Panzer Divisions: The Blitzkrieg Years 1939–40

IntroductionAs the sun was setting in the late evening of 20 May 1940, the vanguards of 2. Panzer Division entered the city of Abbeville in France. Later that same night, they reached the town of Noyelles and their objective: the Somme river estuary. It was the culmination of a ten-day battle during which the division, along with the other two parts of Guderian's XIX. Armee Korps, had crossed the Meuse, broken through the French defensive lines at Sedan, and penetrated deep behind the enemy lines, covering more than 300km from the German border to the Atlantic shores. At the conclusion of this ten-day drive, the remnants of two French armies plus the British and Belgian ones, which formed the core of the Allied forces, were trapped with their backs to the sea. The inconceivable had turned into reality; Germany had won a stunning victory, her enemies were in shambles. A little more than a month later France capitulated, and the entire world marvelled at the German blitzkrieg.

Even though many, on that day in May, were surprised by what had happened, some were not. Interestingly the following day, in peaceful Switzerland, an unknown commentator on Radio Beromünster, talking about the German offensive in the West, observed: 'the rapid German success is owed to a method of warfare that had not been used before the Polish campaign of last September. This method of warfare is completely mechanized. Technology has taken possession of war. The offensive did not take place along a continuous front, but rather it took the shape of numerous thrusts by the Panzer Division.'1 Actually this was something of a look into the future; war was still far from becoming 'totally mechanized', even if it had taken a significant step forward.Nevertheless, the May 1940 campaign looked like a revolution. At first sight, the time of infantry marching into battle and of static trench warfare had disappeared forever; now the tank ruled the battlefield, and it did it in a manner not even its most devoted advocates might have been able to predict. As such, the 20 May not only was the culmination of one of the most stunning military campaigns of the 20th century, but it was also a historic landmark in warfare. Yet, it was only the beginning of a military revolution, one in which the Panzer Division provided the leading characters, and one that would go on to shape warfare for many years to come.