Rommel Crosses the Meuse

At 0600 hours on 13 May 1940 Generalmajor Erwin Rommel ordered Schfilzen Regiment 7 ((mot) Infantry Regiment) to cross the Meuse using rubber boats at Bouvlgnes, near Dinant. They were halted by French machine guns and mortars from 66e …

1940-05-13

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At 0600 hours on 13 May 1940 Generalmajor Erwin Rommel ordered Schfilzen Regiment 7 ((mot) Infantry Regiment) to cross the Meuse using rubber boats at Bouvlgnes, near Dinant. They were halted by French machine guns and mortars from 66e Regiment d'lnfanterie located in houses and firing positions along the riverbank. The crossing soon stalled and Rommel deployed PzIIIs and PzIVs and a pair of howitzers to bombard the well concealed positions. At 1000 hours, with the aid of the heavy fire from the German tanks and guns, the French were finally silenced and the crossings along the river resumed. By midday. the Germans crossed the Meuse and captured Bouvlgnes, in the process eliminating all French Resistance and securing a bridgehead.

Bouvignes, Belgium

The Battle of Sedan or Second Battle of Sedan took place in the Second World War during the Battle of France in 1940. It was part of the German Wehrmacht's operational plan codenamed Fall Gelb for an offensive through the hilly and forested Ardennes, to encircle the Allied armies in Belgium and north-eastern France. German Army Group A crossed the Meuse river with the intention of capturing Sedan and pushing northwards towards the Channel coast, to trap the Allied forces that were advancing east into Belgium, as part of the Allied Dyle Plan.

Wikipedia: Battle of Sedan (1940)

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