The Germans had crossed the Meuse River on 13 May. On 14th May Guderian had ordered the Panzers to wheel westward to the Channel. The only thing slowing their dash were was Army Group commander Runstedt and the Corp commanders. Then, of course, there was the great panic by the Führer on 16 May – waiting for the counter-attack by the French Army into the flank of the Panzers – the 1940 version of the Miracle on the Marne that had robbed the Germans of victory in 1914. But that never came. It was not ever coming – or was it?

But on 21 May, 11 days after the opening of the German offensive, 8 days after the crossing of the Meuse, and 7 days after Guderian unleashed the panzers against his orders, finally the British Army struck into that long exposed Panzer flank at Arras. Was this the beginning of their end? The long awaited Miracle on the Marne?

Tag words: Blitzkrieg; Erwin Rommel; Miracle on the Marne; Sir Basil Liddell Hart; the Rommel Papers; 4th RTR; 7th RTR; Karl-Heinz Frieser; Blitkrieg Legend; Matilda Tanks; Oberleutnant Most; Hauptman Schraepler; SS Totenkopf; 88; Arras; Luftwaffe; Rommel-Album;