Soldiers! The battle that begins today will determine the fate of the Reich and the nation for the next thousand years.

From the order of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Germany dated May 9, 1940

On the night of May 9-10, 1940, Hitler's order for the offensive was read out in all companies and batteries of the German front stretching for 650 kilometers from North Holland to the borders with Switzerland. With the first rays of the sun, the German Luftwaffe brought down thousands of tons of deadly cargo on enemy positions. And before the German infantry went forward, the ground shook from the volleys of thousands of batteries. After a three-hour artillery preparation, only the charred earth, ulcerated by tens of thousands of deep craters, smoked in front of the German divisions ...

75 divisions of Army Groups "A" and "B", reinforced by the 22nd Airborne Division, concentrated on the direction of the main attack. 19 divisions of Army Group "C" opposed the French on the "Maginot Line" and did not take part in active hostilities at the first stage of the operation. Another 45 divisions (together with divisions of the Waffen SS) were waiting in the wings in the first echelon of the reserve. Army Group "B" with its three armies delivered an auxiliary strike in northern Belgium and Holland, and Army Group "A" - the main attack through Luxembourg - South Belgium - the Department of the Ardennes and, after forcing the Meuse, go to the lower reaches of the Somme, cutting off the existing enemy divisions in Belgium. The ordered strike of the German divisions was supposed to force the Anglo-French allies to retreat in a northerly direction. After the defeat of the Belgian and Dutch armies, the dismemberment of the encirclement and the liquidation of part of the French army and the British Expeditionary Force, the second stage of the campaign was to begin - Operation "Rot" - a massive offensive of the German armed forces in a southerly direction.

On the night of May 10, the SS Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler", reinforced by the 3rd Regiment "Fuhrer" of the SS Special Purpose Division, secretly advanced to the Dutch border. The main forces of the SS Special Purpose Division were stationed in the Münster area and were supposed to cross the Dutch border immediately after breaking through the border fortifications. The division "Totenkopf" was in the reserve of the OKH and camped near Kassel. The Waffen SS police division was also in reserve and was pulled back behind the line of the Rhine front of Army Group C.

WAFFEN SS IN THE HOLLAND

The small Dutch army was unable to provide adequate protection for the 300-kilometer section of the German-Dutch border. An important component of the country's strategic defense were numerous canals and natural barriers - rivers. Relatively weakly fortified in the border zone, bridges and crossings, as they moved westward, became more and more powerful fortifications, turning on the last line of defense into an insurmountable "fortress Holland", which includes Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Leiden. There was a real danger that, as a last resort, the Dutch might open the floodgates on the coast, as the Belgians had already done in 1915. The German plan of attack was based on the capture of strategic crossings over the Meuse and the bridges in Maastricht between the Meuse and the Albert Canal. The implementation of this most important task was entrusted to the parachute units of the Luftwaffe and the landing units of the Wehrmacht.

The success of the German offensive in this direction was to be ensured by a battle group of about 4 divisions: 4,000 Luftwaffe paratroopers and 4 Wehrmacht glider regiments, an army tank division and 4 motorized regiments of the Waffen SS. The third-rate reserve - a cavalry division and 6 infantry divisions of the Landsturm - could not be taken into account. With air support, German troops were to break the resistance of the Dutch and take the key cities of the "Holland fortress".

On May 9, 1940, at 21:00, army radio operators received a short radiogram - "Danzig". The operation has begun.

The Leibstandarte took up positions near the Dutch border town of De Poppe. Exactly at 5.30, in the predawn twilight, the assault detachment of the Leibstandarte took by surprise the half-asleep Dutch border guards, cleared the bridge and took up all-round defense. A few minutes later, columns of SS transport trucks proceeded across the bridge. Simultaneously with the ground transport, military transport Yu-52 / Zm with troops on board took off.

The Leibstandarte moved forward with stunning speed, and by noon on the first day of the offensive, the city of Zwolle, the administrative center of the province of Oberys-sel, and two bridges across the Issel were taken on the move. The sensational and almost bloodless success of the German weapons was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that, fearing a landing, the Dutch seriously damaged the crossings. Nevertheless, this did not prevent the 3rd battalion of the Leibstandarte from crossing to the other side of the river in the Zuitfen area, capturing Hoven and 200 soldiers of his garrison. With a swift march, the battalion advanced another 70 kilometers deep into Dutch territory and captured 127 prisoners of war. For this daring operation, the battalion commander, Obersturmführer Krase, was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, becoming the first Army Group B officer to earn the honorary award. On this success ended, the Leibstandarte ran out of steam and stopped.

On May 11, 1940, the commander-in-chief of Army Group B, Fedor von Bock, transferred the SS division to the southern sector of the front.

Meanwhile, advancing in the vanguard of the 207th Infantry Division, the 3rd Fuhrer Regiment of the Waffen SS Special Purpose Division crossed Issel near Arnheim on May 10, crossed the Grebbe Line and turned to Utrecht.

On May 11, in the direction of the main attack, the 9th Panzer and SS Gausser osnaz division entered the battle. The only intact bridge across the Meuse was captured by the commandos of the sabotage special forces of the military counterintelligence Brandenburg-800. On the eve of the invasion, on May 9 (around 23.00), the saboteurs crossed the Dutch border in the Gennep area. At dawn, a column of "captured German prisoners of war" under heavy guard of the "Dutch" moved across the bridge. Silently liquidating sentries on the east side, the column proceeded further. One of the commandos, who was fluent in Dutch, warned the commander of the Dutch checkpoint on the western side by phone that a convoy of prisoners of war would now follow and they should be let through without hindrance ... The Brandenburg captured the bridge and held it until the approach of Gausser's tanks and motorized infantry, which proceeded deeper province of North Brabant.

As the German offensive developed, the Allies transferred almost all of their light divisions to Belgium in order to stop the Wehrmacht at all costs on the Antwerp-Breda line. When the commander of the 7th Army, French General Henri Giraud, learned that the German paratroopers had captured the bridges near Moerdik, which were extremely important for maintaining communications between Belgium and the “Holland fortress”, he immediately decided at any cost to drive the Germans out of the bridgehead they had captured. On May 11, the French entered Breda, and Giraud sent two motorized regiments northeast and northwest of Moerdik with orders to eliminate the German group. This maneuver did not go unnoticed, and the commander of the 9th Panzer Division sent half of his tanks and a division of Waffen SS equipment to the southeast to prevent the development of the French counteroffensive, and he himself, with the formations remaining at his disposal, continued to move towards Moerdik, in the vicinity of which he was supposed to connect with a life-pants dart thrown from the north.

Two regiments of Giraud were immediately discovered by aerial reconnaissance and dispersed by a powerful air strike by dive bombers Yu-87 - "Stukas". On May 11, the main forces of Giraud faced head-on with the 9th Panzer and Gausser's division. After fierce fighting on May 13, the French retreated to Roosendal, and a day later their march columns reached Antwerp. The Dutch were driven to the coast. So Brabant was cleared.

As early as May 12, the northern flank of the 9th Panzer Division connected with the German paratroopers holding the crossings near Moerdik and crossed the water barrier. Gradually, the German offensive became bogged down in a deeply echeloned Dutch defense. On May 14, Rotterdam, and with it the "Fortress Holland", still held out. The OKH decided to withdraw the 9th Panzer Division and the Waffen SS motorized formations from Holland and transfer them to the French direction.

Before the start of the operation in Holland and Belgium, Hitler expressed the wish of the Luftwaffe "to show restraint and not bomb civilian targets unnecessarily" - a wish as good as it is impossible in wartime conditions: if an NP is equipped on the roof of an apartment building or a machine gun is installed, then this no longer a civilian object, but a military target. On May 13, the transfer of the Leibstandarte was completed, and on May 14, Goering gave the order to bomb Rotterdam. "Sepp" Dietrich received an order "after a massive bombardment, proceed through Rotterdam (in the second echelon of the offensive) to connect with German paratroopers fighting in the encirclement in the Delft-The Hague-Schidam region."

Around 15.00, Xe-111 air wings circled over the doomed Rotterdam. A few hours later, the city ceased to exist, turning into solid smoking ruins. During the raid, 800 civilians were killed or went missing, thousands were injured, and tens of thousands were left homeless. The last bombs hit the city at 15.45. At the same time, the life standard advanced to its original positions.

Less than 2 hours after the bombing, the Dutch, shocked by the extent of the destruction, sent truce envoys to discuss the terms of surrender. General Kurt Student, who landed with his people in the vicinity of Rotterdam on May 10, together with the commander of the airborne units, Oberstleutnant Dietrich von Holitz, left for the Dutch headquarters. In the meantime, hundreds of Dutch soldiers had gathered in front of the headquarters building for the surrender ceremony.

Unfortunately, the Leibstandarte happened at that very moment. Still not getting rid of the well-acquired habit of first shooting, and then sorting it out, the SS men opened a hurricane of fire from machine guns. The student rushed to the window in bewilderment ... what happened ... who dared ... - and received a severe gunshot wound. Shedding blood, the unconscious general fell into the arms of von Holitz, who barely had time to pick him up. The ancestor of the German parachute troops, General Student, survived only by a miracle, and already in 1941 he commanded the landing operation on Crete. As a memento of the meeting with the Leibstandarte, only an ugly scar remained. Without slowing down, the motorized column proceeded to the exit from the city to join the paratroopers, whose commander they unknowingly nearly killed.

The paratroopers of the 22nd Airborne Division, which landed near Delft and The Hague on May 10, were supposed to capture the Dutch military airfields and ensure the landing of Yu-52 transports. However, the Germans have not yet encountered such a density of anti-aircraft fire. Even on the approach to the capital, most of the transport workers were shot down, and the surviving paratroopers were scattered, surrounded and liquidated. All that the Leibstandarte found was the wreckage of aircraft and the corpses of German paratroopers. Only a few soldiers of the 22nd division managed to get through to their own. At 9:00 pm, motorized columns of the Leibstandarte entered Delft, and the next morning they entered The Hague. In the course of short but fierce battles, 3,536 Dutch soldiers and officers were captured. On such a high note, the SS Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler" completed his tour of the country of tulips - Holland capitulated.

While the German formations were regrouping to strike at France, Gruppenführer Gau Eser, “together with part of the SS Special Purpose Division, reinforced by several army infantry formations, pushed the Allies to the sea. With strong support from attack aircraft, the Deutschland regiment broke through to the coast near the port city of Vlissingen, but on May 17, the Franco-Dutch units that survived the battles managed to evacuate on British destroyers that approached the coast.

During the Dutch campaign, the symptoms of the disease fully manifested themselves, which the SS troops did not succeed in getting rid of until the end of the war. The Waffen SS suffered heavy losses.

“No matter how bravely the Waffen SS divisions fought, no matter how excellent successes they achieved, there is still no doubt that the creation of these special military formations was an unforgivable mistake ... The blood shed by them did not in any way pay off the successes achieved,” wrote later in his memoirs, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein.

The capitulation of Holland coincided with the completion of the second stage of the German offensive in Belgium. The Belgian defenses were swept away, the French positions between the Meuse and the Oise were broken, and the remnants of the French and British armies were driven into Flanders. German troops rushed to the coast of the English Channel.

On May 16, the hour of the Totenkopf Division struck. She was withdrawn from the OKH reserve and, having made a swift forced march Kassel - Namur - Charleroi, was transferred through Belgium to France on the northern flank of General Hoth's 15th Corps attacking on a wide front. On May 17, the vanguard of the 7th Panzer Division of General Rommel broke through to Chateau, and the very next day one of his tank battalions occupied Cambrai, where the 5th and 7th Panzer Divisions of the 15th Corps stopped in anticipation of the approach of lagging infantry and reinforcements. On May 19, the "Dead Head" division appeared at the forefront. Eike was ordered to clean up the region of Ivuy - Abancourt - Maniere - Cambrai. So the division received a baptism of fire and suffered its first losses: from May 19 to May 20, 16 SS men were killed and 53 wounded.

While the 7th Panzer and Totenkopf were entrenched on the lines southwest of Arras, 4 other Wehrmacht Panzer divisions reached the coast west of Abbeville, completing the encirclement of over 40 Belgian, British and French divisions - about a million soldiers in total - in the Somme and Scarpe basin and cutting them off from the main French army forces in the south.

