| Battle of Arras | | Part of World War II | | Date | May 20, 1940 | | Location | Arras, France | | Result | Tactical British Victory, Strategic German Victory | | | Combatants |
 United Kingdom |
 Germany | | Commanders |
 Major-General Harold Franklyn |
Generalmajor Erwin Rommel | | Casualties | | About 100 killed or wounded | 300 killed or wounded, 400 Captured. | The Battle of Arras, was an Allied counter-attack in 1940 against the German blitzkrieg through France during World War II. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
is the 140th day of the year (141st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Arras (Dutch: ) is a town and commune in northern France, préfecture (capital) of the Pas-de-Calais département. ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ...
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel ( ) (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was one of the most famous German field marshals of World War II. He was the commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps and also became known by the nickname “The Desert Fox†(Wüstenfuchs, ) for the skillful military campaigns he...
Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...
In general, allies are people or groups that have joined an alliance and are working together to achieve some common purpose. ...
The defining characteristic of what is commonly known as Blitzkrieg is that it is a highly mobile form of mechanized warfare. ...
Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
Background
Early in the Battle of France, German forces managed to defeat Allied forces and push them back considerably. In an attempt to shore up defenses against the rapidly approaching German advance, the British Expeditionary Force reinforced the town of Arras. By May 20, the Allied forces in Arras found themselves surrounded. Combatants France United Kingdom Canada Czechoslovakia Poland Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) Leopold III H.G. Winkelman Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di...
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the British army sent to France and Belgium in World War I and British Forces in Europe from 1939–1940 during World War II. The BEF was established by Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Second Boer War in case the...
Arras (Dutch: ) is a town and commune in northern France, préfecture (capital) of the Pas-de-Calais département. ...
is the 140th day of the year (141st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The battle Lord Gort, commander-in-chief of the BEF, ordered a counter-attack in an attempt to delay the Germans and prevent British forces from being overrun. Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort VC GCB CBE DSO and two Bars MVO MC (commonly known as Lord Gort) (10 July 1886 - 31 March 1946) was a British soldier who served in both World War I and II, rising to the rank of field marshal...
The counterattack would be led by Major-General Harold Franklyn; his forces, codenamed Frankforce, consisted of two divisions and 74 tanks as well as 60 supporting French tanks. The heavy infantry support Matilda tanks of the BEF enjoyed some initial success against the more lightly armoured and armed Panzers. The defending forces, elements of SS-Division Totenkopf were overrun, their standard 3.7cm PaK 36/37 German anti-tank guns proving ineffective against the Matilda. Generalmajor Erwin Rommel, commanding the 7.Panzer-Division committed some of his armour to local counterattacks, only to find the guns of the Panzer IIs and Panzer III's could not penetrate the Matildas' armour. The Tank, Infantry, Mk II, Matilda II (A12) (sometimes referred to as Senior Matilda) was a British tank of World War II. In a somewhat unorthodox move, it shared the same name as the Tank, Infantry, Mk I (A11). ...
Panzer IV Ausf. ...
SS-Division Totenkopf Kampfgruppe Eicke 3. ...
German 3. ...
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel ( ) (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was one of the most famous German field marshals of World War II. He was the commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps and also became known by the nickname “The Desert Fox†(Wüstenfuchs, ) for the skillful military campaigns he...
The 7th Panzer Division, which participated in the Battle of France, was nicknamed the Ghost Division because nobody knew where they were attacking from, not even the German High Command. ...
The Panzer II was a German tank used in World War II. Designed as a stopgap while other tanks were developed, it played an important role in the early years of World War II, during the Polish and French campaigns. ...
Panzer III is the common name of a medium tank that was developed in the 1930s by Nazi Germany and used extensively in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen III (abbreviated PzKpfw III). ...
Desperate to prevent a British breakthrough, Rommel ordered the division's 8.8cm FlaK 18 Flak and 105 mm field guns be formed into a defensive line and fire anti-tank and HE rounds in a last ditch effort to stop the Matildas. The BEF's advance was halted with heavy losses. Then, with Luftwaffe support, Rommel launched a successful counter-attack, driving the British back. Frankforce had been repulsed. German 88 mm guns were used in anti-aircraft and anti-tank roles. ...
FLAK was a punk rock side project of members of the band Machinae Supremacy in 2001. ...
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The Deutsche Luftwaffe or (German: air force, literally Air Weapon, pronounced lufft-va-fa, IPA: ) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ...
Aftermath The battle is historically credited with shaking the confidence of the German High Command (OKW). Erwin Rommel is noted to have written a report of an attack by hundreds of Allied tanks, which was likely a contributing factor to the halt of the German offensive for 24 hours (though Hermann Göring's promises that the Luftwaffe could finish off Dunkirk was also a major factor). The main British force consisted of only 58 machine gun armed Matilda I and 16 2 pounder gun armed Matilda II supported by a few lighter armoured vehicles. The delay by the OKW is one of the main reasons for the success of Operation Dynamo. For this reason, Frankforce, in spite of being repulsed, could be considered one of the few allied successes of the 1940 French campaign. In total, more than 40 British and French (20) tanks were lost in the battle, compared to around a dozen lost by the Germans. Oberkommando der Wehrmacht OKW most notably stands for Oberkommando der Wehrmacht - the high Command of the Third Reich armed forces. ...
Hermann Wilhelm Göring ( ) (also Goering in English) (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946) was a German politician and military leader, a leading member of the Nazi Party, second in command of the Third Reich, and commander of the Luftwaffe. ...
The Deutsche Luftwaffe or (German: air force, literally Air Weapon, pronounced lufft-va-fa, IPA: ) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ...
General characteristics Length 4. ...
2 pounder gun may refer to: QF 2 pounder naval gun Ordnance QF 2 pounder Category: ...
French troops rescued by a British merchant ship at Dunkirk British evacuation on Dunkirk beach Operation Dynamo (or Dunkirk Evacuation, the Miracle of Dunkirk or just Dunkirk) was the name given to the World War II mass evacuation of Allied soldiers from May 26 to June 4, 1940, during the...
Despite common misperception, the 8.8cm FlaK 18 was not used for the first time as an anti-tank gun at Arras. Several years earlier, during the Spanish Civil War, the German volunteer unit Legion Condor had used 8.8cm FlaK guns against armour and other ground targets. Rommel realised the defensive power of the eighty-eights and used them to great effect during his time commanding the Afrika Korps. Not to be confused with the Spanish Civil War of 1820-1823. ...
The Condor Legion (Legión Cóndor in Spanish) was a unit of Nazi Germanys air force which was sent as volunteers to support the Nationalists (i. ...
The seal of the Deutsches Afrikakorps. ...
See also The Battle of Arras is the name of a number of battles near the town of Arras in Artois, France: Battle of Arras (1654) Battle of Arras (1917) - British offensive during the First World War. ...
References
External links - BBC - WW2 People's War - Battle of Arras
- Defense of Arras
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