1940

Battle of Sedan (1940)

German forces cross the Meuse and rupture the French front at Sedan

French troops began running partly because they heard German tanks were already behind them — about twelve hours before the first German tank crossed the Meuse.

13 May 1940: the assault crossing at 16:00

Having reached the Meuse at Sedan on 12 May, Heinz Guderian's XIX Panzer Corps attacked across the river on 13 May 1940 with the 1st, 2nd and 10th Panzer Divisions and the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment, supported by sustained Luftwaffe attacks.

The assault crossing began at approximately 16:00. German troops had penetrated the French main line of resistance by 20:00 and captured Hill 301 at about 23:00.

The crossing itself was an infantry-and-engineer operation; German tanks did not begin crossing until the following day.

Rubber boats, and a rumour that travelled faster than armour

Walter Rubarth, a German engineer NCO, led a small assault group across in overloaded rubber boats and attacked French bunkers from their flanks. By nightfall six of his eleven-man team were dead and three wounded.

A false report that German tanks had already reached Bulson helped trigger a flight among elements of the French 55th Infantry Division, a second-tier reserve formation under Pierre Lafontaine holding the principal crossing sector.

German war diaries indicate that the first German tank did not cross the river until roughly twelve hours after that report.

What the phrase "Maginot Line" hides

On 14 May, German armour poured over a pontoon bridge at Gaulier; by that afternoon about 570 tanks had crossed the Meuse, and Guderian sent the 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions westward.

The Meuse defences at Sedan were a weaker northern extension of the fortified system rather than the strong concrete works usually meant by the Maginot Line, and the main German manoeuvre bypassed the principal line entirely.

The frequently repeated "60-mile-wide breach" cannot be substantiated from the military histories consulted; one U.S. Army study instead describes an opening of about 12 kilometres between the French Second and Ninth Armies after the 55th Division collapsed.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources 2 audit passes Date corrected

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Date corrected. The research places this at 1940-05-13.