The Danger Zone (DZ)

It would have been the decisive moment for the Panzer generals to ignore Hitler’s halt orders and to keep on thrusting forward to take Dunkirk. But that didn’t happen. Circumstances were different now to just a few days before. Then they were lost somewhere in the French countryside and fairly free to do what they wanted, but now they were close together and operating in a very combined space at the Channel, with Hitler and Runstedt nearby.

The real kicker was why Hitler halted the Panzers – only a leader like Hitler could be motivated to do what he did, and why he did. Let’s cover a bit more background first as to how the halt order, when first made, went down, before getting to Hitler’s unique motivation for ordering the halt.

Tag words: Dunkirk; Blitzkrieg; Gerd von Runstedt; Adolf Hitler; von Bock; von Brauchitsch; Franz Halder; von Kluge; von Kleist; Heinz Guderian; Gravelines; Sepp Dietrich; Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler; Erich von Manstein; Sickle Cut Plan; Alfred Jodl; Wilhelm Keitel; Karl-Heinz Frieser; Blitzkrieg Legend; Göring; David Stahel; Retreat from Moscow;

On 23/24 May 1940 a final stop order was imposed on the panzers – the last one for the Operation Sickle Cut campaign before it was concluded. Time would reveal that the consequences of the various stop orders were disastrous for Adolf Hitler. But there’s always a silver lining in every cloud as they say and that was that the miracle at Dunkirk that these allowed were a blessing for Germany and the rest of the world.

One of the most intriguing questions about the very last halt order is, what was the motivation. Is it the extraordinary reason that Karl-Heinz Freiser suggests in his book Blitzkrieg Legend?

I believe that Hitler was such an extraordinary personality that Frieser’s idea about why Hitler did what he did in the last days of Operation Sickle Cut, can’t be ruled out.

Whatever else, the conduct of Hitler during the last few days of the Sickle Cut campaign set the tone for what was to come in all German military operations until his death in the final act of suicide in the Berlin bunker in April 1945.

Tag words: Karl-Heinz Freiser; Blitzkrieg Legend; Blitzkrieg; Operation Sickle Cut; Adolf Hitler; Dunkirk; Halt Order; Chief of the Imperial General Staff, CIGS; General Sir Edmund Ironside; Gerd von Runstedt; General Georg von Sodenstern; Franz Halder; Erich von Manstein; General Edvard von Kleist; British counter-attack at Arras; Hinez Guderian; von Kluge; aufschließen; close up; General Bock; Reinhardt; von Brauchitsch;

The British attack at Arras on 21 May, which had been completely seen off that same night, was then all done and dusted in the minds of the panzer commanders, including Rommel. But the view from the front, looked very different to the view at the headquarters.

The consequences of this hopelessly executed British attack, that ended in failure, and was easily brushed aside by Rommel, was to win the Allies World War II – with a little help from Rommel.

Tag words: Arras Counter-attack; Erwin Rommel; Adolf Hitler; Rudolf Schmundt; Wilhelm Keitel; General Wernher von Blomberg; Franz Halder; Heinz Guderian; Dunkirk; Kenneth Macksey; Karl-Heinz Frieser; Blitzkrieg Legend; Von Kleist; Von Kluge; Gerd von Rundstedt; Lorette Heights; Sickle Cut Plan; Erich von Manstein; Panzer Corp Reinhardt; Winston Churchill;

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;

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

Rommel is one of the most exciting and inspiring military leaders of all times. His exploits from World War I, recorded in his 1936 book Infantry Attacks, telling about his actions as a junior officer in World War I. His actions in the Battle of Caporetto in 1917 gives the first insights into Rommel’s unique gifts as a commander, and especially how he was going to wage war in France in 1940 and in North Africa between 1941 and 1942.

Luckily for Rommel he never served on the Eastern Front. He was a Nazi, as so many of the top generals of his age were during the Third Reich, and he would most likely have become involved in war crime activity against the Jews and the Russian partisans. But thankfully that never happened.

This tribute to Rommel’s chivalry was delivered by Winston Churchill on the news of Rommel’s forced suicide after the attempt on Hitler’s life on 20 July 1944. Part of that tribute is a reference back to this praise, surprisingly from Winston Churchill in the House of Commons, in January 1942 when he said of Rommel:

We have a very daring and skilful opponent against us, and, may I say across the havoc of war, a great general.

Rommel’s most astounding accomplishments happened over his few days in the dash to the English Channel in 1940 at the head of the 7th Panzer Division. The time has come to tell you about how Rommel disobeyed Hitler and the senior generals in his dash to the Channel, as they were trying to slow things down to a pace that they could understand, but not win the campaign.

