Sunday 19 May 1940

Belgian tank on fire in Zwyndrecht, Antwerp, Belgium. 19 May 1940.

Western Front: The French Army on 19 May 1940 is completely discombobulated. The generals have little idea where the front is and what the Germans might do. The commander of the French 9th Army, General Giraud, is even captured by a German panzer unit.

Lord Gort, head of the BEF, has a conversation with General Edmund Ironside, the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff. Ironside recommends attacking southwest toward Amiens. Lord Gort replies that he has insufficient troops, as 7 of his 9 divisions are in action on the Scheldt. Somewhat bizarrely, Gort relates that his putative French commander, General Billotte of the 1st Army Group, has not issued him any orders in a fortnight.

Ironside then talks to General Billotte, who is nearby. He finds that Billotte is incapable of taking action. Ironside returns to England convinced that the end is near for the BEF and ramps up anti-invasion efforts. A code name is generated for a BEF evacuation: Operations Dynamo.

Much of the German Panzer force has been halted between Péronne and St. Quentin for refueling, maintenance, and re-supply. Today, General Guderian starts moving forward again. He takes Péronne, only 50 miles from the French coast. This disrupts the supply lines of the BEF and French forces fighting to the north.

General Rommel regroups at Cambrai.

Brigadier General de Gaulle launches his second attack from Laon into the German spearhead flank at Montcornet using the 4th Armoured Division. Once again, as on the 17th, he makes some progress, but the effort runs out of steam. However, there is no corresponding thrust from the other side of the bulge which might cut off the most advanced German units.

The Belgian army withdraws in the sector including St Nicholas, Lakeren, and Audenard.

The BEF pulls back near Lille.

On the Maginot Line, the German 71st Infantry Division, after a three-day battle, take the left-most anchor of the line, Fort La Ferté (known as Panzerwerk 505 to the Wehrmacht). The French inside succumb to the smoke and toxic fumes after their ammunition and other items catch fire. The fort, 20 km south of Sedan on a hill overlooking the Chiers River, has been blocking the German advance. The Germans occupy the village of Villy. Underneath Villy, the fort had been scaled back during construction due to cost, making it a death trap for the 107 soldiers inside.

European Air Operations: Fliegerkorps VII is covering the German advance toward Abbeville. This is a key component of "Blitzkrieg." There are radio-equipped forward liaison Luftwaffe officers traveling with the panzers who have direct lines to the Luftwaffe bases. The amount of time between a request for air support and its arrival is minimal, around 10 minutes for Henschel HS 123s and 45-75 minutes for the Ju 87 Stukas.

The Luftwaffe bombs Royal Navy destroyer HMS Whitley, which must be beached and scuttled.

The Luftwaffe bombs Dieppe.

The Luftwaffe also is supporting the attacks on the Maginot Line in the south. They are hitting fortresses and helping the ground to make progress against this supposedly invulnerable line.

The RAF once again bombs oil refineries in the Ruhr.

The RAF begins pulling its last squadrons in Belgium. They have lost over half of their aircraft and the German army is approaching their airfields. BEF air cover will be conducted henceforth from bases in England.

There are reports that 100,000 people perished in the Rotterdam air attacks, with a third of the city destroyed. This figure is likely wildly exaggerated for propaganda purposes, but then again, nobody knows how many people died. The high figure illustrates the depths of fear and terror being sown by the innovative Blitzkrieg. Rotterdam has joined "Warsaw" on the litany of Luftwaffe misdeeds chronicled in Allied propaganda.

Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 87 unit near Arras, France. May, 1940 (Strift, Federal Archive).

Battle of the Atlantic: U-37 (Kapitänleutnant Victor Oehrn) torpedoes and sinks 5,066-ton Swedish freighter MV Erik Frisell. All 34 aboard survive, picked up by armed trawler HMS Cobbers.

Royal Navy minelayer HMS Princess Victoria hits a mine and sinks in the North Sea.

