Battle of the Aisne (1940)
Battle of the Netherlands
Maastricht - Mill - The Hague - Rotterdam - Zeeland - Grebbeberg - Afsluitdijk - bombing of Rotterdam
Invasion of Luxembourg
cobblestone line
Battle of Belgium
Fort Eben-Emael - KW line - Dyle plan - Hannut - Gembloux - Lys
Battle of France
Royal Marine - Ardennes - Sedan - Maginot Line - Weygand Plan - Arras - Boulogne - Calais - Dunkirk ( Dynamo - Wormhout ) - Abbeville - Lille - Paula - Fall Rot - Aisne - Alps - Cycle - Saumur - Lagarde - Aerial - Fall Braun
A battle on the Aisne (bataille de l'Aisne) took place on June 9, 10 and 11, 1940 between units of the Wehrmacht and the French army on parts of the Aisne river . It ended with a German victory.
background
With the capitulation of the Netherlands on May 14, 1940 and that of Belgium on May 28, the first part ( yellow case ) of the western campaign was completed. The Army Group B was preparing for an invasion of France from the north ( Fall Rot before) ago. On June 5th the invasion of France began.
French defense
On the Somme and Aisne west of Sedan, Maxime Weygand formed a line of defense called the " Weygand Line ". He had recently been called out of retirement and replaced Maurice Gamelin . On the Aisne, a new 6th Army was hastily set up under the command of Robert-Auguste Touchon . From this, as well as the 7th and 10th , the new Army Group 3 was formed under the command of General Benoît Besson . It was supposed to defend the section of the front on the Somme. Further south, Army Group 4 under General Charles Huntziger was supposed to hold the front section from the Aisne to the Argonne . In total, the Allies had 60 divisions with only a few tanks to defend a 600 km long front. Among them was a British division. The bulk of the remaining divisions remained tied to the Maginot Line . On May 17, Charles de Gaulle , then a colonel and commander of the 4th Panzer Division, launched a counterattack against the Wehrmacht. About 5000 French soldiers and 85 French tanks were involved. This was one of four French counter-attacks in 1940.
German deployment
As early as May 15, 1940, the 6th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht entered the Aisne department via Rozoy-sur-Serre and reached the city of Montcornet that evening during the battle of Montcornet . She had previously crossed the Meuse near Monthermé in the Ardennes, where the French 9th Army could not stop her. It was followed by the battle of the Ailette from May 18 to June 6, 1940. In particular, the Damenweg called trail between Laon , Soissons and Reims and the Oise-Aisne Canal were hard-fought. Massive bombardments by artillery and air force on French positions led to the German victory. The Wehrmacht reached the Aisne in this process.
Course of the battle
Army Group A under Colonel General von Rundstedt , which was far superior to the enemy in terms of number of troops, began its offensive on June 9 and, after two days of fighting, crossed the Aisne.
The attack on the right wing in the direction of Soissons led the 9th Army under Colonel General Strauss with the XVIII., XXXXII. and XXXXIII. Army Corps, the 9th Army remained in the command area of Army Group B during operations. In the center, the 2nd Army operated under Colonel General von Weichs with the III., VI. and XXVI. Army Corps in the front and the IX. Army corps as a reserve in the direction of Reims . Between the 2nd and 12th Army, the newly created Panzer Group Guderian (Gen. Kdo. XIX. ) With the XXXIX. and XXXXI. (Motorized) corps on both sides of Rethel to the south.
On the left wing attacked the 12th Army under Colonel General List with the XIII., XVII. and XXIII. Army Corps in Eastern Champagne . In the far east as far as the Meuse opposite the Verdun fortress area , the 16th Army remained in defense. The preceding infantry was able to force a small bridgehead 1.5 kilometers deep near Château-Porcien . Under cover of darkness the 1st Panzer Division was first drawn up here , which was held at Juniville on June 10th and only reached Chalons-sur-Marne on the morning of June 12th .
On June 9th, the 4th Army of Army Group B reached the Seine near Rouen .
The French Air Force had no dive bombers to counterattack, only the Navy had about 50 of them. However, the telecommunications of the French army in general and the Armée de l'air in particular was inadequate.
On June 11th and 12th there was still fighting south of the Aisne. The French did not succeed in building a system of positions that could withstand attacks by the Wehrmacht (supported by the Luftwaffe ).
consequences
On June 10, the French government (then under Paul Reynaud ) had left Paris in view of the course of the war and fled to Tours .
There was no longer a French army between the Wehrmacht, which was now in Rouen, and Paris. On June 14th, units of the 18th Army marched into Paris , which had been declared an open city. Guderian's tanks occupied Besançon on June 16 and reached the Swiss border at Pontarlier on June 17 , behind the French units on the Maginot Line.
literature
- Dominique Lormier: Comme des lions. May-June 1940: Le Sacrifice héroïque de l'armée française . Calmann-Lévy Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978-2-7021-3445-0 . Cape. VI: Resistance acharnée sur la Somme et l'Aisne .
Weblinks (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alistair Horne: The French campaign, Heyne Verlag Munich 1981, p. 434
- ↑ on this Ernst Stilla (Diss. 2005, p. 73 / footnote 321): An example of this is the equipping of the French general headquarters in Briare with just one telephone, which was also used between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. while the operator was having lunch, was not in operation.