the French hinterland, so to speak. In disarray, individual British units retreated to the coast and moved through the burning rubble of Dunkerque onto the beaches, exhausted from days of desperate fighting as they retreated in a shrinking perimeter. Supplies and rations were running out, and on the beaches the soldiers, hungry and dejected, waited under a hail of shells and bombs and hoped that rescue would arrive before the Germans did.

That night, the Royal Navy started evacuating, with London believing that no more than 45,000 men could be saved. Captain W. Tennant, the senior naval officer in Dunkerque, saw the terrible state of the harbour for mooring large ships. He radio'ed home: “Please send every available craft, immediately! Evacuation is problematical.” In response, Admiral Ramsay sent small flotilla of destroyers, plus a fleet of coastal ferries, coasters, barges, lighters, tugs and launches along the North Goodwin Light and Kwinte Buoy route — really, any boat that was barely able to cross the English Channel got, eh, chartered. And as soon as the civilians got word of what was up, many private boat owners and yachtsmen set sail from the south coast of England. This huge civilian effort brought back a further 26,000 soldiers back home. In the end, a total of 338,226 soldiers had been saved, but they left behind a huge assortment of tanks, vehicles, and guns.

French surrender-monkeys

The war in the west was now over, even if the French had not yet officially capitulated. Hitler now had on 143 divisions of battle-hardened troops, while Weygand could muster only 65 divisions. That was never going to be a fair fight, and it wasn't. Weygand, who had never commanded troops in combat or made any effort to absorb the new concepts of mobile, armored warfare, decided to make a stand behind the line of the Somme and Aisne Rivers, like in the first world war - that's what he knew. Behind this line he organized a network of well-dug-in positions and natural tank obstacles, with infantry and his remaining tank units in reserve. However, von Bock and Rommel were not impressed. After a short, hard attack through a mile of swampland, Rommel punched through the French lines and made for the Seine.

The German forces fanned out in all directions, driving the French army away from Paris and towards the old Maginot line - where AG-C was waiting. Then, on June 17, Philippe Pétain replaced Paul Reynaud as president of France, General de Gaulle fled to Britain while Pétain and Weygand sought an armistice. In the railway coach where the armistice of 1918 was signed, Hitler dictated his terms. The surrender was signed on June 22 and came into effect at midnight, June 25

Fall Gelb, aka. the Manstein plan, is often seen as one of the more succesful military campaigns. However, Guderian recognized the slim margin by which the Germans had succeeded, or as he said while overlooking the Meuse River, "At this moment, I looked at the ground we had come over, and the success of our attack struck me almost as a miracle." Indeed, the Germans did not win because they were better soldiers than the French or British. Their leadership style, coordination and training were better, the Panzer III was a wonderful little tank, and the French just gave up the fight, after a few setbacks. Their "blitzkrieg" through France was more of a lucky rampage, their victory derived as much from French weakness as from German strengths. However, in less than six weeks, France had been utterly defeated. This was what they had been wishing for, the last ten years, and they had pulled it off!

As Guderian said, in an address to his victorious troops: “We have covered a good 400 miles since crossing the German border; we have reached the Channel coast and the Atlantic Ocean. You have thrust through the Belgian fortifications, forced a passage of the Meuse, broken the Maginot Line extension in the memorable Battle of Sedan, captured the important heights at Stonne and then, without halt, fought your way through St. Quentin and Peronne to the lower Somme at Amiens and Abbeville. You have set the crown on your achievements by the capture of the sea fortresses at Boulogne and Calais. Germany is proud of her panzer divisions and I am happy to be your commander.”

Biblio