Convoy OA 151 departs from Southend, Convoy OB 151 departs from Liverpool, and Convoy OG 30 forms at Gibraltar.

Norway: The evacuation of Mo i Rana concludes, with the last rearguard troops of B Company of the Scots Guard and No. 1 Independent Company pulling out. The German 2d Mountain Division occupies the town and sends troops further north toward Bodo.

Military Intelligence: The cryptoanalysts at Bletchley Park crack the Enigma "Red" code being used by the Luftwaffe liaison officers to coordinate ground support.

Anglo/US Relations: Winston Churchill sends President Roosevelt a plea for quick aid while discussing something else. "If [the old destroyers] were here in 6 weeks, they would play an invaluable part."

Sweden: The government announces that, like Great Britain, it will form its own home defense corps. It also institutes gasoline rationing.

Ethiopia: A group of Italian settlers arrives.

War Crimes: Civilians live in fear of Allied troops who reportedly are shooting civilians who they are mistaking for German paratroopers or infiltrators. There are other anecdotal reports of Allied troops shooting civilians who they believe, for one reason or another, to be aiding the German advance.

British Homefront: Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes an address to the British people which he calls " Be ye men of valor," which is a quotation from 1 Maccabees in the Apocrypha. Churchill mentions that only "a very small part" of the French army has been engaged with the Germans, but that it would be "foolish ... to disguise the gravity of the hour." He vows to "wage war until victory is won, and never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame, whatever the cost and the agony may be."

American Homefront: Charles Lindbergh makes another radio broadcast in support of isolationism:

"We need not fear a foreign invasion unless American peoples bring it on through their own quarreling and meddling with affairs abroad. If we desire peace, we need only stop asking for war. No one wishes to attack us, and no one is in a position to do so."

A commemorative day for war heroes of the Winter War in Joensuu, Finland. 19 May 1940 (SA-kuva).

May 1940

May 1, 1940: British Leave Åndalsnes
May 2, 1940: British Depart Namsos
May 3, 1940: Many Norwegians Surrendering
May 4, 1940: Bader Returns
May 5, 1940: HMS Seal Survives
May 6, 1940: Allies Focus on Narvik
May 7, 1940: In The Name of God, Go!
May 8, 1940: Exit Chamberlain
May 9, 1940: Enter Churchill
May 10, 1940: Fall Gelb
May 11, 1940: Eben Emael Surrenders
May 12, 1940: Germans at Sedan
May 13, 1940: Rommel at Work
May 14, 1940: German Breakout in France
May 15, 1940: Holland Surrenders
May 16, 1940: Dash to the Channel
May 17, 1940: Germans Take Brussels
May 18, 1940: Germans Take Antwerp
May 19, 1940: Failed French Counterattack
May 20, 1940: Panzers on the Coast
May 21, 1940: Battle of Arras
May 22, 1940: Attacking Channel Ports
May 23, 1940: British Evacuate Boulogne
May 24, 1940: Hitler's Stop Order
May 25, 1940: Belgian Defenses Creaking
May 26, 1940: Operation Dynamo
May 27, 1940: King Leopold Surrenders 
May 28, 1940: The Allies Take Narvik
May 29, 1940: Lille Falls
May 30, 1940: Operation Fish
May 31, 1940: Peak Day for Dynamo

2020

Thursday 16 May 1940

Germans crossing the Meuse on 16 May 1940 (Schmidt, Federal Archive).

Western Front: The Allied line is in disarray on 16 May 1940 in both France and Belgium. Paris is still safe - for the moment - but the Belgian government packs up and moves to Ostend.

Following a disastrous meeting with British Prime Minister Churchill (see below), French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud replaces General Gamelin with General Weygand - who is unfamiliar with the condition of the campaign and must fly up from Syria.