Tag words: Blitzkrieg; Erwin Rommel; Infantry Attacks; Winston Churchill; 7th Panzer Division; Adolf Hitler; Erich von Manstein; Karl-Heinz Frieser; Bltizkrieg Legend; World War 2; General Georg von Sodenstern; General von Brauchitsch; Ardennes; Meuse River; von Kluge;

The wargames that had been conducted by Manstein on 7 February 1940, at the headquarters of Army Group A, and then subsequently other wargames by other people, were all about getting through the Ardennes and then over the Meuse River. I can’t imagine that Manstein would have left his plans up in the air after that point, but Halder had gotten rid of him to command a new Corp that didn’t yet exist and no more forward planning happened.

On 13th May Guderian got across the Meuse, and then everyone at the various Army, Army Group and the Führer’s headquarters scratched their heads. What now? Incredible! The most respected General Staff in the world and they had no idea what to do once they were over the Meuse. The only two people that had the exact plan were Manstein and Guderian – and now Manstein was gone from where he could have helped everything to run smoothly.

So we now have Panzer Corp Guderian and Panzer Corp Reinhardt charging off to the Channel as Manstein wanted, and we have the higher echelons of the German field armies all the way up to the Führer himself all in a flap about this.

Soon the greatest military genius of all times (größte Feldherr aller Zeiten), and I mean Adolf  Hitler of course, was going to go into meltdown.

Tag words: Blitzkrieg; Adolf Hitler; Erich von Manstein; Ardennes; Meuse River; Franz Halder; Heinz Guderian; Kleist; Panzer Leader; Winston Churchill; Gerd von Runstedt; Col-Gen. von Brauchitsch; Major Henning von Tresckow; Karl-Heinz Frieser; Blitzkrieg Legend; Dunkirk; Operation Sickle Cut;miracle on the Marne; Benito Mussolini

Although Guderian didn’t know it, once he began disobeying orders from above in the race to the English Channel there was a first and a second prize awaiting.

The second prize was trapping the Allied armies that had advanced into Belgium against the coast. That would be the bulk of the Allied armies and would effectively end the Battle of France.

The glittering first prize, though, was to take Dunkirk before 24 May, 1940, beating the British there, so that the entire British Army would be captured and Hitler would win the war.

So let’s start the race.

Tag words: Blitzkrieg; Heinz Guderian; Dunkirk; Adolf Hitler; Sedan; Meuse River; Panzer Group Kleist; Panzer Corp Guderian; Panzer Corp Reinhardt; Generalmajor Werner Kempf; Erich von Manstein; General Gerd von Runstedt; Sickle Cut; Franz Halder; General Georg von Sodenstern; Sickle Cut plan; 6th Panzer Division; Army Group A; Colonel Freiherr Baron von Esebeck; Oberst (General Staff) Count von Stauffenberg; Pursuit Detachment von Esebeck;

What the German Panzer Divisions did in May 1940 was not in their training and operational manuals. What they did had never been practised. It was all made up as they went. Improvised.

Karl-Heinz Frieser in his book Blitzkrieg Legend says:

As earlier emphasized, the operations plan of the army high command was only a half-hearted and inconsistent implementation of Manstein's bold Sickle Cut idea. The decisive breach point was at Sedan. Manstein and Guderian had assumed that after crossing the Meuse River the Panzer formations would immediately have to push to the Channel coast, disregarding their exposed flanks, or otherwise lose the race against the Allies. All of the higher-ranking generals from the army high command and all the way down to Army Group A and von Kleist had discarded precisely this requirement as being too risky.

So now the panzers were across the Meuse – what next?

Tag words: Blitzkrieg; Karl-Heinz Frieser; Blitzkrieg Legend; Erich von Manstein; Heinz Guderian; Sickle Cut; Fritz Halder; General Georg von Sodenstern; Meuse River; Great War; 1st Panzer Division; 2nd Panzer Division; un pépin assez sérieux; a rather serious pin prick; General Georges; größte Feldherr aller Zeiten; greatest military genius of all times; Führer; Adolf Hitler; Walther Wenck; Klotzen, nicht kleckern!; Hit with the fist, don't feel with the fingers!; 10th Panzer Division; Infanterieregiment Großdeutschland; Infantry Regiment Großdeutschland; Winston Churchill; Pierre Le Goyet; Le mystère Gamelin; The Mystery of Gamelin; Oberleutnant Günther Korthals; major Philip Gribble; Oberst i.G. Kurt Zeitzler; Graf von Kielmansegg; Dunkirk;

From the moment of the first German attack in the north, the air forces of both sides had been deployed in the skies over the northern sector where the main German attack was expected.

At noon on the 13th May, the Luftwaffe suddenly vanished from the skies in the North. Soon the Allies would learn why.

Tag words: Sir Basil Liddell Hart; Colonel Bourguignon; General Gamelin; General André Prételat; General Heinz Guderian; Meuse River; Ardennes; Deuxième Bureau; Panzer Group Kleist; General Francois d'Astier de la Vigerie; Marshal Henri Philippe Petain; World War I; Dyle Line; General Franz Halder; General Charles Huntziger; Generalleutenant Bruno Loerzer; General Sperrle; Rolling Raid;