July 4th - July 11th, 1940
Western Front
The German race to the sea had shocked the French government, but not completely thrown it into disarray. After all, France had managed to bring back a hopeless situation before, and could very well do it again. Plans were thus put in place for a “new Montcornet”, with a combined thrust of the two DLCs in Amiens, and with the 4e DCR being injected as soon as the breakthrough was achieved.
In the meantime, however, the Heer had managed to widen its breach, which now extended from Saint-Quentin to Cambrai, and which now seriously threatened the French First Army, as well as the BEF and Belgian Army. Worse, it also had managed to secure bridgeheads over the Somme, at Abbeville, taking advantage in a late redeployment of Tenth Army units. Luckily, this was the only place where they had breached.
On the morning of July 4th, Winston Churchill called General Weygand, asking him where the strategic reserve was. This one told him that he had two light mechanized divisions ready to counter-attack at Amiens [1].
This city, valiantly held by the British 12th and 23rd Infantry Divisions, reinforced by the French 4e and 7e DLM, did not break under the Panzer’s onslaught, slowing down Guderian’s progression and disallowing him the use of the bridges on the Somme, though it did not stop the Heer from encircling the Allied forces to the north.
Weygand, on July 4th, immediately ordered the Allied forces to counter-attack from both Amiens and Arras, hoping to meet strong resistance and then the void, just like at Montcornet, despite Frère's objections that the terrain around Amiens was unsuitable for such an attack.
What's more, the Heer had learned from its mistakes: the corridor was no longer completely devoid of any troops, and was now held by the infantry and motorized divisions which had followed the German Panzers.
The problem was that, to the north, it was chaos. The French Sixth Army had essentially been shattered, and reorganizing units would take time. As for the French First Army, it had been tasked with picking up the pieces of Touchon’s army, and as such was hardly in a state to fight. The II Belgian Corps was too weak, and the I Belgian Corps too isolated…there really only was the BEF that could mount a counter-offensive.
And really, Lord Gort did not really believe in it. Already, a few days earlier, General Edmund Ironside had flown to London to beg for the authorization to evacuate the BEF.
Lord Gort for his part knew that the French divisions were in disarray, and that King Leopold and the Belgian staff were not confident on their ability to hold the Schelde while isolated. It did not help matters that General Billotte, commander of the First Army, was killed in a car crash just two days after the pocket closed. Thus, in private, Gort was already thinking about evacuating his forces to England.
However, it would reflect poorly not to at least try, especially since the BEF was still solidly equipped and organized.
On July 5th, Gort moved two divisions under Major-General Harold Franklyn to connect with French forces at Arras. Those two divisions were the 5th Infantry and 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry, helped by the French 3e DLM. And while Franklyn was aware of a French push to the south, he was not sure where it would come from. Without proper communications, Franklyn thought that his forces were only a diversion, with the main thrust coming from the south.
Unfortunately, it is exactly what the French thought as well.
At Amiens, the 4e and 7e DLM made a move to advance north of the city, with the objective of causing havoc in the German rear while the British and French would push from the north. In essence, both of the thrusts thought that they would be the supporting one. After all, the terrain around Amiens was hilly and poorly suited for armored offensives.
The British launched their offensive first, committing a major portion of their tanks: up to 80 total, with a large majority of Matildas. These tanks started to face off against the flank of the 7th Panzer, catching the Germans off-guard…but not off-balance.
This time, Rommel knew that he had to wait for the infantry, and he definitely did not ignore orders like he did in May. He had the support of a motorized infantry division, and he was going to use it. As such, despite an initial success, the British tanks started to slow down as PaK guns and even AA guns started to wreak havoc. Despite the intervention of the 3e DLM, which managed to defeat the German Panzers on the flank, the British could go no further than Agny, in the suburbs of Arras.
To the south, the French of the 4e and 7e DLM also hit Guderian’s exposed flanks, but were luckier. No Panzers were in the area, as they had been moved north for the more promising offensive towards Lille and Calais. As such, opposition was light and the two divisions soon reached Villers-Bocage.
There too, however, the two divisions had issues, as they started to run into the first columns of the German motorized divisions. Armed with PaK 36 and 88-mm Flak guns, the Heer regiments put up quite a fight, forcing Rommel to send his Panzers south to deal with the threat. On the sides, too, the Germans put artillery and anti-tank guns in battery, raining hell on the French flanks.
On the evening of July 7th, the two French divisions had only managed to crawl to Pierregot. But this was enough for the OKH to panic.
