User:VictoryMouse/WW2 Western Front Every Day

May, 1940

 * May 10, Luxembourg, Holland and Belgium - The Germany's Army Group A, under General Gerd von Rundstedt, and Group B, commanded by General Fedor von Bock, invade after preliminary air attacks. Successful airborne landings are made against Belgium's key frontier fortress of Eben Emael, and in Holland, to dislocate resistance. General Ritter von Leeb's Army Group C covers France's Maginot Line, the line of subterranean forts and other defensive positions running along it's border with Germany. In accordance with allied planning the left flank of the British and French line moves into Belgium. This decision facilitates Rundstedt's surprise Ardennes advance, which eventually divides the Allied armies in Belgium from those in France. The Allied Armies advancing into Belgium up to the Dyle and Meuse Rivers above Namur, a position known as the Dyle Plan Line, are hampered by poor coordination with Dutch and Belgian Forces.
 * May 11-15, Holland and Belgium - Dutch resistance to the German attack crumbles, despite opening the flood gates and mining the Rhine River to obstruct the enemy. German forces begin to approach the Allied Dyle Line, while Belgian defenders are driven back from the Albert Canal. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands escapes with the Dutch government to Britain on May 13. The city of Rotterdam is bombed before a cease-fire is declared on the 14th, and the Dutch Army capitulates the next day.
 * May 12-14, France - German forces reach the Meuse River, the crossing of which is critical for the advance into France. Dive-bombers pound French positions and inflatable rafts are used to establish bridgeheads at Sedan and Dinant on the 13th. Despite Allied air attacks. German armor advances westward rapidly, opening a 50-mile (75-km) gap in the Allied line This drives a wedge between French Ninth and Second Armies, which then mount a futile response.
 * May 15-20, Belgium - Germany's Sixth and Eighteenth Armies force the Allies to withdraw from the Dyle Plan Line to the Scheldt Line, wast of Brussels, and the Dendre River. French forces have been forced to fall back from Holland, while the Belgians continue fighting between Antwerp and Brussels, finally retreating to the Escaut Canal and then to the Lys River, which is reached on the 20th.
 * May 16-20, France - The French General Reserve and unites south of the German forces are ordered to form the Sixth Army to bolster the vulnerable Allied lines, but this fails to halt the German advance. Brigadier General Charles's de Gaulle's 4th Armored Division attempt to counterattack around Laon-Montcornet on May 17-19 but fails. German tanks reach Cambrai on May 18, and finally the sea at Abbeville two days later. It now becomes critical for the allies to cut the "corridor" made by the panzers or risk the isolation of their armies in the north from the forces in the south. The dismissal of General Maurice Gamelin, the Allied commander-in-chief, and the appointment of Maxime Weygand as his successor on the 19th further delays military decision-making, which reduces the potential to any action.
 * May 21-28, France - British tanks battle with the 7th Panzer Division at Arras until May 23. General Heinz Guderian moves toward Boulogne and Calais unaffected by the Allied "Weygand Plan," which attempts to split the tank spearhead from troops and supplies in the German "corridor." Boulogne and Calais capitulate after the naval evacuation of Allied troops. Eager to preserve his panzers for taking Paris, Hitler halts General Gerd von Runstedt's armor at Gravelines and allows the air force to attack the Allied "pocket" centering on Dunkirk. British aircraft, however resist the attacks, enabling the Allies to prepare for evacuation.
 * May 25-28, Belgium - King Leopold of Belgium's forces are surrounded as the Allies withdraw to Dunkirk. Resistance seems futile and he decides to surrender on the 28th. Belgium has lost 7550 men killed. The surrender leaves the flank of the Allied line increasingly vulnerable, and there is no hope of holding out in Belgium. The exiled Belgium government in Paris condemns King Leopold's surrender and assumes his power.
 * May 26, France and Belgium - Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of allied forces from the Dunkirk area, begins. A defensive perimeter established on the Aa, Scarpe, and Yser "canal line" covers the withdrawal, while an assorted rescue flotilla of pleasure boats, commercial craft, and naval vessels crosses and recrosses the English Channel.

June, 1940

 * June 3-4, France - Operation Dynamo ends. The remarkable operation has rescued 338,226 men - two-thirds of them British - from the beaches of Dunkirk, although 243 vessels and 106 aircraft have been destroyed. General Lord Gort, the British Expeditionary Force's commander, leaves Lieutenant General Sir Harold Alexander in command after being evacuated on May 31. The Germans occupy Dunkirk on June 4 and capture 40,000 French troops.
 * June 5-12, France - A German force of 119 divisions opens Operation Red, the conquest of France, with General Fedor von Bock's Army Group B attacking along the Somme River to reach the Seine River west of Paris by June 9. General Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group A, moving toward the Moselle River in front of the Maginot Line, launches an offensive east of Paris. Rundstedt's tanks