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

river with barely a shot fired. Half an hour later, Hans had reached the town
of Le Cateau, nearly seventy miles from the Meuse.
‘La guerre est finie, je m’en fou,’ Hans heard French soldiers say as he
and his men thundered past through the clouds of dust along the way. Apart
from the orders they received, the reconnaissance troops had no idea what
the wider situation was along the front; they only knew what they saw in
front of them, and that was French troops being overrun and surrendering in
droves. ‘We had the feeling of being alone at the head of a division
advancing tempestuously,’ noted Hans. ‘“Forward!” was the cry.’
The same day, 18 Squadron, having finally moved airfields – to Crécy –
was told its Blenheims were needed as bombers as well as reconnaissance
aircraft. Their target was the 7th Panzer Division on the Cambrai–Le Cateau
road. Arthur Hughes took off at around 10 a.m. Around Le Cateau, the
country looked devastated to him. Here and there vehicles and buildings
were burning. Spotting a load of motor transport along the road to the
south-west of the town, he peeled down and dropped his four 250 lb bombs
from about 700 feet. Suddenly, though, it seemed to him that the figures
diving frantically out of the way of his attack were wearing khaki. He
couldn’t tell for certain, though, but he was sure that he had bombed the
right place. Once again, Arthur made it back in one piece, but two other
crews were not so lucky.
Whether he had hit Allies or Germans, Rommel’s advance seemed in no
way slowed. On the 19th, he captured Cambrai, the scene of a famous
victory for the British in 1917 when they had used tanks in strength for the
first time. Now it was German panzers that were doing the damage – or
rather, a few lead elements. Fortune favours the brave, and in this case the
French defenders saw a large cloud of dust approaching and fearing a far
larger German force than was really the case, they fled with barely a fight.
Panzer Corps Guderian crossed the old Somme battlefield on the 19th,
having successfully fought off counter-attacks by de Gaulle’s tanks. It
would have reached there earlier but Guderian had been once again
discovering that his senior officers were a greater thorn in his side than the
enemy. A whole day had been lost on 17 May when von Kleist, still
concerned that his impetuous panzer commander might be overreaching
himself, had ordered him to halt to allow the infantry to catch up. This had
only been resolved once Guderian, outraged, had resigned and then hastily
been reinstated. By the evening of the 19th, however, the panzer spearheads