All attempts by the allies to break through to connect with the encircled divisions were thwarted largely due to the miscalculations of the Anglo-French command, the sluggishness of their intelligence and the determination of the Germans. However, the partial success of the counter-offensive south of Arras was a real shock to the self-confident Wehrmacht, accustomed to winning victories with little bloodshed.

On the afternoon of May 21, 74 heavy British tanks and 2 battalions of infantry, supported by 60 tanks of the French light motorized division, attacked the flanks of the 7th Panzer Division and the outposts of the Totenkopf Division. Before the attackers were stopped, they managed to stampede both the army and the SS units. In the very first minutes of the battle, the Germans lost 9 medium, dozens of light tanks and armored vehicles. Losses in manpower amounted to: 89 killed, 116 wounded, 173 missing, including Totenkopf SS lost 19 killed, 27 wounded and 2 missing fighters.

The next day, an attempt was made to counterattack by the allied divisions encircled in the east. The Leibstandarte, which was relocating to the south, was urgently deployed and transferred to the breakthrough zone south of Valenciennes. On the 32-kilometer front, the SS repulsed about a dozen timid French counterattacks.

DUNKIRK

To increase pressure on the southern flank of the allied forces pressed to the coast, the OKH transferred every single motorized division to the front line. The Allies concentrated on a narrow section of the coastal strip between Gravelines, Lone-Plage and Saint-Paul, stretched for 80-100 km in the direction of Valenciennes. From the south, their positions were reliably protected by numerous canals, which were turned by the British Expeditionary Force into powerful and impregnable fortifications. All formations of the Waffen SS involved in the campaign took part in the operation in northern France.

On the night of May 23/24, the Leibstandarte was transferred to the west and took up positions near Wattan, a day's march from the canal. Totenkopf and the division of Gruppenführer Gausser pressed the British from the southeast, pulling up to the main forces.

On May 24, the SS Special Purpose Division entered the Isberg area. 32 fighters of the reconnaissance group in armored cars crossed the Air La Base canal and advanced in the direction of Merville, where they were attacked by British tanks. The reconnaissance group, which did not have heavy weapons, took an unequal battle. On the morning of the next day, divisional radio operators received a radio message stating that only 8 fighters who were not injured remained in the group. The situation was hopeless, and the survivors were ordered to destroy the radios and retreat under cover of night. None of the 32 scouts returned to the location of the division. The group did not die in vain: the reports transmitted to the headquarters made it possible to identify failures in the allied defense. cov. Units of the SS Special Purpose Division rushed into the gaping gap, seizing a bridgehead in the Saint-Venant area. The British moved assault units to the breakthrough site, but too late. The southern line of defense was broken through.

Another part of the SS equipment cleared the territory northeast of Arras. In the battle for canals, success alternately accompanied one side or the other. On the night of May 23-24, a reinforced SS patrol forced the crossing and entrenched itself in enemy-controlled territory. In the morning, a British tank battalion, covering the withdrawal of the rearguard, ran into them head-on. Before reinforcements approached, the SS equipment lost three field guns along with combat crews, but left most of the British tanks to burn out on the battlefield.

Until today, the discussion on the topic has not stopped: why the notorious “Fuhrer stop order” of May 24 was given, which forbade the troops to cross the canal line. By the time the order was received by the troops, part of the Gausser division had already entrenched itself on the enemy coast, and Sepp Dietrich decided to ignore the order of the Fuhrer's Headquarters. In fairness, it should be noted that at this moment the Leibstandarte came into direct fire contact with the enemy, and Dietrich could no longer retreat without laying down most of the regiment. The Leibstandarte broke the fierce resistance of the British, forced the canal under Wattan and occupied the dominant heights. Another breach was made in the British defense. Only the southeastern third of the defensive orders remained monolithic like reinforced concrete.:

A pre-stormy calm reigned on the Southern Front. London decided to take advantage of a gift of fate and evacuate the expeditionary force by water from Dunkirk. After a hasty regrouping of forces, three barrage infantry divisions were formed to cover the troops retreating to the coast of the Strait of Dover. In the meantime, the German motorized and infantry divisions were ordered "to gain a foothold in positions, use the respite for rest of personnel, routine maintenance and repair of military equipment."

While the Wehrmacht was resting, the Waffen SS fought fierce battles with the enemy for the captured bridgeheads and bridgeheads. The bridgehead near Saint-Vienne became the scene of fierce fighting. The British sought at all costs to push back the Gausser escort, which had cut off their most important communications and jeopardized the entire Dunkirk evacuation plan. On May 25, a fresh brigade from the replenishment of the British that landed on the coast drove the SS men out of the city. For the first time during this campaign, the SS troops were forced to leave a major stronghold. Having restored the bridge over the Lys near Mervil, the British dug in and took up a circular defense. Exactly two days later, the Germans regained their lost positions.

On the night of May 26-27, Hitler withdrew his order, and the German troops went on the offensive. The Dead Head crossed the water barrier near Bethune and fought its way deep into the territory controlled by the enemy in the direction of Merville. The allied barrage divisions fought for every inch of land with a fierceness never seen before. But this time they had to deal with five panzer divisions, a motorized division of the Wehrmacht, two motorized divisions of the SS, the elite army regiment "Grossdeutschland" and the SS Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler". The fighting on May 27 became the bloodiest of this campaign, and the SS troops suffered heavy losses.

The SS Special Purpose Division was ordered to fight its way to Dieppe with the forces of two regiments through an eight-kilometer strip of dense forest. The 3rd Regiment of the Deutschland Osnaz Division continued its attack on Merville as part of the battle group of the 3rd Panzer Division (neighbor on the right) and Totenkopf SS (neighbor on the left). The lightly armed regiments "Germany" and "Fuhrer" came under aimed fire from British batteries. Junior commanders raised fighters in hand-to-hand combat, lost people and died themselves. So for the first time during this war, the SS troops encountered the so-called "domino principle" or "the factor of the negative manifestation of a positive impact" - a kind of paradoxical ethical trap for the Waffen SS command staff, from which they did not manage to get out until the end of the war. The "follow me and do as I do" principle professed by SS commanders was an indispensable condition for the extraordinary combat capability of the SS formations, and at the same time the cause of extremely high casualties among non-commissioned officers.

The British dug into the ground, building a powerful uk-reaion upstream of the Lys between Saint-Venant - Merville - Nieppe - Armantere. The line, bristling with gun and machine-gun barrels, became the last hope for the allied units retreating to Dunkirk. The vanguard of the 3rd Panzer Division fought fierce battles on the outskirts of Merville. On the afternoon of May 27, after numerous attacks, the Deutschland regiment broke through to Lys between Merville and Tien and built a bridgehead, becoming the vanguard of the German offensive on this sector of the front. The regrouped remnants of the 2nd British Division put up fierce resistance to the breakthrough group, preventing the development of success - at any cost, the British had to try to hold positions along the Lys and the canal for at least another 24 hours.

The regimental commander, Oberführer Steiner (the same Felix Steiner whose model of combat training was universally adopted by the Waffen SS), gave the order to force the water barrier. Subsequently, Steiner's report on the operation carried out under his command successively passed all instances and ended up on the desktop of the Reichsfuehrer SS. Corporal Hitler, hovering in strategic empyreans, never delved into tactical details at a low regimental level for him, but the report made such a strong impression on Himmler that he decided on an unprecedented step and, by printing the text in a larger font (one of the most protected "secrets of the Reich" : the Fuhrer was blind), presented him to Hitler as "an example of the courage and heroism of the Waffen SS." Hitler got acquainted with the document and returned it to Himmler's adjutant, SS-Oberstgruppenführer Karl Wolff, marked "Brilliant!".

With the support of two SS artillery batteries, the 3rd Sturmbahn of the Deutschland Regiment went forward. Due to limited ammunition, each of the batteries fired only a few dozen shells, nevertheless, the gunners managed to smash enemy pillboxes to the ground with accurate volleys and suppress enemy machine-gun nests. By noon on May 27, two Steiner stormtroopers already held the captured bridgehead. The positions on the left and the commanding heights of Lestrom remained in British hands. The Totenkopf Division, which was supposed to cover Steiner's left flank, was hopelessly bogged down in fighting about a kilometer away. On the right flank, the situation was no less threatening: the British held Merville, and the assault units of the 3rd Wehrmacht Panzer Division fought the enemy on the southern approaches to the city. The main forces were fighting with the surviving soldiers of the 2nd British division on the banks of the canal. Thus, in order to provide cover from the flanks, Steiner was forced to stretch his already more than modest forces. In the meantime, light SS sapper companies began to build minefields, anti-tank obstacles and build crossings over the Lys from improvised building materials.

Around 19.00 on the same day, Steiner, together with his adjutant, crossed to the opposite bank of the canal to inspect the gradually expanding German bridgehead. Suddenly, a group of British combat vehicles appeared from the northern direction, attacking the positions of the 1st Sturmbann with the support of machine gunners. The temporary German crossings were still flimsy and intended exclusively for infantry, so until the evening of May 27, not only not a single light tank, but not a single anti-tank gun was transported to the enemy coast. About 20 tanks ironed the battalion positions, and the 3rd company was literally smeared on the ground. Here is what Oberführer Felix Steiner wrote in a report dated May 31, 1940:

“Soldiers and officers were tied with bundles of anti-tank grenades and rushed under the tanks. One of the SS men contrived to jump onto the armor of an English tank in order to undermine the crew with a hand grenade through the viewing slot. A British tank going in a parallel course cut a fighter with a burst from a heavy machine gun ...

I saw with my own eyes how the soldiers let the tanks approach 5-10 meters and only then opened fire from small arms or hit the target with anti-tank rifles and rifle grenade launchers. I would like to apply separately for the award of the Iron Cross, first class (posthumously) to three company commanders who became the heart and soul of the German resistance (personal files are attached) ...

Only the timely approach of the anti-tank company of the Totenkopf SS division saved the bridgehead from complete liquidation and forced the British to retreat. The British continued to shell our positions along a flat trajectory with 190 mm cannons and 200 mm howitzers, destroying 5 anti-tank guns of the SS artillery regiment. The Allies achieved their goal: they managed to briefly hold back the advance of the advancing German troops. But on the night of May 28, the British units and the 1st French army were forced to retreat in a northerly direction.

Contempt for death was the main component of the value system instilled in the elite formations of the Waffen SS. Their fearlessness in battle bordered on fanaticism - ruthless to themselves, they were extremely cruel in relation to the enemy.

THE MASSACRE IN LE PARADE AND THE ABORTIONS IN ESQUEBEC

The forcing of the Eure-les-Basset Canal near Bethune turned out to be for the Totenkopf Division by overcoming two water barriers: the main canal and its branch. Already on the first day of the operation, the Totenkopf SS lost 44 people killed, 144 wounded and 11 missing. When forcing the second barrier, the division suffered even greater losses. But the worst was waiting for the SS ahead: the soldiers of the 2nd British division fought to the death, and they were suicide bombers who swore not to let the enemy go to the Fox.

The "dead head" was advancing in the area of ​​​​responsibility of the 4th brigade of the 2nd division of the British. Under the blows of the SS men who furiously stormed the positions, the British retreated to the Le Paradis - Locon line and took up defense. The combined detachment of the 1st Royal Scots, 2nd Royal Norfolk and 1/8th Lancashire infantry regiments covered the retreat of the main British forces in this direction. The battle for Le Paradis broke into dozens of small battles. The 4th company of the 1st battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment Totenkopf SS oberst \ rmführer Fritz Knohlein stormed the British stronghold at one of the farm estates near Le Paradis. About a hundred foot soldiers of the Norfolk Regiment kept the SS men from raising their heads for several hours. Enraged by the resistance, who suffered severe losses that day (on May 27, in the battles near Le Paradis, the 2nd regiment of the Totenkopf SS lost 1 officer and 16 soldiers killed, 50 wounded and missing on the battlefield), the SS men staged a wild massacre of the surrendered British . After a search and a short interrogation, the 28-year-old Knochlein ordered the prisoners of war to be lined up and shot. Two heavy machine guns riddled unarmed people. The SS men who survived were finished off with shots in the back of the head or pinned with bayonets. Until the end of the war, Knohlein rose to the rank of Obersturmbannführer and in 1944 received the Knight's Cross, commanding a regiment of Norwegian SS volunteers in Courland.

