The French began calling Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division la division fantôme (the ghost division), because it moved with such incredible speed that the French never knew where it would turn up. The German high command probably agreed with the name because Rommel never hesitated to go off the grid, mainly so that they couldn’t rein him in.

Like Julius Caesar’s exciting diary of his conquests in Gaul, Rommel kept his own diary – which is all the more interesting because he died before the war ended, so it wasn’t revised to suit the facts after the war. His diary’s a thrilling account of Rommel’s World War II, as fast paced as his exploits, with an excellent accompanying commentary by Sir Basil Liddell Hart.

Here's a brief extract about how Rommel’s division was a ghost division not only to the French but also to his own side. This is taken from his diary immediately after this fight in Avesnes:

Meanwhile, I had sent repeated signals to Corps through the divisional staff asking whether, in view of the success of our break-through of the Maginot Line, we should not now continue our advance over the Sambre. Receiving no reply — wireless contact had not been established — I decided to continue the attack at dawn with the object of seizing the Sambre crossing at Landrecies and holding it open. I issued orders by wireless to all other units to follow up the Panzer Regiment's advance to Landrecies [11 miles west of Avesnes].

Tag words: Blitzkrieg; Erwin Rommel; 7th Panzer Division; la division fantôme; the ghost division; Sir Basil Liddell Hart; Julius Caesar; Major i.G. Heidkämper; Oberst Karl Rothenburg; David Irving; The Trail of the Fox; The Rommel Papers; Sickle Cut Plan; Erich von Manstein; Von Bock; Panzer Corps Hoepner; General Graf von Kielmansegg; Fritz von Halder; Adolf Hitler; Joseph Goebbels