Ardennes May 1940

The Allies expected a German invasion through Belgium, and focused their forces in the Low Countries under the ‘Dyle Plan’. The Germans, however, also attacked further south through the Ardennes forest, a landscape assumed to be impassable. A huge mechanized force of panzer divisions, soldiers, motor vehicles, tanks and reconnaissance vehicles spearheaded the Blitzkrieg attack, meeting only light resistance. The Germans soon controlled the east bank of the Meuse from Sedan in the south to Dinant in the north and, heavily assisted by the Luftwaffe, then crossed the river at Dinant, Monthermé and, crucially, at Sedan. On the west side of the Meuse, they easily overcame the weak, overwhelmed and ill-equipped French. With the best Allied forces in Belgium and the French unprepared for such an attack, the risky German strategy was successful. While the German advance for the Channel began, the 10th Panzer Division moved south as a distraction, eventually taking Stonne from the French after it changed hands 17 times.