Details of the massacre at Le Paradis became public at the trial against former SS commander Knochlein. Two miraculously surviving seriously wounded English soldiers under the cover of night got out from under a mountain of corpses and were picked up by German soldiers of one of the army units. Two British soldiers passed through the German concentration camps, survived and became the main witnesses for the prosecution. On October 25, 1948, the court sentenced Knohlein to death by hanging.

This episode, of course, was not included in the combat log of the Totenkopf SS division. Shortly after the brutal massacre of prisoners of war, Oberstgruppenführer Wolf, the head of the Personal Staff of the Reichsführer SS, Oberstgruppenführer Wolf, visited Le Paradis and expressed concern that "the bodies of SS heroes who fell in battles have not yet been buried with due honors." Nevertheless, the echoes of rumors excited the army public: they talked about some strange challenges to a duel of Knohlein by his fellow soldiers and about strange statements by SS reservists who were transferred to the reserve after the end of the French campaign ... The point is. that all retired Totenkopf reservists signed a non-disclosure agreement, but many of them expressed a desire to serve in any other division, but not in the "Dead Head", or even declared that they would leave the SS after the end of the war. Attempts by the Main Directorate of SS Courts to sort out the situation were thwarted personally by Himmler, and the division commander Eike was encouraged. The massacre at Le Paradis was a harbinger of the future massacre of the Americans at Malmedy in 1944.

Meanwhile, other units of the Totenkopf SS fought fierce battles with the British guard formations in the northern direction. Each new day of the war cost the Dead Head 150 killed, the British lost up to 300 people a day. On May 28, the SS Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler" advancing to Dunkirk almost lost his commander. Dissatisfied with the reports coming to the CP, Sepp Dietrich went to the front line. On the way between the 1st and 2nd battalions near Esquebeck, his staff car almost drove into the location of the British units. At 50 meters from the enemy positions, the car was fired upon, and the Obergruppenführer and his adjutant barely had time to jump out of the car and lie down in the gutter, when the car turned into a sieve took off into the air. Streams of burning gasoline flowed into the makeshift shelter. It was possible to escape only by burying their heads in the mud, which they did, lying motionless for a total of about five hours. Having received the news of the commander's disappearance without a trace, the chief of staff of the Leibstandarte threw two companies into the British positions near Esquebeck. The SS suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat. Then an army tank company went into battle, having lost its commander and 4 tanks, and it returned with nothing. And only after 5 heavy tanks were thrown into the British positions, a platoon of armored cars and the 3rd Leibstandarte Sturmbann, Dietrich and his adjutant were saved.

At this time, the 2nd battalion of Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Mohnke stormed Esquebeck from the southeast. Shocked by the death of the commander (every hour the hope of saving Dietrich was fading), the SS men were thirsty for blood. Having captured about 80 British, the Germans drove the prisoners into a barn, set it on fire and threw grenades at it (after the war, 15 soldiers who survived that massacre testified at the trial against Monke).

After the happy deliverance of Dietrich, with the support of tanks, infantry, artillery and aircraft, the inspired Leibstandarte took the major British stronghold at Wormhood on the move, capturing 17 officers and 750 privates of the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Infantry Regiment. The Leibstandarte continued to strike at the rear of the enemy retreating to Dunkirk, but was soon redeployed to Cambrai to replenish and rest. Part of the SS division of Gausser, probably, would have wandered in the dense Dieppe forest if it had not been recalled to rest and transferred to the Cambrai area. On May 30, the Totenkopf SS division was redeployed to the Le Portel - Boulogne area to patrol the coastal zone. By June 3, 200,000 fighters of the British Expeditionary Force were safely evacuated from Dunkirk - among them about 140,000 French and Belgians. The army was shocked at the ease with which Hitler stopped the offensive and allowed the enemy to leave freely. At one time, many of the most fantastic and quite plausible versions of the “miracle at Dunkirk” were discussed: from related “Aryan roots” and Hitler’s desire to make peace on favorable terms for Germany or Goering’s assurances that the Luftwaffe would not let the British leave by sea, to operational - tactical miscalculations of the OKW ...

Thus the battle was won, but the victory was lost.

In a conversation with the architect Troost, Hitler declared: “The blood of every Englishman is too precious for me to shed without need. Whatever my generals may say, I am firmly convinced that our peoples are racially united.” - Approx. ed.

PLAN "GElb"

The plan of operation "West" provided for the use of three army groups "A", "B", "C". Part of Group B was tasked with the occupation of Holland - the Germans hoped to use this country as a base for attacks on Belgium and France and thus lure most of the allied forces to the north, where they would have to fight on the terms dictated by the German side. These occupying forces included the Leibstandarte and a division of the SS Special Forces. The other part of Army Group B, together with Army Group A, was to pass through Southern Belgium and Luxembourg and invade France. The reserve of Army Group "A" included the "Dead Head" division. The police division was assigned to Army Group C, located along the French Maginot Line, and did not take an active part in the fighting for the first 45 days of the campaign. As soon as Holland and Belgium were under the German boot, Army Groups A and B, united, launched an offensive deep into France.

The first of the SS units of gunpowder had a chance to sniff the soldiers of the Leibstandarte. On May 9, 1940, at 5.30 am, they crossed the Dutch border and, moving at a staggering speed, by noon they had already deepened 70 km into Dutch territory, capturing the bridges over the Issel. Two bridges were blown up by the Dutch army, which, however, did not prevent the Life Standard from crossing to the other side and capturing Hoven. For participation in this campaign, Obersturmführer Hugo Krass became the first SS officer to be awarded the Iron Cross, first degree. After that, the Leibstandarte was transferred to the south, where the unit joined up with the 9th Panzer Division, as well as the Special Forces Division of the SS, in order to continue the attack on Rotterdam.

On May 10, 1940, the Fuhrer Regiment crossed the Issel at Arnhem, and the next morning the 9th Panzer Division and the Special Forces Division of the SS crossed the Maass with little to no resistance. The French immediately transferred a significant part of their forces to the north in the hope of blocking the path of the aggressor - it was assumed that the French units would approach Breda - and clear the bridges of the Germans. Unfortunately, the 9th Panzer Division and the SS Special Forces Division cut their way. However, the French column ran straight into German tanks and SS motorized formations, while the other was attacked from the air - German Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers rained down on it. The French were forced to retreat in disorder back to Breda.

On May 12, Luftwaffe units were ordered to bomb Rotterdam in order to hasten the surrender of Holland. In this case, the German units could be thrown in full strength to conquer France. But due to communication problems, Luftwaffe planes bombarded the city, unaware that a surrender agreement had already been reached. Immediately after the air raid, parts of the Life Standard entered Rotterdam, again as auxiliary forces of the 9th Panzer Division. On the streets in the city, in some places, one could see Dutch soldiers loitering around waiting for the outcome of the negotiations that were being conducted at that moment by the Dutch command and generals Student and von Holitz. Unaware of the negotiations, the Leibstandarte, seeing representatives of the enemy army, immediately opened fire. A stray bullet hit General Student in the head, seriously wounding him. The Leibstandarte units passed Rotterdam at full speed and rushed to Delft, they not only managed to break any resistance in their path, but also captured about 4 thousand people. The next day the regiment reached The Hague just at the moment when Holland agreed to an unconditional surrender. Meanwhile, SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser led a special SS division and some army formations against the remnants of the French forces at Zeeland. He very quickly made his way to the coast, and the French were forced to urgently evacuate their troops by sea.

Perhaps, to tell in this group (VK: WWII) lovers of the history of the Second World War about such well-known moments in history is trite. On the other hand, there are such amazing versions about the fatefulness of dirty underpants here that a small educational program is quite useful. Yes, besides - to general confusion, and the Gelb plan itself is not just one document, but a whole bunch of options for an offensive plan, the first and last of which are radically opposite in essence.
So, even before the end of the complete occupation of Poland - September 27, 1939 - the development of a plan for an offensive against France began. The purpose of the operation was: destroy, if possible, large associations of the French army and allies on its side, and at the same time capture as much of the territory of Holland, Belgium and Western France in order to create a springboard for the successful conduct of air and sea war against England and expand the buffer zone of the vital Ruhr areas».
On 19 October, the plan for Operation Gelb was presented to the OKH. Army Group "A" advanced through Luxembourg and the Ardennes, Army Group "C" demonstrated an attack on the Maginot Line, Army Group " N ”was advancing in northern Holland. And the main blow to this plan was delivered by Army Group B: it was supposed to defeat the armies of Belgium and Holland, as well as the Anglo-French troops that would come to the aid of the Belgians. The end result of the operation was to be an exit to the river Somme.

OKH plan of October 19, 1939
Here it is necessary to make a small digression and explain why the Germans were sure that the Anglo-French troops would meet them in Belgium. Of course, "everyone knows that the French screwed up by building the Maginot Line." But in fact, the construction of the Maginot Line was supposed to prevent a German attack on France along the shortest route. And in this regard, the Maginot Line fulfilled its task: the Germans no longer even thought of delivering their main blow here. For Germany, there was only one available way to attack France - through Belgium and Luxembourg, this was obvious to both the Germans and the French. Naturally, the French had prepared in advance a plan to repel the German offensive through the Benelux countries: the French troops marched to Belgium and there, in pre-prepared positions, together with the Belgian troops, met the German troops.
The first version of the Gelb plan did not suit anyone. In his analysis, it was obvious that the French had time to reach Belgium and join the Belgian army - i.e. the plan did not at all guarantee the defeat of the enemy, but threatened to turn the war into a "positional stalemate." On October 29, a new version of the Gelb plan was created.


OKH plan of October 29, 1939
According to the new plan, the forces of Army Group "B" were significantly strengthened by pouring into it the army group " N ", as well as 12 divisions from army groups "A" and "C". The start date of the offensive was also set - November 12. But even this version of the plan did not at all guarantee the defeat of the enemy forces and was subjected to criticism and revision. And the date of the offensive was postponed due to adverse weather conditions (subsequently, the start of the offensive was postponed another two dozen times).
And it was here that Manstein appeared in the history of the emergence of the Gelb plan. At that time he was the chief of staff of Army Group A and he really did not like the already available options for the plan. On October 31, he sent his proposals to the OKH headquarters to change the offensive plan. Although Manstein's proposals were rejected, they were reported to Hitler.


Manstein plan
The essence of Manstein's proposals was that the main one was inflicted by Army Group "A", while Army Group "B" tied up the enemy forces in Belgium. Manstein believed that when the most combat-ready Anglo-French forces advanced to Belgium, the Dinan-Sedan sector would be weakened and the French troops there would not be able to resist the invasion, and the French troops already in Belgium would not have time to return in time. It turned out that all the enemy troops in Belgium would be cut off by the offensive of Army Group A from the main forces and rear, falling into the actual encirclement.
Manstein's plan promised the complete defeat of the Belgian enemy grouping and the capture of northern France, but why was he rejected by the OKH headquarters? The fact is that despite the fact that “everyone knows that the Germans fought in World War II according to the theory of blitzkrieg,” the Germans at the beginning of World War II fought the old fashioned way. There were supporters of new methods of warfare among the German generals - when mechanized formations were to be the main striking force of the offensive, and the infantry followed, gaining a foothold in the occupied territories and finishing off the enemy troops dissected by "tank wedges". But most of the top German generals considered such ideas dubious. And, although the elements of the "blitzkrieg" were quite successfully tested in the Polish company, this did not convince them: the German command still considered the infantry to be the main striking force.
Therefore, the headquarters of the OKH considered that the Ardennes - a mountainous and wooded area, with a minimum of roads - would slow down the pace of the German offensive, thereby ruining the whole plan. In fact: 170 km of mountain roads (of which there are only four) infantry units with an average rate of movement of 20-25 km per day, with battles and inevitable traffic jams, will pass in 9-10 days. During this time, the French will be able to bring their troops to the Ardennes, and the advancing German infantry units will be demoralized by constant bombing from the air. Manstein's idea to strike with tank and motorized formations (with an average rate of movement of 15 km per hour) and pass the Ardennes in 4-5 days was considered a gamble.
Hitler concurred with the OKH, although he suggested that "every preparatory measure be taken to shift the direction of the main attack of operations from Army Group B to Army Group A, if there, as may be assumed from the current deployment of forces, it is possible to achieve faster and more global successes than that of Army Group B.
Manstein, however, did not calm down and continued to send his proposals to the OKH headquarters. He also consulted with Guderian and convinced the commander of Army Group A, Rundstedt, to support his proposed plan. In the end, the restless Manstein was removed from the post of chief of staff and appointed to command an army corps, emerging in Stettin. Formally, this was a promotion, but in fact, Manstein, who was annoying the OKH, was obviously decided to be pushed further to the rear, thereby preventing him from participating in the discussion of the Gelb plan.
While Manstein bombarded the headquarters of the OKH with his proposals, adjustments to the plan of October 29 continued there, new dates for the start of the offensive were appointed and canceled. And on January 10, the “Mechelen Incident” happened (those same “dirty underpants”), as a result of which the German plans were in the hands of the enemy. In addition to Hitler's fury, this event led to another correction of the Gelb plan and another postponement of the start date of the offensive. The new plan - dated January 30, 1940 - again proceeded from the previous ideas of the OKH, although it assigned a large role in the offensive to mechanized formations.


