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

intact but then came up against the Weygand Line, the main French
defences, and immediately found themselves under heavy enemy fire.
It was still early morning when, taking cover from French shelling,
Hans heard a voice behind him say, ‘Captain, your breakfast.’ Hans turned
around to see one of his runners clutching a tray of sandwiches. He had
crawled through enemy fire carrying the meal, which had even been
garnished with parsley and a napkin. Such was the confidence and high
spirits of these lead units.
With the support of artillery and panzers, they soon managed to break
through the French line. On 7 June, Hans and his men covered some sixty
miles, blasting their way not only through the French but also between the
two brigades of 1st Armoured Division. Rouen, recently pasted by the
Luftwaffe, lay smoking ahead of them. They had assumed the next obstacle
would be the formidable River Seine, but instead Hans received orders to
swing north-west to the coast north of Le Havre. ‘In the harbours between
Le Havre and Dieppe there are said to be British units still waiting to be
evacuated,’ ran Hans’s orders.
This was true. Both the 7th and 5th Panzer Divisions, by breaking
through, had the British forces potentially trapped. The Highland Division
had fallen back to the line of the River Bresle, some ten miles behind the
Somme, on 6 June, but the German troops following them seemed in no
hurry to push them back further. There was no point – they had most of IX
Corps ensnared, a trap that would be complete once the panzers to the south
wheeled round and reached the coast. Before the Germans had launched
their attack, General Fortune, commander of the 51st Division, had
recognized that by being on the coast, with the Havre peninsula behind
them, they would be particularly vulnerable to an out-flanking movement,
and had discussed possible evacuation from Le Havre with Brigadier
Beauman. However, by 7 June, when such an encirclement first seemed
likely, it was already too late for IX Corps to fall back – they simply could
not organize themselves that quickly. And since the British troops were
under French command they faced a simple choice: desert their French
comrades or fight their way back with them step by step. Both honour and
the political situation ensured they took the latter option.
As it happened, however, General Fortune had been given authority to
fall back on Le Havre with all speed early on 8 June, but because of the
usual communication problems that had been such a feature of the Allied