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

both he and the rest of the French High Command had accepted that they
could not hold the Germans for long.
Army Group B pushed south-west, across the Somme towards Rouen
and Le Havre, while Army Group A pushed south and east. There were a
few changes between the two army groups. Panzer Corps Hoth, with
Rommel’s 7th Panzer, was now in Army Group B, as was Panzer Group
Kleist, albeit without Guderian, who had been given his own panzer group
and had remained in Army Group A. His task was to wheel behind the
French forces, heading for the Swiss border, and thus achieve another
encirclement.
Amongst the French forces facing Army Group B were the last
remaining British units, those that had been cut off from the rest of the BEF
when the panzers had driven their wedge through to the coast. Le Havre and
Rouen had been the BEF’s main supply points and there were vast stores
and ammunition dumps there, manned by Ordnance Corps and other base
troops as well as a number of infantry battalions. The bulk of 12th Division
had already been evacuated, but not so the 1st Armoured Division, Britain’s
only one of its kind, nor the 51st Highland Division, which had been taking
its turn to man a portion of the Maginot Line when the offensive began and
had only recently been sent back west. These had since been placed under
the command of IX Corps of the French Seventh Army on the left wing of
the French line. There were also the remnants of the Advanced Air Striking
Force of six bomber squadrons and thirty battered Hurricanes.
The French had already made good use of these disparate British forces,
flinging them pointlessly at Abbeville in an attempt to destroy the German
bridgehead there. 1st Armoured had taken part in the failed counter-attack
on 27 May, losing over a hundred tanks in the process, while the Highland
Division had also suffered during another attempt on 4 June. The rest of the
British units had been formed into a loose under-gunned force called
Beauman Division, named after its hastily appointed commander.
The German attack, launched first by Army Group B, did meet stiffer
resistance than they had been accustomed to from the French, and initially
suffered heavy losses. One of the German units that managed to break
through quickest was Rommel’s 7th Panzer. Once again, Hauptmann Hans
von Luck and his Reconnaissance Battalion were at the vanguard. To avoid
the congestion of refugees, they advanced cross-country in open battle
order, keeping clear of any major roads. They took the Somme bridges