OKH plan of January 30, 1940
In the first half of February, for the final running-in of offensive plans, the OKH held operational map games. The analysis of the results of the games was disappointing for the Germans: the plan did not at all guarantee success, and the disruption of the offensive as a result of enemy counterattacks was very likely. Even Halder, the author of the basic concept of the OKH plan, stated in his diary: doubts about the success of the operation as a whole».
And it just so happened that just at that time Manstein was in Berlin - he came to introduce himself to the high command on the occasion of his appointment as corps commander. On February 17, 1940, he met with Hitler and did not fail to tell him about his ideas. Whether Hitler had his own strategic ideas is hard to say, but the fact that he was very dissatisfied with the already existing Gelb plan is absolutely certain. The Manstein plan, for all its adventurism, promised the possibility of a decisive victory. And the already existing OKH plan, at best, promised a successful start of a positional war - this was understood not only by Hitler, but also by most of the generals in the German high command. However, not all: the same Von Bock fiercely criticized Manstein's plan to the last. But the Germans nevertheless decided to take a chance, and the final version of the Gelb plan, approved on February 24, was created on the basis of Manstein's plan, who nevertheless pushed through his line.


The final version of the Gelb plan

According to the plan, Army Group B attacked Belgium and Holland. Its main task was to assure the enemy that the Germans undertook to carry out the same Schlieffen plan, and to lure Anglo-French troops into Belgium. But the main blow was dealt by Army Group A: its avant-garde - the Kleist tank group (in which 7 out of 10 German tank divisions participating in the offensive were concentrated) - had to break through the Ardennes in the shortest possible time and capture it from the crossing across the river Meuse. The further offensive of Army Group A - from Sedan to the English Channel - cut the front of the German opponents in two, cutting off the Belgian enemy grouping from the rear. Well, Army Group C was supposed to demonstrate with all its might the desire of the Germans to storm the Maginot Line and not allow the French to transfer troops from there.

On May 10, 1940, at 5:35 a.m., German troops began to carry out the Gelb plan.
The Germans' calculation of the inertia and inertness of the thinking of the French command was fully justified - the French did not have time to prevent the German march through the Ardennes in time. The advanced units of the German troops managed to cross the Ardennes and reach the Meuse River by the middle of the third day of the offensive - in just 57 hours. By this time, the Anglo-French troops had already managed to enter Belgium and get involved in the fighting. In addition, after the Mechelen incident, the French command almost doubled the grouping advancing to Belgium - up to 32 divisions. Including the French 7th Army, which was previously intended for the strategic reserve and stationed just opposite the Ardennes, went to Belgium. H German troops cut off the Franco-British forces that had gone to Belgium, defeated their rear and supply lines, forced them to fight on two fronts - against Army Group B advancing from the German-Belgian border and Army Group A, advancing from the rear.
Having defeated the enemy in Belgium and Holland, the Germans regrouped their forces and hit France in several directions. Organized by Weygand (the new French commander), the mobile defense lasted a little over a week, and then the French asked the Germans for a truce, in fact capitulating.

Manstein's ideas proved their worth and led the Germans to victory.

Plan
Introduction
1 Plan alternatives
2 Designation of strategic goals
3 OKH plan of October 19, 1939
4 Comments of the OKW
5 OKH plan of October 29, 1939
6 Criticism of the OKH plan
7 Remarks of Army Group "A"
8 Additions to the OKH plan
9 "Mechelen Incident"
10 "Long start"
11 OKH plan of January 30, 1940
12 Military staff games
13 Manstein Plan
14 Criticism of the Manstein Plan
15 Implementation of the Gelb Plan
16 Notes
17 Sources

Introduction

Plan "Gelb" or Gelb plan (German. Fall Gelb- Yellow plan) - the code name of the German blitzkrieg plan against the countries of the modern Benelux: Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and France in 1940. Later it was partially implemented during the Nazi offensive, known as the French campaign. The plan became one of the stages of the "Strange War", which was skillfully used by the German command as a kind of strategic pause-respite. This allowed Germany to successfully complete the Polish campaign, implement the plan for the occupation of Denmark and Norway (the Danish-Norwegian operation), as well as prepare the invasion of France (the Gelb Plan itself), finally consolidate the results of the Anschluss (annexation of Austria) and the capture of the Sudetenland.

1. Plan alternatives

The first version of the Gelb military campaign, known as "OKH Plan", was rather theoretical, positional in nature. He was not destined to come true. Another option, known as the "Manstein Plan", was more successful and was successfully implemented on May 10, 1940 in the first phase of the French campaign. The result of the implementation of the plan was the occupation by German troops of the territories of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and northern France.

2. Designation of strategic goals

The development of an offensive against France began on September 27, 1939. At a meeting of the commanders-in-chief and military commanders of staffs, Hitler emphasized: "The purpose of the war is to bring England to its knees, to defeat France."

The plan was opposed by the commander-in-chief of the ground forces, Brauchitsch, and the chief of the general staff, Halder. They even prepared a plan to remove Hitler from power, but, not finding the support of the commander of the reserve army, General Fromm, they abandoned the attempt.

On October 6, 1939, German troops completed the occupation of Poland, and on October 9, the Commander of the Armed Forces, Brauchitsch, Goering and Raeder, was sent a "Message on the conduct of the war on the Western Front." In this document, based on the concept of "blitzkrieg", the strategic goals of the future campaign were determined:

“3. ... for the further conduct of hostilities I order:

a) on the northern flank of the Western Front, prepare an offensive through the territories of Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland. It is necessary to attack with as many forces as possible and as quickly as possible; b) the purpose of this operation is to destroy, if possible, large associations of the French army and allies on its side, and at the same time capture as much of the territory of Holland, Belgium and Western France as possible in order to create springboard for successful air and naval warfare against England and to expand the buffer zone of the vital Ruhr area."

“3. … Für die weitere Durchführung der Feindseligkeiten bestellt:

a) auf der nördlichen Flanke des westlichen Front bereiten Offensive teritorrii durch Luxemburg, Belgien und Holland. Die Offensive sollte so viel Kräfte wie möglich und so schnell wie möglich;b) Der Zweck dieser Maßnahme - zerstören die Möglichkeit der großen französischen Armee und Verbündete auf seiner Seite, und gleichzeitig zu nutzen, so viel Gebiet der Niederlande Westen Belgien schaffen, ein Sprungbrett für eine erfolgreiche Luft-und Seeweg Krieg gegen England und erweitern Sie den Puffer Die Umgebung von entscheidender Bedeutung Ruhrgebiet.”

The highest German generals reacted to Hitler's decree with doubt. One of the generals even shouted: "France is not Poland!" But, despite fears about the failure of the operation, the commander-in-chief of the ground forces, Walter von Brauchitsch, ordered the General Staff (OKH) to develop "Guelb Directive on the strategic deployment of troops" .

The ground forces command (OKH) took the Schlieffen plan of 1914 as the basis for the operation plan, but unlike the Schlieffen plan, the OKH plan did not aim for a complete victory in Flanders, but had an exclusively positional character - its complete implementation only led to the establishment of a positional front along river Somme.

Army Group "B" (Fyodor von Bock) - 2, 4 and 6 armies (37 divisions)

Army Group "A" (Gerd von Rundstedt) - 12th and 16th armies (27 divisions)

Army Group "C" (Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb) - 1st and 7th armies (25 divisions)

Army group "N" - 18th army (3 divisions)

Reserve - 9 divisions

The main blow was to be delivered by Army Group B on both sides of Liège, with the aim of defeating the Anglo-French forces in Belgium, along with the Belgian and Dutch armies. To the south will be Army Group A. The 12th Army will cover the southern flank of Army Group B, the 16th Army will attack in the direction of southern Belgium and Luxembourg. After marching through Luxembourg, the 16th Army is to take up defensive positions north of the western flank of the Maginot Line between the Saar and the Meuse. Army Group C will operate against the Maginot Line. Depending on the political climate, army group "N" was intended to defeat Holland. The directive ended with an order to Army Groups "A" and "B" to concentrate their troops in such a way that they could take up exit positions for the offensive in six night marches.

4. Remarks of the OKW

On October 21, 1939, the commander of the Supreme High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW), Wilhelm Keitel, criticized Hitler about the "Gelb plan". They boiled down to the following:

· Army Group "N" has unreasonably large forces. She has equally little chance of breaking through the fortified Grebbe line.

· The left-flank 4th Army of Army Group "B", advancing south of Liège, should strike to the west, and only in extreme cases - to the north-west.

· It is worth reviewing the composition of the 6th Army, which strikes north of Liege. The three tank and one motorized divisions allocated to it are not enough to develop success.

· After the start of the offensive and the withdrawal of French troops from the Maginot Line, ten divisions from Army Group C can be transferred to reinforce the advancing group.

Thus, the headquarters of the operational leadership of the OKW proposed to further strengthen the northern flank, mainly with mobile troops.

In the strategic plan of October 29, 1939, a broader goal was set - to destroy the allied grouping in the area north of the Somme and reach the English Channel. The 18th Army was additionally included in Army Group B, and the number of its divisions increased to 43 (including 9 tank and 4 motorized). The composition of Army Group A was reduced to 22, and Army Group C to 18 divisions. The liberated divisions reinforced the northern wing of the front. Army Group B was given the task of breaking through with one strike force north of Liege, to the Brussels area, and with another strike group south of Liege, to the area to the west of Namur, and then continue the offensive in a northwestern or southwestern direction. Army Group "A" had an auxiliary mission - to cover Army Group "B" on the southern and southwestern flanks; Army Group C, as in the plan of October 19, took up a position against the Maginot Line. The border with Holland was covered by the 6th Corps District, which was subordinate to Army Group B.

It was planned to complete the sweep by November 5th. On November 12, 1939, the offensive was to begin.

6. Criticism of the OKH Plan

Adolf Hitler called the plan prepared by the OKH the height of mediocrity. At one of the meetings to discuss the operational plan, Hitler, referring to Keitel and Jodl, noted:

“So this is the old Schlieffen plan with a reinforced right flank and the main thrust along the Atlantic coast. Twice such numbers do not pass!”

The repetition of the Schlieffen plan of the beginning of the century, the attack on France with a crescent-shaped movement through Belgium, did not suit him. In 1939 it was clearer than in 1914 that if there were any fighting between Germany and the Allies, it would be in Belgium, since the Maginot Line along the Franco-German border reliably protected France. Compared to the Maginot Line, the Belgian fortifications were very weak. It is obvious that the French also understood this and expected such a development of events. However, although Hitler had a different point of view, he wanted the offensive to start as quickly as possible:

"Time works for the enemy ... Our Achilles' heel is the Ruhr ... If England and France break through Belgium and Holland into the Ruhr, we will be in great danger."

On November 5, Brauchitsch again tried to dissuade Hitler from invading France. Hitler, in turn, reaffirmed that the offensive must begin no later than 12 November. However, on November 7, the order was canceled due to adverse weather conditions. Later, the start of the operation will be postponed 29 more times.

