Contre-Attaque à Connage ETO (id:#58884)

Tactiques (Tactiques # 4 ID: TAC32)   [next]   [previous]

Connage, France 1940-05-14 (27 others)

Overview:

"Counterstroke in Connage" -- On the previous day the Germans crossed the Meuse in several places, and three three Panzerdivisions (1st, 2nd and 10th) went through in Sedan. The French defenders, demoralized by air bombings, were succumbing under the assault. To face the attack General Lafontaine, commander of the Xth army corps “holding” the area, ordered a counterstroke south of Sedan. Two tank battalions and two infantry regiments were to “close and recapture” the breach opened by the enemy. The 213th Infantry Regiment, with good leadership but poor equipment (officers hadn’t had time to supply grenades) set up on the left wing. Support was limited to one antitank platoon and to the 7th BCC equipped with FCM 36, but the French soldiers had never performed any combined attack training with tanks. The attack began at 0620 May 14. In spite of some initial success (for example the destruction of enemy machine guns and 37mm guns) the French were getting behind schedule and moved forward without coordination. After taking the weakly defended hamlet of Connage, the 3rd company of 7th BCC and 213th Infantry Regiment marched over Chéhery. In front of them the Germans had prepared an antitank defense with disparate but quality elements such as the 14th Panzerjäger anti-tank company of Regiment Gross Deutschland. The last guns were barely emplaced when the first French tanks appeared.

Defender: German (Battalion Richter, 1st Assault Regiment/Anti-Tank Company, 14th Infantry Regiment Grossdeutschland and 83rd FlaK Battalion and Heavy Infantry Gun Company 702/1st Panzer Brigade)  

Errata (source)