![]() ![]() The only thing that had gone right was the Luftwaffe’s air attack. The boats for the crossing had arrived, but the operators had not. Their own artillery was hopelessly mired in a traffic jam rearward and could not get there in time. Earlier in the day, the least German movement drew artillery fire, keeping the German troops pinned in their hastily dug foxholes and entrenchments. The situation was already unfolding against his unit. His command, Panzergrenadier Regiment 1 of the 1st Panzer Division, was tasked to get across the river and establish a bridgehead. ![]() Men on both sides braved fire to accomplish their respective missions on the afternoon of May 13, 1940. The Luftwaffe pilots were determined to keep French heads down with a storm of bombs and bullets. On the opposite bank, French soldiers crouched in their bunkers and trenches as German aircraft roared overhead, bombing and strafing, paying particular attention to the French artillery positions within range of the river. ![]() Clusters of gray-clad German infantrymen braved the torrent of enemy fire, carrying assault boats right up to edge of the Meuse River. Normally this would be a recipe for disaster. After advancing a mere eight miles, the German attack ground to a halt.The attack was beginning despite the widespread lack of artillery support, engineers, or armor. To make matters worse, the Germans were now coming under fire from ground-attack aircraft. He had survived arrest, torture and imprisonment during Stalin’s purge of army officers in 1937. Soviet Commander of the northern sector of the Kursk salient. ![]() He was mortally wounded in an attack by Ukrainian nationalists in February 1944. Soviet Commander of the southern sector of the Kursk salient. He committed suicide at the end of the war. Nicknamed the Führer’s Fireman, Hitler considered Model one of his best generals. He had been key in the defeat of France in 1940 and, earlier in 1943, had stabilised the front after German failure at Stalingrad.Ĭommander of the northern German pincer. Between them, these four men commanded around 2.8 million men, 8,000 tanks and 4,200 aircraft…Ĭommander of the southern German pincer. ![]()
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