7. Remarks of Army Group "A"

Even during the preparation of the OKH plan, the chief of staff of Army Group A under the command of Rundstedt, Erich von Manstein, noted that his plan was too obvious. Another drawback of the OKH plan, according to Manstein, was that the German troops would have to face the British units, who would definitely be a harder enemy than the French. Moreover, this plan did not promise a decisive victory.

Thinking about this problem, Manstein concluded that it would be better to launch the main attack through the Ardennes in the direction of Sedan, which the Allies could not possibly have expected. The main idea of ​​this plan was "luring". Manstein had no doubt that the Allies would certainly react to the invasion of Belgium. But, by deploying their troops there, they will lose a free reserve (at least for several days), load the roads to failure, and most importantly, weaken the Dinan-Sedan operational sector by “sliding north”.

Lots of girls to love!

There will not be two deaths!

(Visa Thorira Glacier)

The main forces of the "pansky Poland" were defeated by the troops of the "Third Reich a" in just eighteen days. Throughout the "lightning" Polish campaign and the winter of 1939-1940 that followed it, a complete calm reigned in the West. The Anglo-French troops, on the one hand, and the weak German units occupying the "Western Wall" on the other, stood opposite each other, separated by their lines of fortifications. By the way, this “sitting” war (also called “strange” or “ridiculous”) benefited the SS SR (then still a “friend and ally” of Nazi Germany). During the “strange war” in the West, Stalin managed to create a number of strongholds in the Baltic States, which had gone to the SS SR under the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”, and on November 26, 1939, unleashed the so-called “winter war” against Finland, which did not accept Soviet demands for “ changing the border" in the Leningrad region. When the Anglo-French learned about the creation in the city of Terijoki of the “Finnish People’s Government” under the auspices of the SS SR, which announced the beginning of a “people’s uprising” in Finland and called on the Soviet Red Army to “help the Finnish revolution”, they became worried. Although the actions of the Red Army, of course, immediately responded to the request of the "oppressed Finnish proletariat" for help, and hurried to "fulfill their international duty" as soon as possible, they were worn on the Karelian Isthmus - despite the colossal superiority of the Soviet invasion army in forces and means! - to put it mildly, an extremely sluggish character, the Western powers decided to take advantage of the "winter war" and capture the Scandinavian Peninsula, under the pretext of "assisting a small democratic Finland against a huge totalitarian Soviet monster." In the British and French headquarters, "under the guise" began the development of plans to capture Scandinavia.

Shortly after the conquest of Poland, the freshly minted SS Gruppenführer (Lieutenant General) Paul Gausser led the Special Purpose SS Division as its first commander. A month later, he and his men left the city of Pilsen (Pilsen), located in the west of the former Czechoslovakia, to spend about six months in western Germany. There they underwent intensive training and preparation for the upcoming war with Britain and France. In the initial period of training, the “green SS men” under the command of Gausser learned to fight and interact as part of a single division.

In April 1940, the new division received reinforcements in the form of new units, designed to bring its strength to the level necessary to ensure that the new SS division could effectively participate in the invasion of Holland (Netherlands) and Belgium. Replenishment with fresh manpower and an intensive combat training regime did not leave the soldiers of the SS-FT division even a shadow of doubt that they were destined to play an important role in the implementation of the operational plan "Gelb" ("Yellow"). Not surprisingly, the SS men were highly motivated and ready to do their duty. During the preparatory period, they developed a strong sense of comradeship and loyalty to their divisional commander, familiarly called by them "father Gausser" (just as the white Cossacks of the XIV Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS just as affectionately, albeit familiarly, called their corps commander General - Lieutenant Helmut von Pannwitz "Daddy Pannwitz").

While the ranks of the SS Division of Special Purpose were undergoing combat training in western Germany, the governments of England and France made on January 27, 1940 the final decision on the occupation of Norway by the forces of two British and one French divisions. The joint command of the Western Allies hoped to seize the Norwegian city of Narvik with lightning speed, thereby blocking the Swedish ore region of Gällivare, the exploitation of whose deposits was vital for the smooth functioning of the German military industry, deprived of its own sources of raw materials and minerals. But “intelligence reported accurately”, and already on February 20, 1940, the “Führer and Reich Chancellor” informed General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst that he had reliable information about the intention of the British and French to land and gain a foothold in Norway. Hitler emphasized that if they succeeded, the consequences for Germany could be the most unpredictable, and his intention to get ahead of the British. Von Falkenhorst was appointed commander of the army's "Group 21", formed to capture (now the Germans) Denmark and Norway, and operationally subordinated directly to Hitler. The Fuhrer instructed General von Falkenhorst to prepare a combined landing operation, code-named "Weserubung" ("Teaching on the Weser"), issuing a directive on March 1, 1940. At the same time, Adolf Hitler and the top military strategists of the "Third Reich" were working on a plan for the lightning conquest of the countries of Western Europe. But even before the start of Operation Gelb (the code name for the plan to invade Belgium, Holland and northern France), on April 9, 1940, the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW) ordered a surprise attack on Denmark (Operation Weserübung-Süd) and Norway (Operation Weserübung-Nord). As expected, the capture of these Scandinavian countries by German landing forces “under the very nose” of the Anglo-French intending to do the same, Hitler and the OKW, who successfully implemented the Weserübung plan, managed to timely deprive the British naval and air forces of the opportunity to get bases on Danish and Norwegian territory, as well as to prevent the British from capturing rich iron ore deposits on Norwegian territory and blocking the Gällivare area. Hitler managed to take over Denmark without encountering serious resistance (with the exception of a short exchange of fire between the German invasion forces and the guards of the royal palace in Copenhagen). With Norway, the Germans had to tinker longer. By the time of the German invasion, English and French troops had already landed on its territory. However, by the beginning of June 1940. Norway finally submitted to the Third Reich. In both cases, the Germans were greatly helped by the presence in the conquered countries of a strong "fifth column" - the Danish National Socialist Workers' Party (DNSAP) Frits Klausen and the Norwegian Nazi party "Nashunal Samling" ("National Assembly", abbreviated: NS) of the former Minister of War of Norway Vidkun Quisling (whose last name became a symbol of treason and collaborationism in the English-speaking world during the war years). National Socialist ideas enjoyed such wide popularity in both Scandinavian countries that there, in addition to the Nazi assault detachments that existed even before the war (SA and Volksvernet in Denmark, Gird, and later Riksgird in Norway), immediately after the beginning of the German occupation, their own, national "parts of the SS for general purposes" were formed. In Denmark, the SS regiment Danmark (Denmark) and the SS training battalion Schalburg (which served as the basis for the formation of the Schalburg Corps). In Norway, "Norwegian SS". In addition, on the side of the Germans fought on the fronts of the Second World War, consisting of the Danes "Volunteer Corps Danmark (Denmark), as well as the" Norwegian SS Legion "and a separate" Norwegian SS Ski Jaeger Battalion ", not counting the numerous Norwegians and Danes who served together with imperial and ethnic Germans and representatives of other Germanic (or "Nordic") peoples in the divisions of the Waffen SS Nordland Wiking.

Plan "Gelb"

"We conquered many countries,

A new campaign will glorify us."

("Holger the Dane and the Giant Didrik")

The German plan for the invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and northern France called for the participation of three army groups. In the south, Army Group C (C) "occupied positions along the" Western Wall "(" Siegfried Line "), which has already been discussed above, stretching from Luxembourg to Switzerland. This army group, under the command of Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Loeb, included two armies and was deployed along the border, just opposite the French fortified "Maginot Line", considered "irresistible" and indeed representing an impressive network of fortifications at first glance. structures erected by the French in order to prevent a new breakthrough of German troops into France across the Rhine River, similar to the one they committed in 1914. Nevertheless, running a little ahead, we note that the rumors about its "insurmountability" turned out to be no less exaggerated than the rumors about the "impregnability" of the German "Siegfried Line". Suffice it to say that, after the start of the German offensive in the West, the vaunted defenses of the "Maginot Line" were broken through by the Germans in just a few hours during the usual offensive of infantry units without any tank support. The German infantry advanced under the cover of aviation and artillery, which widely used smoke shells. It was soon discovered that many of the French long-term firing points could not withstand direct hits from shells and bombs. In addition, most of the fortifications turned out to be absolutely unsuitable for all-round defense, and they could easily be attacked from the rear and front and destroyed with hand grenades and flamethrowers. But all this happened a little later, and for now we will restore the interrupted thread of our story.

So, the German army group "C" had to hold the line along the German "Siegfried Line" in front of the French "Maginot Line", linking with its presence in the south a significant grouping of Franco-English troops, who feared a German attack from this side, while the other two German army groups were intended for offensive operations in the north.

Army Group A, stationed over a vast territory from Aachen to Luxembourg and including four armies, was under the command of Field Marshal Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt. The mission of Field Marshal Rundstedt's Army Group A was to pass through the Ardennes forest, break through the territory of Luxembourg and southern Belgium, then turn to the northwest and advance in a northwesterly direction until his panzer and motorized divisions will not reach the English Channel in the area north of the river. Somma. The OKW hoped that, if von Rundstedt's forces accomplished this task, they would be able to surround tens of thousands of French and British Expeditionary Force soldiers on the Atlantic coast near the port of Dunkirk.

On the right flank of the German invasion forces, Army Group B under the command of Field Marshal Fyodor von Bock prepared for the offensive, which included 29 divisions divided into two armies (6th and 18th). While the 6th Army had to break through the southern regions of Holland as quickly as possible, General Georg von Kühlerus with his 18th Army was to cross the Meuse River and help two German airborne divisions - the 7th Aviation (parachute rifle) and 22nd Airborne - capture the important port of Rotterdam and the capital of Holland, The Hague. A particularly responsible task was assigned to the 9th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht. She had to break through the "Pel line" of the Dutch at Gennep, advance at maximum speed to Murdijk and along the large (almost one and a half kilometers long) bridge over the Meuse River (which by this moment should have already been in the hands of the German paratrooper shooters), wedged into the heart of Fortress Holland. On an important road that ran through the whole of Holland in a north-south direction, the airborne troops of the Third Reich were to capture the bridges over the Waal River near the city of Dordrecht and the bridges over the Lower Rhine River near the city of Rotterdam. The German airborne assault we mentioned above in the area of ​​The Hague would have been quite capable of capturing the Dutch government or, at least, thoroughly tying down the forces of the Dutch 1st Army Corps covering the capital. But Hitler did not rule out the possibility that the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina, after the very first shots, would come to terms with the occupation of her country by the German army - as the Danish king did immediately after the start of Operation Weserübung-Süd. In addition, the German invasion army expected possible support from the "fifth column" that existed in Holland - the "National Socialist Movement" (NSD) led by Adrian Mussert (so strong that in the subsequent years of World War II, little Holland, in addition to its own territory of its own rear Dutch general purpose SS units in the Netherlands, replenished the ranks of the Wiking SS division with a significant contingent of Dutch volunteers and sent two fully equipped Dutch SS divisions to the Waffen SS front lines: the 23rd SS Volunteer Motorized Infantry Division Nederland (Netherlands) and the 34th Grenadier Be that as it may, the Fuhrer gave the German parachute troops, intended to be dropped, as part of an airborne assault, in the area of ​​The Hague, the strictest order to render the Queen of Holland all due military honors, just in case. As for Paul Gausser and his Special Purpose SS Division, as part of the implementation of the Gelb operational plan, Paul Gausser and his Special Purpose SS Division were to operate as part of von Küchler's 18th Army. Von Küchler's troops in the course of the upcoming operation were to face off not only with the Dutch and Belgian armies, but also with twenty-six British and French divisions stationed in the vast space between Dunkirk and the Oise River.

Initially, Hitler and the OKW were inclined to transfer most of the divisions they had available to Army Group B, considering the maximum strengthening of the German right flank as an absolutely necessary condition for a successful breakthrough through the Benelux countries, defeating enemy forces north of the Somme River, and capture from a raid Dunkirk and other important ports, striving for everything to be “according to Schlieffen” (who, even lying on his deathbed, continued to think about his plan for a victorious French campaign and died with the words: “Strengthen my right wing!”). But the chief of staff of the von Rundstedt Army Group, Lieutenant General Erich von Manstein, managed to persuade the Fuhrer to place more divisions at the disposal of Army Group A, so that von Rundstedt's armies could invade France to a greater depth and prevent the enemy from launching an effective counterattack in the direction from the south to north. Manstein hoped that in this case it would be easier for the Germans to encircle the allied armies north of Sedan. Hitler approved this plan, leaving the Eighteenth Army with fewer divisions to conquer Holland and Belgium. But there was nothing to do - since the Fuhrer himself had spoken his weighty word.