Seeing two armored thrusts and what felt like a hundred tanks rushing into their lines, they immediately ordered all offensive operations in the area to stop. There would not be another Montcornet: these thrusts had to be contained and pushed back [2]. Liszt and Rommel were disappointed: they thought that they could be in Dunkirk in less than three days!
But this also presented an opportunity: if they struck at the flanks of these thrusts, they could well turn the tide on the Allies and encircle them instead. As such, the 8th Panzer went south to contain the French offensive, while Rommel took matters into his own hands and rushed towards the British thrust.
Despite the intervention of the Luftwaffe, which allowed the German Panzers to maneuver favourably, this “counter-encirclement” maneuver did not yield the expected results.
At Arras, the 3e DLM shattered Rommel’s attempts at piercing behind the British lines, while in Amiens, the battered 12th (Eastern) Infantry Division managed to hold the flank of the French advance, holding off Kuntzen’s 8th Panzer.
If the German Panzers failed at counter-encircling the Allied thrusts, they did stop any offensive operations in the sector. The British and French had to withdraw, but had the satisfaction of having at least stopped the German operations in the sector, and bought a very welcome reprieve, that would surely help in evacuating the Allied forces to England.
This allowed the French First Army to consolidate its positions: it had retreated, but not broken, though this retreat caused friction between Weygand and Lord Gort. The latter wanted to hold a solid line of defense to hold the ports while waiting for an evacuation, from Boulogne and along the Lys. Weygand, on the other hand, wanted to hold further south, to be able to thrust the BEF southwards at Hesdin, holding along the Canche.
Gort would win the debate in the end: German Panzers had taken over the Canche in most places, and the southernmost line would be impossible to hold. Defensive positions were established at Boulogne-sur-Mer and along the Lys river: full priority was given to protect the ports of Boulogne, Calais, Dunkerque, Oostende and Zeebrugge. The BEF would slide its positions downwards, to plug in the gap between Boulogne and Thérouanne. This also meant that with the French abandoning their positions on the Schelde, with the exception of the redoubt at Lille, that the Belgian Army Corps would have to abandon its own positions on the river and retreat towards the Lys, forming a single Army Corps to hold off the Germans.
With this decision meaning the abandonment of Belgium to the enemy, King Leopold III announced his decision to his war cabinet to surrender Belgium to Germany on July 9th. This decision was opposed unanimously. Hubert Pierlot and Paul-Henri Spaak were outraged, while Van Overstraeten and Denis were confused: Belgium had not lost the war yet.
But Leopold III was determined. He told them that he had already contacted the Germans, and would give the Allies a twenty-four-hour notice of the Belgian surrender, which would occur on July 11th [3].
Denis and Van Overstraeten jumped into action: to them, such action was tantamount to treason. In a scene that would be replicated in many Belgian movies in the future, and that certainly was in part imagined, General Denis stood up, walked to the King and told him, in no uncertain terms, to go to hell.
Denis found support with Van Overstraeten and a vast majority of the cabinet, who for their part, all wished to continue the fight.
With overwhelming support, General Denis arrested King Leopold III on charges of treason, and immediately asked to have the constitutional powers of the King revoked. Unanimously, this decision passed, effectively making King Leopold powerless.
On the same day, General Denis sent a telegram to Lord Gort and General Weygand, telling them that the Belgian Government would continue to fight alongside the Allies, and that the Royal Family would be evacuated to London immediately. He also said that King Leopold III was particularly ill, and that the recent events affected him greatly: the British would thus have to pay no mind about any rants the monarch had.
That same day, General Denis ordered to withdraw from the Schelde towards the Ghent-Terneuzen canal, and to make sure to mine all the terrain between Antwerp and Ghent. Denis also made plans to evacuate the government to London, and would also ask for Churchill to help evacuate the Belgian Army from France, if necessary.
Churchill, for his part, had studied the question, and made preparations for the evacuation of the BEF (as well as the Belgian and French armies, of course). But the day before, he had received a phone call from the French Minister of War: France still had one more ace up its sleeve.
[1] OTL Gamelin replied that the reserve didn't exist anymore.
[2] OTL the thrusts were lazier and offensive operations continued, but with the near-disaster at Montcornet, OKH isn’t taking chances.
[3] Mostly OTL. Leopold III pretty much went behind his entire government’s back, but the situation was much more dire in OTL.
Red: Current Frontline (approximate)
Yellow: Furthest Allied advance
Blue: New "Lys Line"