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

General’s three panzer divisions were the 1st, 2nd and 10th. He had warned
his men they should not expect to get much sleep for three days and nights.
With this in mind, the senior staff officer of 1st Panzer Division had ordered
20,000 tablets of Pervitin in an attempt to keep the men awake. No-one
needed such stimulants this first day, however. Adrenalin alone saw to that.
By 8.30 a.m. they had successfully passed through Luxembourg and swept
aside Belgian defences at the town of Martelange. The next town on their
route through the Ardennes, Bodange, proved a tougher nut to crack, but by
evening they were through the main Belgian frontier defences. So far, the
rush to the Meuse was on schedule, although Guderian was keenly aware
there was still much that could go wrong between now and reaching the
famous river. Belgium road demolitions, for example, needed to be cleared
without delay.
In the north, it was the troops of Army Group B who were experiencing
the most action as they thundered into Belgium and Holland. Unteroffizier
Hellmuth Damm and his Gruppe – or half-platoon in a machine-gun
company – of a dozen men realized the offensive was beginning when they
heard aircraft droning overhead. At 6 a.m. came the order to attack. Just as
they had trained, the battalion began moving forward: four companies, each
of around 120 men divided into three rifle platoons and one machine-gun
platoon. The rifle companies led the way, the machine-gun company
following behind with their heavy gear. The two MG08s weighed over sixty
kilograms each, and the gun mounts around thirty kilos. On top of that each
man had to carry two twelve-kilo ammunition boxes, plus rifle, pouches,
bread bags, spade, gas mask, pack, anti-gas cape, rations, hand-grenades,
wire cutters and other personal gear. As Gruppe leader, Hellmuth also
carried a message bag, a pair of binoculars and sighting equipment. It was
quite a load.
Up ahead, Hellmuth soon heard gunfire, but he could not see any
enemy. The word filtering back to them was that the Dutch troops had
withdrawn behind the River Meuse.
Later in the morning, they reached the river. New orders arrived, and
Hellmuth and his Gruppe were instructed to take up position on the first
floor of a nearby house to cover the assault engineers as they attempted to
cross the river in rubber boats. He soon found a suitable building, informing
the bewildered and frightened inhabitants that he now needed to use their
front-facing bedroom as a machine-gun post. Moving beds and furniture out