As before the start of the Polish campaign in September 1939, the strength of the German army did not lie in numerical and material superiority (which the Germans never had throughout the Second World War - just look at the map - or even better, at the globe!) And not in the number of formations that were part of them, how much in their technical equipment and in the principles of combat use. In a stubborn struggle with the "old school" routiners, General Heinz Guderian, with great difficulty, managed to put into practice his idea of ​​\u200b\u200b"tank wedges", which units of motorized infantry should relentlessly follow, not thinking about providing cover for their flanks. Guderian's tactics pursued the achievement of one priority goal - deeply wedging into the enemy defenses, disrupting the activities of the enemy's rear services, disrupting his supply, introducing chaos and confusion into the activities of the enemy command apparatus and causing general panic in the enemy ranks. The long-obsolete "linear tactics" of the Anglo-French, who were still captivated by memories of the previous war and its positional nature and therefore hoped to win forces in the struggle on a wide front and to win by systematically exhausting the enemy, Guderian countered the maneuvering tactics of shock tank units capable of penetrating deep into the enemy rear. As a result, victory over the enemy, instead of a bloody frontal struggle, was achieved much faster and with much less expenditure of manpower and means, by striking at communications and breaking the arteries supplying the enemy. The supreme principle for the armies of the Third Reich, which, due to the limitations of all types of their resources, simply could not afford a repetition of the four-year positional massacre of 1914-1918, as mentioned above, was speed and, as Georges Danton once said: Courage, courage and more courage! It was with this principle in mind that General Guderian (who was given the apt nickname "fast Heinz" by the soldiers for a reason!) developed the basics of driving armored troops. The "mobile troops" of the German ground forces during the hostilities were far ahead of the infantry units moving on foot, outperforming the infantry in speed by five to eight times.

The task of the aviation formations, which, as always, were to operate far ahead of their advancing troops, was to, by attacking enemy communications, positions and key points, paralyze, weaken and confuse the enemy to the maximum extent possible, preventing enemy aircraft from entering your airspace. To successfully complete the task, the short-range aviation formations of the Luftwaffe had the most modern and powerful aircraft at the time being described.

Unlike the Polish campaign, as part of the implementation of the Gelb plan by the Germans, as mentioned above, it was planned to use a third type of troops that was not used during the conquest of Poland. It was about the young German airborne troops. The OKW hoped that the airborne troops (later called "lightning troops") would be able to provide valuable services during the invasion, serving as a connecting link in ensuring interaction between air and ground forces. Airborne assault forces, thrown far ahead of the advancing German tank "wedges", were supposed to attack enemy fortifications, capture important river crossings and destroy enemy resistance centers.

Western Allied Defense Plan

"... the French field army was not a sword, but a broomstick."

(J.F.S. Fuller. "World War II 1939-1945")

Stationed on the other side of the state borders of Belgium and Holland, the forces of the Western Allies were organizationally divided into two groups. Covering the territory from Dunkirk to the city of Montmedy, the 1st Army Group included the 1st, 2nd, 7th and 9th French armies and the British Expeditionary Corps - or, to be more precise, the British Expeditionary Force (BES, BEF), deployed in the area of ​​the city of Lille. The 2nd Army Group, stationed to the south, included the French armies that occupied the Maginot Line from Verdun to the city of Celeste. Near the Swiss border, the 3rd Allied Army Group was stationed, opposing the German 7th Army. In the event of a German offensive, the 2nd and 3rd Army Groups were to take up defensive positions, while the 1st Army Group was to launch a counteroffensive through Belgian territory.

Given the small size of their armed forces (eight infantry divisions, three consolidated brigades, one light motorized division and parts of the border guard), the Dutch were forced to limit themselves to the defense of only the main region of their kingdom, located between the Zuider Zee and the Meuse River. The center and nodal point of the Dutch defense was the area of ​​Amsterdam-Utrecht-Rotterdam-Dordrecht. On the eastern flank of this main Dutch defense area was the heavily fortified Grebbe Line, bounded on the north by the Zuider Zee and on the south by the Meuse River.

Behind her, covering the area of ​​the Dutch capital of The Hague, passed the second fortified position, built just before the war and went down in history as the "line of water barriers." The IJssel position of the city of Arnhem and the "Pel Line" to the south of it, according to the plan of the Dutch command, were supposed to serve as a foreground and slow down the advance of the German troops on the "Fortress Holland" (the conditional name for the area of ​​powerful fortifications in the center of Holland, which included the cities of Utrecht, Amsterdam and Dordrecht), which will be discussed in more detail below, as well as cover the Grebbe-Maas line. To defend this line, the Dutch put up two army corps (which included colonial units). The Dutch Light Division and another army corps were stationed near Eindhoven and in the area of ​​the city of 's-Hertogenbosch. I Army Corps, which constituted the reserve of the Dutch High Command, was located in the area of ​​The Hague-Leiden.

The Belgians built their defenses along the Albert Canal, leaving an almost undefended strip fifty kilometers wide between the Dutch and Belgian fortifications, stretching from the sea to the very German border. This weak point in the Belgian-Dutch defense system did not escape the attention of the Anglo-French command, so the Western Allies planned, in the event of a German offensive, to immediately send the French 7th Army there through Antwerp in order to close this fifty-kilometer gap. The mobile formations of the French 7th Army (two fully equipped mechanized divisions) were able to arrive at the threatened area just a couple of hours after the start of hostilities to support the defending Dutch.

A few months before the German army groups crossed the borders of Holland and Belgium, the governments of both countries were already well aware of Hitler's invasion plan. In January 1940, their suspicions turned into a firm conviction, after a Luftwaffe plane with two German officers on board, due to a malfunction, made an emergency landing on Belgian territory. Both Germans were detained by Belgian soldiers who found papers from one of the Luftwaffe officers containing a detailed invasion plan developed by the OKW. Timely notified of this incident, Hitler and the German High Command decided to speed up the implementation of the Gelb plan, making only minor changes to it. After the incident with the SS-Verfugungsdivision and other units attached to the 18th Army, they had not yet completed their training when the Germans began their invasion of Holland.

In the early morning of May 10, 1940, the German armed forces launched the Gelb plan. Two groups of German paratroopers jumped from their Junkers-52 transport aircraft, dotting the sky over Holland, covered with clouds of Dutch anti-aircraft artillery shells, with parachute canopies, and fell right on the heads of the Dutch. Under the cover of squadrons of fighters and dive bombers, soldiers of the 22nd Airborne Division landed in the designated area near the Dutch capital of The Hague, while paratroopers of the 7th Luftwaffe Division, also under the cover of military aircraft, landed in the Rotterdam area - largest port in continental Europe. The paratroopers captured the Rotterdam Walhaven airfield, ensuring the subsequent landing of German airborne troops on it. At the same time, the German shock detachment (11th company of the 16th airborne regiment), landed from "flying boats" that landed directly on the Rhine River, at the bridges over the Rhine in Rotterdam, captured the bridges and the island of Norder Eyland, the capture of which had crucial to the success of the entire operation, since the island in the center of Rotterdam was criss-crossed by highways and railroads, by cutting which it was easy for the German invading forces to paralyze the resistance of the Dutch. Since both airborne detachments, having landed in two different zones, were isolated from each other, the success of this parachute assault directly depended on the timely arrival of the 18th Army to help them - even before the Dutch had time to surround and destroy both groups of paratroopers.

In the area of ​​the Dutch capital of The Hague, the 22nd Division immediately found itself in a difficult position. At first, the German paratroopers managed, in accordance with their combat mission, to capture three airfields located around The Hague - Valkenburg (ten kilometers from The Hague and four kilometers northwest of Leiden), Eipenburg (located southeast, between The Hague and Delft), from which it was easy to cut the roads The Hague-Utrecht and The Hague-Rotterdam, and Okenburg (2 km southwest of The Hague). However, the 1st Corps of the Dutch army soon arrived from its base on the North Sea coast, immediately moving straight from the march into a powerful counterattack. The Dutch again took possession of all three airfields, after which they pressed the German paratroopers to the coast of the Gulf and captured about thousands of Germans, immediately sending them to internment camps located on the territory of the British Isles. It seemed that The Hague would remain in the hands of the Dutch.

In Rotterdam, the German 7th Luftwaffe Division managed to achieve more impressive success. Having captured the Walhaven airfield and part of the city, the German paratroopers successfully repulsed several counterattacks of the Dutch troops, supported by British bomber raids. With the support of German aviation, paratroopers of the 7th Luftwaffe division gradually consolidated control over the territories they held, after which they captured another area located to the east of those originally occupied by them. Thus, they laid a corridor that was supposed to facilitate the advance of the 18th Army through Dutch territory. Expanding the occupied territory, the German paratrooper shooters occupied both banks of the Meuse River and the city of Dordrecht. They also captured the strategically important bridges across the Meuse at Moerdijk, crossing the mouth of the river, preventing their destruction by the Dutch.

SS - FT in action

"Boldly we climb into the clang

Ice floes of the bloody stampede.

(Visa Harald the Severe)

While two groups of German paratroopers attacked The Hague and Rotterdam, the SS Special Purpose Division and other formations of the 18th Army involved in the operation to occupy the Netherlands crossed the Dutch border. At this early stage in the implementation of the operational plan "Gelb", the units that were organizationally part of the SS division acted in isolation from each other, as during the period of the Polish campaign. From September 1939, the Der Führer Regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the Artillery Regiment of the SS Division, an engineer company and a motorized column were attached as reinforcements to the 207th Infantry Division. At the same time, the reconnaissance battalion of the SS Division for Special Purposes and a platoon of armored vehicles from the Deutschland Regiment were attached to the 254th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht.

In order to link up with the German paratroopers fighting in Rotterdam as soon as possible, the 18th Army had to break through several lines of defense in depth of the Dutch troops. The terrain was extremely favorable for its defense, and the Dutch fortifications were significant obstacles for the advancing German troops. The task of the latter was further complicated by the need to overcome several rivers and numerous canals. The first obstacle in the way of the 18th Army units was the strongly fortified Dutch defensive position mentioned above between the rivers IJssel and Maas near the cities of Arnhem, Nijmegen and Malden, not far from the German-Dutch border. The second obstacle consisted of two sets of fortifications. On the territory stretching from the Zuider Zee to the Meuse River, the II and IV Dutch corps held the line along the heavily fortified "Grebbe line". Positioned directly behind this position, the Dutch III Corps defended the Pel Line, which reached as far south as the town of Werth. It was not the task of the III Corps, which occupied this sector, to contain the German onslaught indefinitely. The troops that were part of the corps were deployed on the Pel Line in order to hold back the onslaught of the German 18th Army until the Anglo-French forces came to the rescue of the Dutch, who, having arrived in the indicated area, were to go on the counteroffensive.

The third defensive line of the Dutch army entered the history of the Second World War under the name "Fortresses Holland". This area consisted of a number of long-term gun emplacements and other fortifications located in a line starting east of Amsterdam and going south to Hertogenbosch, then turning west along the Waal River, covering the cities of Dordrecht and Rotterdam and reaching the coast of the North Sea. As a last resort, which was supposed to stop the German advance, the Dutch army planned to open the floodgates of the coastal dykes in the threatened region, intending to flood this part of Holland with sea water (as the area under the city of Leiden was flooded in due time, which led to the removal of its siege by the Spaniards in XVI century).

Paul Gausser and other high-ranking officers of the 18th Army understood that only the highest possible speed of their advance through Dutch and Belgian territory could ensure the success of Operation Gelb. If the Dutch had managed to hold off the onslaught of von Bock's armies long enough to destroy the important bridges and dams themselves, they could have surrounded the 7th Luftwaffe division and bought enough time to allow the French and British troops to arrive in battle area. Therefore, as soon as the paratroopers landed in the landing zones near Rotterdam and The Hague, on May 10, von Küchler's divisions crossed the border, trying to reach the coast of the North Sea as soon as possible.