The Wehrmacht is moving with lightning speed. The Blitzkrieg is at its height, with the Luftwaffe blazing a trail for fast mobile forces. The speed of the panzers is preventing a coherent Allies response. Nobody really knows where the front is from hour to hour, and this prevents effective counter-measures. French attempts to counter-attack are hampered by refugees clogging the roads, an inability to know precisely where the Germans are, and roads littered with the destruction already caused by the German panzers, artillery, and Luftwaffe.

In France, "Fast Heinz" Guderian is now 60 miles west of Sedan, at Montcornet and around St. Quentin. General Hoth has his XV Panzer Corps, led by Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division, a little further north in the Avesnes-sur-Helpe/Cambrai vicinity. As part of his move forward, Rommel's panzers serendipitously cut through the French 5th Motorised Infantry Division which is conveniently bivouacked on both sides of the very road that Rommel is using. Rommel destroys the French unit, leaving it with just 3 tanks as it retreats in disarray.

Raadhuisstraat, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 16 May 1940. The Wehrmacht arrives in strength. “Thousands of citizens of Amsterdam lined the roads to watch the impressive panzer vehicles, motorcycle brigades, army vehicles and so forth, that filed past in perfectly disciplined columns.”

On Army Group A's left flank, the battle on the Stonne Plateau continues. The village of Stonne changes hands repeatedly, but the French counterattack makes no lasting gains. To the Wehrmacht, this battle is meaningless, but it protects the flank of the panzer forces moving quickly westward. The further they go, however, the more vulnerable their flanks become to other attacks - if the French can find the troops to mount them. The Battle of Stonne Plateau also reveals that the French tanks are quite capable and a match for the best German tanks, the Panzer IV medium tanks. A French Char B1 Bis tank destroys 2 Panzer IVs and 11 Panzer IIs while shrugging off dozens of standard German anti-tank hits.
The strategic implication of the Rommel/Guderian advance is that the Wehrmacht could separate the BEF and some French forces from the heart of France. By advancing independently on parallel lines, they provide each other with flank protection. This part of the campaign is known as "The Dash to the Channel." The dash is to Abbeville, which effectively would seal off Allied forces farther north.

The Germans are also waging a campaign against the Maginot Line. Around mid-day, the artillery of the 71st Infantry Division begins shelling the town of Villy and a fortress of the Line that overlooks it called La Ferté.

In Belgium, the Allies retreat from the Dyle Line to a new line on the Scheldt River, which was their jumping-off point before springing forward to the Dyle Line. This effectively abandons Belgium to the Wehrmacht.
The German 6th Army under Reinhardt disperses the Belgian K-W Line.

At Gembloux, the day's battle ends in a tactical stalemate, but a strategic victory for the Germans. The French line is never pierced and they batter the attacking Germans, but the deteriorating situation west of Sedan imperils the Allied lines of communication. At dusk, the French are ordered back to the French border to protect their own flanks. The failure to finish off the French today, though, has huge negative consequences in the coming weeks for the Germans.

Map noting German advances in France and the Low Countries between 10 and 16 May 1940. (US Military Academy).

Battle of the Atlantic: The French send their destroyers Fougueux, Frondeur, Cyclone, and Siroco to bombard the Germans in the vicinity of Walcheren and South Beveland.

The Royal Navy sends the carrier Furious to Norway to ferry Gladiator and Hurricane fighters.

German raider Widder meets supply ship Nordmark to refuel.

Troop convoy US 2 from Australia brings the 17th Infantry Brigade to Egypt.

Convoy OA 149 departs from Southend, Convoy OB 149 departs from Liverpool, Convoy OG 30F forms at Gibraltar, and Convoy HX 43 departs from Halifax.

European Air Operations: France sends 26 of its brand new LeO 451 second-generation bombers against the panzers refueling at Montcornet. They lose four of their number.

The RAF moves its bases from near the Meuse closer to Paris, near Troyes at Anglure.

