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The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

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He was determined to cross at Sedan, a place he knew intimately from

when he had been stationed there during its German occupation in the last

war. Von Kleist, however, demanded that Guderian’s divisions should cross

at Flize, some eight miles west of Sedan. There were good arguments for

both sites, but Guderian resolved this spat by simply ignoring his superior –

a high-risk strategy should his crossing attempt fail. But there was less he

could do about von Kleist’s interference with the Luftwaffe support

promised. Guderian had acted entirely autonomously, going straight to

Generalleutnant Bruno Loerzer, Göring’s old First World War flying chum

and now commander of VIII Fliegerkorps in Luftflotte 3 to ask for air

support. His big problem was a lack of artillery, most of which was still

struggling its way through the Ardennes. The Luftwaffe could do the

artillery job for him, however. Drafting a carefully prepared fire plan, he

asked Loerzer to hit these targets with a kind of rolling aerial barrage of

wave after wave of Stukas and bombers. The aim was to stun the French by

near-constant attacks.

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