On the site of the 18th German Army, the hour of baptism of fire came for the Der Fuhrer regiment, attached to the 207th Infantry Division of the X Corps and which was at the forefront of the German invasion. Behind the back of the Der Führer regiment, the rest of the SS Special Forces Division, along with many other parts of the army, waited for the advance elements of the 207th division to invade the Netherlands. Due to the large size of the 18th Army, the rearguard units of Gausser were still on the banks of the Rhine, advancing in one of the marching columns, when the invasion of Holland had already begun

In the very first hours of the invasion, the ranks of the Der Führer regiment demonstrated their courage and enthusiasm in achieving the task. Within two hours, the 3rd battalion of the regiment reached the eastern bank of the IJssel near the city of Arnhem. But, despite this quick success, he failed to arrive in time to the combat area and prevent the destruction of the bridges across the river by the Dutch troops stationed on its banks. Not embarrassed by this failure, the 2nd Battalion of the Der Führer Regiment crossed the IJssel River, and by evening his sapper company was able to create a bridgehead on the other side. To top it all, the regiment captured a fortified point in the city of Westerworth, and later occupied the city of Arnhem. During the fighting, the defending Dutch threw out a white flag several times, after which they opened fire on the “green SS men” approaching them, suspecting nothing. True, such deceit was shown exclusively by the colonial units of the Dutch army.

Decline in morale among the Dutch

Looked and sees - crowds without number

Out of the city gates

(John Milton. Paradise Regained)

The senior military officials of the Dutch armed forces hoped that their troops would be able to hold this territory for at least three days, before the arrival of the main Allied forces. When the soldiers of the Der Führer regiment managed to capture Westerworth and Arnhem in just a few hours, they brought the Dutch army into a state of shock with their offensive impulse and stamina. By the end of the day, thanks in part to the actions of this part of the "green SS", the 18th Army had advanced more than a hundred kilometers deep into Dutch territory. Fully satisfied with their successes achieved during the first day of Operation Gelb, the units of the Der Fuhrer regiment bivouacked near Renkum, prepared for the attack on the Grebbe Line. The assault on this fortified line was part of their combat mission, set for the next morning.

While the Der Führer Regiment fought across the IJssel, Gauser's reconnaissance battalion operated in the area further south, in a formation known as the Grave Group. In addition to this regiment of "green SS", the "Grave Group" included two battalions of the 254th Wehrmacht Infantry Division. One of the two battalions was machine gun, the other was artillery. Divided into two separate detachments, the Grave Group was to play a role similar to that of the Der Führer regiment. In order to help the main forces of the 18th Army in its advance through Belgium and the Netherlands, these units were intended to capture the bridge that crossed the Waal River near the city of Nijmegen, as well as a number of bridges over canals near Hatert, Heyman, Malden and Neuerbosch.

Unlike the soldiers of the Der Führer Regiment, the soldiers of the SS reconnaissance battalion and their colleagues from the Wehrmacht survived a hard day. Although one of the units that were part of the Grave Group managed to secure the bridge over the canal near Heiman, other units encountered fierce resistance from the guards intended for the capture of targets and suffered heavy losses. In the battle for the bridge at Hathert, every single rank of the German assault detachment that took part in the operation was killed or wounded. However, the wounded managed to recapture the bridge before the retreating Dutch could seriously damage it.

In the areas of other targets, the enemy forces managed to destroy the bridges before they fell into the hands of the Germans. Despite these failures, the Germans managed to destroy the line of fortified enemy bunkers in the area of ​​​​the city of Neerbosch, thus providing the 18th Army with the opportunity to force the Meuse-Waal Canal without meeting resistance from the Dutch troops operating from well-fortified shelters. After completing this combat mission, the reconnaissance battalion again joined the main forces of the SS Special Purpose Division.

On the second day of the offensive, the Der Fuhrer regiment returned to combat work and continued to show good results. On this day, he wedged into the location of the II and IV Dutch corps and cracked their defenses on the "Grebbe Line" - the second echelon of defense created by the Western Allies in Holland. Not surprisingly, when the 18th Army followed this vanguard and continued its advance westward towards the coast, the situation for the Allied armies in Belgium and Holland became much more difficult. While three Dutch corps were driven back from the "Grebbe Line" and the "Pel Line", the Belgian army holding the defense to the south retreated from its defensive positions along the Albert Canal and took up new positions in the area stretching from Antwerp to the city of Louvain. These maneuvers left the 1st Light Mechanized Division of the French 7th Army isolated, under attack by the German 6th and 18th armies, and forced the French to retreat from the Netherlands.

On May 12, 1940, the 92nd Panzer Division reached the southern end of the Fortress Holland fortified area and came into contact with units of the 7th Parachute Division in the area of ​​the Moerdijk Bridges. To the north, other elements of the 18th Army advanced on Amsterdam. Impressed by the successes achieved by the Der Fuhrer Regiment on the IJssel and on the "Grebbe Line", the commander of the X Corps gave this part of the SS the honor of leading the assault on the eastern line of the "Fortress Holland". This area was the only important obstacle still remaining between the Germans and the ancient capital of Holland.

With great enthusiasm, "puffing with the spirit of the military" (as the ancient Russian chroniclers expressed it in such cases), the ranks of the Der Führer regiment swiftly attacked the Dutch troops occupying the eastern end of the "Holland Fortress", and again made their way through the enemy lines, clearing the way for the X Corps, which as a result managed to pass at full speed through the city of Utrecht and enter Amsterdam. After the successful implementation of the operation, this part of the SS continued to advance until it reached the coastal cities of IJmuiden and Zandvoort. Although the troops of the garrisons of these cities resisted fiercely, they could not prevent the Der Führer regiment from breaking through their positions and capturing both cities. Two days later, the regiment joined the main forces of the SS Special Purpose Division in Marienburg.

Although the Der Führer Regiment received enormous recognition for its actions in Holland, the rest of the SS Division of the Special Forces never had to sniff gunpowder in Holland. During the initial period of Operation Gelb, the main body of Gausser's division arrived early in the offensive in two motorized columns at Hilvarenbeek, a Dutch town north of Antwerp. In case it was necessary to repel the British and French counteroffensive, the High Command of the German Ground Forces sent a division to this area in order to cover the left flank of the 18th Army. In the event that the expected Allied counteroffensive actually took place, the divisions were to hold their positions until the German infantry units arrived to help.

When it became clear that the Anglo-French offensive would not take place, the OKH ordered Gausser's division to attack the Allied forces in northern Belgium in a lightning-fast, "blitzkrieg" style. True, the “green SS” division soon became convinced of the impossibility of completing this task, because it got into a military traffic jam that clogged the main roads between Holland and Belgium. In search of an alternative route to Belgium, Gausser sent reconnaissance parties. Their mission was to identify rural roads, using which the division could carry out a combat mission. Although some patrols found similar opportunities, the division received a new task before it could move south. This time, the High Command of the Ground Forces demanded that the SS Division of Special Purpose attack the Allied troops occupying the western tip of Holland.

Located near the Beveland peninsula, north of the mouth of the Scheldt (Schelde) river, and connected to Beveland by a narrow concrete dam, the island of Walcheren was the last Dutch territory still in the hands of the Western Allies by mid-May. Since the rest of the country was already overrun by the German 18th Army, the demoralized Dutch army capitulated. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands fled with her government on a warship to Great Britain. Thus, the garrison of the island of Walcheren was cut off from the main forces of the Anglo-French troops, located at a considerable distance from the southern provinces of Holland, and could only escape from the Germans by sea. Encouraged by the results of the fighting, which ended throughout the country with the defeat of the opponents of the Third Reich, the Germans were confident that they could easily cope with the small Walcheren garrison with the help of Luftwaffe air raids and attacks by well-trained assault battalions, as they had done in previous fights.

Despite the menacing prospect of facing 21 heavy artillery battalions and enemy aircraft (six dive squadrons and five heavy bomber squadrons), the Walcheren garrison refused to give the Germans a gift, surrendering to them without resistance. Little of! The Allied troops stationed on the island preferred to fight until evacuated by the British Navy - they wanted to force the Germans to take this piece of land with a fight. The command of the garrison was confident that its troops, supported by the artillery batteries of Antwerp and the warships of the British Navy, cruising off the coast of the Beveland peninsula, would make the Germans pay dearly for the capture of the island.

Battle for the island of Walcheren

Glory is the sun of the dead.

(Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French)

The garrison was also inspired to defend the island of Walcheren by its convenient geographical position for this purpose. It was not only that the Beveland peninsula was a narrow strip of land that did not allow an attacking force of any size to launch an offensive against the island in two or three columns, but also that most of the peninsula was flooded. This forced Gausser to throw his battalions across a cramped, narrow, bottle-necked isthmus, under dagger artillery and machine-gun fire. Allied gunners didn't even have to use their sights, they could aim right through the barrel. At the end of the peninsula, the Germans had only one overland route to reach the island. This single route led through a solid, concrete dam, a high embankment with a double-track carriageway and shoulders on either side no more than half a meter wide, descending steeply directly into the bog that connected the Beveland peninsula with the island of Walcheren and wide enough so that the Dutch were able to lay before the war on it, along with a two-lane asphalt highway, also a single-track railway.

For the planned attack on Walcheren, Paul Gausser selected two battalions from the Deutschland Regiment (1st and 3rd), considering these forces to be quite sufficient to cope with the garrison of the island. The 1st battalion was commanded by SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Witt, the 3rd battalion was commanded by SS-Sturmbannführer Matthias Kleingeisterkamp. Although Witt and Kleingeisterkamp initially planned to reach the island of Walcheren at the same time, acting in parallel, with two assault columns, the territory of the Beveland peninsula lying in their way was so flooded that Witt's 1st battalion was forced to form a 2nd echelon, standing in the back of the head of the soldiers of Kleingeisterkamp.

Having finally reached the island of Walcheren in the afternoon of May 16, 1940, the SS assault battalions ran into fierce resistance from the garrison. In the Westerdijk area, the ranks of the 3rd battalion had to make their way through a minefield, additionally reinforced with barbed wire, moving through swampy, well-shot enemy terrain, under heavy fire from enemy troops defending positions along the entire perimeter of the dam. At the same time, enemy artillery batteries based in Antwerp and British warships cruising off the island of Walcheren also fired on the SS assault columns. As the veteran of the Das Reich division, Paul Schurman, from the 9th company of the 3rd SS battalion of the Deutschland Regiment, later recalled: “We fired at a hurricane, but the enemy did not skimp on ammunition either. I was lying behind the dam to the right of the crossing. Machine guns fired furiously to my left as shells howled over our heads. The roar of the guns merged into an eerie rumble, and the clouds of smoke, dust and fog soon thickened so much that almost nothing was visible two or three meters away. I lay and, peering through the smoke, watched as our first comrades, crouching, as if walking against a strong wind, with rifles at the ready, approached the dam. One of them began to descend, the others still hesitated, as if waiting for something. Suddenly they turned back, instinctively trying to hide from the destructive fire of the enemy. I jumped up and ran downstairs. Several of our men had gathered in the recess overlooking the dam. We intercepted those retreating, turned around and drove them back - and some even had to be led by the hands! - until they were forced to move towards the dam again. During the landing on the island of Walcheren, the SS battalions lost sixteen people only killed and at least a hundred wounded, and the attack would certainly have bogged down if all the officers had not personally led the fighting of their units.

Dam attack

“To whom is memory, to whom is glory,

To whom - black water.

(Alexander Tvardovsky. "Vasily Terkin")

The SS men who landed on the shore of the island of Walcheren were met with the measured sound of enemy machine guns. The attackers lay low, and soon rapid bursts of German light machine guns crackled in response to the enemy. But the enemy was in a more advantageous position - he fired from machine guns from shelters, on well-targeted terrain. Paul Schurman, a participant in the breakthrough through the Walcheren Dam, mentioned above, recalled: “I saw one of ours fall, then two more fell to my right, and then I saw another comrade lying face down. Some of the fallen were still alive, and tried, with the help of their teeth, to open their individual first-aid kits in order to bandage wounds on their arms or chest. Meanwhile, "our machine guns ceased fire one after another, and their calculations remained lying near them - silent, bloodied and pale."