P/O Kenneth NT "Hawkeye" Lee was rushed with No 501 Squadron RAF to Bétheniville on 10 May 1940 and accounted for 3 enemy aircraft in the next 3 days. Forced to retreat to Anglure on 16 May and to Le Mans on 2 June, the 24-year-old pilot destroyed two more. On exhausting his ammunition while attacking a Heinkel He 111 on 10 June, he turned away when his Hurricane Mk I blew up and bailed out, hitting the tailplane. Injured in the hand and leg, he was evacuated to Britain 10 days later from Saint-Malo.

Narvik: The Luftwaffe continues its gradual reinforcement of General Dietl's troops at Narvik, dropping another 76 paratroopers (Fallschirmjaeger) of the 1st Fallschirmjaeger Regiment.

Anglo/French Relations: Winston Churchill flies to Paris to consult with Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, Defense Minister Daladier and General Gamelin. In his memoirs, Churchill recalls that he asked Gamelin at this meeting, first in English and then in French, “Where is the strategic reserve?” (“Où est la masse de manoeuvre?”). Gamelin simply replied, “Aucune!” ("There is none"). This led Reynaud to replace Gamelin with Weygand.

Churchill also notes: "In the garden of the Quai d'Orsay I see venerable officials burning secret documents. Already evacuation of Paris is being prepared." It is a common scene in European capitals recently.

Anglo/American Relations: President Roosevelt responds to Prime Minister Churchill's shopping list of 14 May. He notes that he will require "specific authorization of the Congress" for some of the requests and that he will keep the US fleet at Hawaii "at least for the time being."

US Government: President Roosevelt addresses a joint session of Congress. He establishes a target of 50,000 military aircraft a year. This appears from all experience to be an unreachable goal. He requests a total of $900,000,000 appropriation to fund this project. His individual requests include $546 million for the Army, $250 million for the Navy/Marine Corps, and $100 million for the Executive branch to handle contingencies. These are all unheard-of amounts of money.

Ireland: The Irish government, which has been maintaining strict neutrality, requests arms from the British government to equip the Irish Army.

Holocaust: In Occupied (rump) Poland, Gauleiter Hans Frank orders arrest and execution of Polish political, professional and religious leaders.

China: At the Battle of Tsaoyang-Ichang, the commander of the Chinese 33rd Army Group of the Chinese 5th War Area, General Chang Tze-Chung, is killed in action as his troops recapture Tsaoyang.

Germans crossing the Meuse, 16 May 1940 (Ang, Federal Archive).

May 1940

May 1, 1940: British Leave Åndalsnes
May 2, 1940: British Depart Namsos
May 3, 1940: Many Norwegians Surrendering
May 4, 1940: Bader Returns
May 5, 1940: HMS Seal Survives
May 6, 1940: Allies Focus on Narvik
May 7, 1940: In The Name of God, Go!
May 8, 1940: Exit Chamberlain
May 9, 1940: Enter Churchill
May 10, 1940: Fall Gelb
May 11, 1940: Eben Emael Surrenders
May 12, 1940: Germans at Sedan
May 13, 1940: Rommel at Work
May 14, 1940: German Breakout in France
May 15, 1940: Holland Surrenders
May 16, 1940: Dash to the Channel
May 17, 1940: Germans Take Brussels
May 18, 1940: Germans Take Antwerp
May 19, 1940: Failed French Counterattack
May 20, 1940: Panzers on the Coast
May 21, 1940: Battle of Arras
May 22, 1940: Attacking Channel Ports
May 23, 1940: British Evacuate Boulogne
May 24, 1940: Hitler's Stop Order
May 25, 1940: Belgian Defenses Creaking
May 26, 1940: Operation Dynamo
May 27, 1940: King Leopold Surrenders 
May 28, 1940: The Allies Take Narvik
May 29, 1940: Lille Falls
May 30, 1940: Operation Fish
May 31, 1940: Peak Day for Dynamo

2020