Battle of Arras (1940)
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The Battle of Arras, was an Allied counter-attack against the German blitzkrieg through France during World War II in 1940.
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[edit] Background
Early in the Battle of France, German forces managed to defeat Allied forces and push them back considerably. In an attempt to shore up defenses against the rapidly approaching German advance, the British Expeditionary Force reinforced the town of Arras. By May 20th, the Allied forces in Arras found themselves surrounded.
[edit] The battle
Lord Gort, commander-in-chief of the BEF, ordered a counter-attack in an attempt to delay the Germans and prevent British forces from being overrun.
The counterattack would be led by Major-General Harold Franklyn and codenamed Frankforce, which consisted of two divisions and 74 tanks as well as 60 supporting French tanks. The heavy Matilda tanks of the BEF enjoyed some initial success against the more lightly armored and armed, early model Panzers. The defending forces, elements of SS-Division Totenkopf were overrun, their standard 3.7cm PaK 36/37 German anti-tank guns proving ineffective against the Matilda. Generalmajor Erwin Rommel, commanding the 7.Panzer-Division committed some of his armour to local counterattacks, only to find the guns of the Panzer IIs and Panzer III's would not penetrate the Matildas' armour.
Desperate to avoid a British breakthrough, Rommel ordered the division's 8.8cm FlaK 18 Flak and 105 mm field guns be formed into a defensive line and fire anti-tank and HE rounds in a last ditch effort to stop the Matildas from breaking through. The BEF's advance was halted with heavy losses. Then, with Luftwaffe support, Rommel launched a successful counter-attack, driving the British back. Frankforce had been repulsed.
[edit] Aftermath
The battle is historically credited with shaking the confidence of German High Command (OKW). Erwin Rommel is noted to have written a report stating an attack by hundreds of Allied tanks, which was likely a contributing factor to the halt of the German offensive for 24 hours. The main British force consisted of only 58 Matildas supported by a few lighter armoured vehicles. The delay by the OKW is one of the main reasons for the success of Operation Dynamo. For this reason, Frankforce, in spite of being repulsed, could be considered one of the few allied successes of the 1940 French campaign. In total more than 40 British and French tanks were lost in the battle, compared to around a dozen lost by the Germans.
Despite common misperception, the 8.8cm FlaK 18 was not used for the first time as an anti-tank gun at Arras. Several years earlier, during the Spanish Civil War, the German volunteer unit Legion Condor had used 8.8cm FlaK guns against Armour and other ground targets. Despite this, Rommel did realise the defensive power of the eighty-eights and used them to great effect during his service commanding the Afrika Korps.
[edit] See also
- Battle of Arras - Other battles throughout history in the same area.
