Erwin Rommel at Arras
After hearing the staff's answer, Rommel remembered his good friend's advice. He looked around with a telescope and felt that the surroundings were very quiet. At first, he didn't think there was anything unusual. But after remembering his friend's words, Rommel became vigilant, after all, his 7th Armored Division belonging to Kleist's armored group had captured the French coastal city of Abbeville, cutting off the connection between the British Expeditionary Force and the French First Army Group with the inland troops in France. The British and French were not fools, they would not wait quietly in their original deployment area for the Germans to surround them, they must have thought of ways to establish contact with the inland troops in France. Rommel sensed a huge crisis hidden in the current quietness based on his many years of military experience.
He began to issue orders, ordering the reconnaissance battalion of the division to quickly expand its reconnaissance scope in this area. At the same time, he required the 25th Armored Division to slow down its marching speed and raise its alert level. Pay attention to searching for enemy troops. And began to contact with follow-up troops, requiring the 7th and 6th Mechanized Infantry Divisions behind to accelerate their marching speed and merge with the 25th Tank Division. When contacting the 78th Artillery Regiment, the artillery regiment said that the road conditions were too bad, and they could not keep up with the main force of the division with all their troops. Rommel remembered his good friend's words and asked them to quickly bring up the anti-aircraft group. The 78th Artillery Regiment felt very strange but still executed the division commander's order.
Rommel and his staff returned to the 7th Motorized Infantry Regiment, preparing to coordinate the pace of subsequent troops. At this time, they suddenly heard the rapid reconnaissance battalion calling on the radio: "Our unit has discovered a large number of British tank infantry formations rushing towards our position. Their tanks are not models we understand. Their current position is northeast of our unit. They will soon come into contact with the 6th Motorized Infantry Regiment." Rommel ordered the 7th and 6th Motorized Infantry Regiments to contract their defenses, the 25th Tank Regiment and the 78th Artillery Regiment to quickly approach the motorized infantry regiments. At the same time, he requested that the armed party guard troops deploy on the wing of the 7th Armored Division, protecting the 7th Armored Division. The anti-aircraft group had already arrived, and Rommel quickly deployed the 88 high-altitude guns, all with armor-piercing shells, gun barrels pointing towards the British army, while the 37mm cannons and infantry-carried mortars and the remaining small-caliber anti-aircraft guns were loaded with high-explosive shells. The two heavy artillery battalions belonging to the motorized infantry regiments prepared to launch a covering attack on the rear of the British forces after they appeared.
Rommel had just deployed his troops when the British army appeared. Rommel looked through his binoculars and saw that the British tanks were indeed similar to what his good friend Zhou Tianlei had described. Behind them followed a dense group of infantry, estimated to be around 2 regiments. At this time, after the British tanks entered the range of the 88mm guns, Rommel ordered the concealed 88mm guns to open fire first.
When the dull sound of 88 cannons rose over the Alas Prairie, a burst of black smoke suddenly appeared in the approaching British tank group. The remaining tanks that were not hit began to appear in disarray, some accelerating forward, trying to charge into the German army's position, but more began to back away, trying to escape the German attack. At this time, other German artillery also opened fire, and shell-like shells fell among the British infantry. The British army's tank-infantry coordination formation became chaotic, with tanks and infantry retreating in all directions, without forming a mutually covering formation. British officers saw that their troops were already in disarray and wanted to wait until they retreated to the safe area in the rear to regroup. At this time, on the prairie, the British abandoned 14 tanks with black smoke and hundreds of British soldiers' bodies scattered all over the place.
At this moment, the 25th Tank Regiment and the 78th Artillery Regiment finally arrived. Rommel ordered the 25th Tank Regiment to assign two infantry battalions to pursue the British army. The 78th Artillery Regiment provided cover with heavy artillery. Armed SS troops also participated in the attack. The British army, which had just retreated to the rear, was suddenly subjected to a German heavy artillery bombardment, and the troops that had just been reorganized immediately fell into great chaos. At this time, only the smoke saw the German tanks rumbling forward, with cannon mouths and machine guns spewing flames of death. Many British soldiers fell in the blood pool, and the British morale finally collapsed. They ran wildly towards their rear, with the Germans slaughtering them from behind. The killing continued for a long distance before stopping.
Rommel reported to General Kluge via radio that he had been attacked by British forces at Arras, but he had beaten them back and requested a counter-attack to take advantage of the British confusion, disrupt their formations, and asked for air support.
General von Kluge received Rommel's report and hastened to forward it to the Commander-in-Chief West, Rundstedt.
After reading the report, Rommel's troops had broken through the defense lines of the British Expeditionary Force and the French First Army Group. An opening had been created. If they were to annihilate the British Expeditionary Force and the French First Army Group now, heaven had given the Germans a very good opportunity.
But he did not dare make such a decision, and decided instead to quickly write up a battlefield situation report to present to Hitler.