During the lull that followed during the assault, Schurman noticed even more dead and wounded. In one place he saw one of his comrades, without uniform and shirt. This seriously wounded soldier "had a huge bloody hole in his back, and through this hole I could see his lungs breathing." Shyurman recalls: “I look - and to the left of me another comrade is walking back, almost with a marching step, straightening up, ignoring the bullets whistling in the air ... and not paying attention to the impending death. He has blood on his neck, and the uniform on his chest is also soaked with blood. Wandering eyes wide open, gray face, he looks directly over my head, as if he sees something behind me. To his right, Shyurman noticed another dead soldier “lying on his back. His hands were raised to the sky with crooked fingers.

Despite fierce resistance, the SS battalions stubbornly continued to advance, with difficulty making their way through the flooded, muddy territory of the Beveland peninsula and trying to reach the Walcheren dam as soon as possible. Here the German attack once again faltered in the face of even more fierce resistance from the garrison. Hiding in hastily dug rifle cells or behind railway cars, the SS grenadiers held the territory they occupied, while enemy machine gun and artillery crews fired at them from the other side of the dam. During the battle, the Germans lost seventeen more people killed and thirty wounded. Finally, the garrison of Walcheren, apparently having "drank their fill of German blood" and quite satisfied with the losses that he managed to inflict on the Deutschland regiment that day, considered it good to evacuate the island.

While the SS Division secured German control of the western tip of Holland, other troops of Army Group B took the Belgian capital of Brussels, passed through Belgium and northern France, and then fought their way to the English Channel. After the surrender of the Dutch Army, the main body of the 18th Army was able to join this offensive and help drive a wedge between the Allied forces in northern France and the Anglo-French forces along the Somme. During the operation, the 18th Army was intended to cover the flanks of this wedge and had to make sure that the forces of the Western Allies, surrounded in the Dunkirk area, could not escape from the "boiler", being pressed back to the English Channel.

On May 20, 1940, the 1st Panzer Division of the German Wehrmacht entered the Atlantic Ocean near the city of Noyelles. The best armies of the French Republic, the British Expeditionary Force and the entire Belgian army were surrounded and, if desired, could easily be destroyed by the victorious troops of the Third Reich. German tanks turned to Dunkirk, trying to deprive the enemy of the last opportunity to escape by sea. The commander-in-chief of the British expeditionary force, General Lord Gort, who received the order to advance on Cambrai, soon felt the unreliability of the communications through which his troops were supplied from Dunkirk, regrouped forces and released two divisions to protect it. In London, on the same day, they realized that the situation on the continent was developing extremely unfavorably for the British corps, and they began to pull warships and civilian ships from everywhere to evacuate the troops of the Western Allies by sea. The position of the surrounded formations very soon became critical.

On the evening of May 22, the command of the XII Corps ordered the Special Purpose SS Division to continue to advance, together with the 6th and 8th Panzer Divisions, in the direction of the port of Calais to reinforce the German positions west and south of the Dunkirk perimeter and tighten the encirclement around the desperately resisting troops Western allies. The "green SS" was also given a special task - to force the La Base canal and prevent enemy forces from trying to break out of the boiler through the canal south of the city of Kassel. In addition, the Special Purpose SS Division was to create bridgeheads along the canal and drive the British troops out of the Nieppe Forest.

Although the soldiers of Paul Gausser were exhausted from many days of marches and battles, they still had high morale and rejoiced at the prospect of playing an important role in the battle for Western Europe. During their march to the La Base Canal, units of the "Green SS" covered the right flank of the XII Corps, moving towards the city of Eure. Gausser received a message from the headquarters of the 18th Army with the order to return to their original positions. Thoroughly exhausted parts of the SS settled down for the night in the open air a little to the south, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe city of St. Hilaire.

Unfortunately for the soldiers of the SS Division of Special Purpose, the enemy troops did not allow them to relax and rest. During the night, separate groups of defeated French mechanized and infantry units now and then fell upon Gausser's troops in an attempt to make a breakthrough from the Dunkirk "boiler". In the early morning of May 23, a mechanized French battalion overran the 9th company of the Der Fuhrer regiment. French tank formations surrounded the 10th and 11th companies of the regiment.

On the same day, but somewhat later, the 5th and 7th companies of the DF regiment were also attacked by the French, who had escaped from the “cauldron” in the Blessi area. The soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the Der Fuhrer Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the SS Artillery Regiment settled in the area for the night to rest after participating in an unsuccessful battle for the Germans with a desperate enemy. They fought like animals driven into a corner. During the battle, Karl Kreutz, the rising star of the SS-FT division, witnessed the death of the careless commander of his battalion: “I saw Erpsenmüller. He stood next to me and calmly smoked a cigarette. Then he asked: “Kreutz, why are you shooting at them? They are already prisoners of war! The next moment, as I was reloading my rifle, I saw him fall, shot through the head. He was lying head first, face to the ground, and the unextinguished cigarette was still smoking between the fingers of his left hand. Wow prisoners of war!

After recovering from the shock caused by the sudden attack of the French, the Germans rallied and began to defend in earnest. Although surrounded on all sides by enemy tanks, a platoon of anti-tank guns from the 7th company of the Der Fuhrer regiment destroyed at least fifteen enemy combat vehicles. As the day progressed, the French attacks on St. Hilaire began to gradually weaken, and the Germans seized the initiative, conducting well-coordinated counterattacks with infantry and anti-tank units operating in close cooperation. By the end of the battle, the 3rd battalion of the Der Fuhrer regiment alone had thirteen destroyed tanks. The SS division - FT took more than five hundred prisoners of war. In this battle, the regiment fought against enemy tanks for the first time.

Other units of the SS also performed well during the battle, during which the division's front was broken through at the La Base canal. SS-Untersturmführer Fritz Vogt, who commanded a thirty-man motorcycle patrol detachment, noticed a mechanized column of French troops advancing east, in the direction of the city of Masingem. Fritz Vogt, who was an officer in the 2nd company of the SS reconnaissance detachment (battalion), had already received recognition for his skillful leadership of the troops during the assault on the Meuse-Waal Canal, which was defended by a strong Dutch garrison. In France, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his successful actions against a French mechanized column.

Convinced that his anti-tank gun crews were ready to open fire on the French column, Vogt ordered his men to fire first on the light armored cars that brought up the rear of the French column. Having shot these easily vulnerable targets, the anti-tank gun crews took under fire the tanks that were marching at the head of the column, which was cut off from the retreat. Demoralized and panic-stricken, the French soldiers chose to surrender to the mercy of the victors. So a sentinel detachment of only thirty people captured a whole mechanized battalion of the enemy.

Tough fights

In the power of the brave, it is an honor to be beautiful.

(Count Palatine)

Unexpectedly for the Germans, the battle near St. Hilaire ended. The remnants of the French assault group retreated to the other side of the La Base Canal and returned to the Dunkirk "boiler". Although the soldiers of the SS-FTU division successfully repulsed the counterattack, they were depressed by the unexpected difficulties they encountered in the course of the fight against the French Renault-35 tanks and other even larger and heavier enemy combat vehicles. The German anti-tank guns were not powerful enough, their the shells could not penetrate the armor of these enemy tanks, except for firing at close range, almost at point blank range.In some cases, the calculations of the German anti-tank guns had to let the enemy tanks up to a distance of five meters in order to be able to disable them for sure.That is why the main gun of the German anti-tank artillery - the 37-mm PAK cannon, somehow, at least from close range, capable of fighting against light English and French tanks, but subsequently turned out to be absolutely useless against the armored units of the Red Army during campaigns on the Eastern Front, was with gloomy irony nicknamed by the Germans themselves "beater oh". The insufficient firepower of the German division was one of the reasons for the initially successful breakthrough of the French mechanized units through the battle formations of the division.

On May 24, the SS Special Forces Division crossed the La Base Canal, established bridgeheads along the canal, and advanced eight kilometers into enemy lines until they were stopped by British soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division. Despite fierce British counterattacks, the Germans held their ground and defended their bridgeheads. Even before the battle was over, the SS-FT division received orders to move northwest on 26 May and launch an attack on the British forces positioned in the Nieppe Forest.

The next morning, the SS Special Purpose Division began an assault on the forest. The German regiment advanced on the right flank, and the Der Fuhrer regiment advanced on the left. Meanwhile, the reconnaissance battalion moved forward, forming a center between the 1st and 3rd battalions of the Der Führer regiment. Not surprisingly, the woodland made it easier for the British defenders of the forest to defend themselves. They also made full use of the defensive capabilities of well-designed field fortifications.

When the SS battalions began to storm the Nieppe forest, the enemy riflemen inflicted heavy losses on them. On the right flank of the advancing units, snipers from the British Her Majesty the Queen's Own West Kent Regiment met the German SS Regiment with a hail of deadly lead. Despite these difficulties, the "Green SS" did not relax their efforts to drive the British garrisons out of the forest, using their superior numbers and fighting in an extremely aggressive manner.

At the end of this eventful day, the soldiers of the Germany regiment fought their way to the city of Haverskerk, while the Der Fuhrer regiment broke through the Bois d'Amon and reached the Nieppe Canal. In these areas, the SS men found anti-tank rifles abandoned by the hastily retreating enemy soldiers. Having tested this weapon at a shooting range arranged from auxiliary means, the Germans came to the conclusion that armor-piercing bullets fired from captured anti-tank rifles strongly deviate from the target. This conclusion turned out to be incorrect, which was later proved by the use of similar weapons by the British near Dunkirk.

On May 26, it became clear to the British and French that attempts to break out of the "cauldron" to the south were completely pointless and could not bring any success. The resistance of the Belgians soon completely weakened, and the only way out was surrounded - a retreat to the sea. Operation Dynamo began (code designation for measures to evacuate allied forces surrounded by the Germans in the Dunkirk area). The British Expeditionary Force, abandoning all their equipment (three thousand and artillery pieces, six hundred tanks, forty-five thousand vehicles and many other military equipment) rushed to the English Channel to seek salvation on board the British ships.

The day of May 28 brought great relief to the armies of the Third Reich advancing on the Dunkirk pocket. On this day, the Belgian King Leopold III capitulated with his entire army. The surrender of the Belgians allowed the German 6th and 18th Armies, which had previously acted against them, to hit the eastern edge of the perimeter occupied by the Allied forces. This surrender, combined with the successful advance of von Kleist's and Hoth's panzer groups south and west of Dunkirk, drove the retreating Allied forces into a small and narrow patch of land between the city of Ypres in the east and the Franco-Belgian border. Since the Nieppe Forest was now located in the territory of the wedge aimed at isolation and encirclement, the command of the British Expeditionary Force withdrew other regiments from this threatened area of ​​Her Majesty the Queen's Own West Kent Regiment and withdrew them to positions in the immediate vicinity of the English Channel.

While Regiment Germania, Regiment Der Fuhrer and the reconnaissance battalion were fighting the British in the Nieppe Forest, Steiner, at the head of his Regiment Deutschland, as part of the 3rd Panzer Division, advanced on Merville. On May 27, this part of the "green SS" ran into a new British defense line along the Lissky Canal. After artillery preparation, which weakened the defense of the enemy positions, Steiner threw his 3rd battalion on the defending British and put them to flight. On the same day, but somewhat later, two battalions crossed to the other side of the Lissky Canal and created bridgeheads for the main German forces following them to cross.

By this time, the SS Division Totenkopf was supposed to have arrived in the area long ago to help consolidate German control over this section of the canal, but in reality it was still several kilometers away. Meanwhile, the SS Regiment Deutschland was counterattacked by British mechanized units. Despite the valiant resistance of the SS soldiers, their rifles and grenades could not penetrate the armor of the British tanks advancing on them. Having suffered huge losses, they were saved from final destruction only by the arrival of a company of anti-tank guns from the Totenkopf Division, who repulsed the British tank attack with concentrated fire. Under the cover of nearby artillery batteries, the surviving British tanks finally retreated.

The general conclusion that the commanders and ranks of the SS units made for themselves from the course of the fighting in the West, judging by the memoirs of the surviving veterans, was basically the following. The German 37-millimeter anti-tank guns-"mallets" turned out to be ineffective against the tanks of the Western allies - especially against the heavy (infantry) British tanks of the "Matilda", "Vallentine" and "Churchill" types (which had to be shot almost point-blank or with the help of 88 -millimeter anti-aircraft guns - where they were in service!) and against medium (cruising) tanks "Cruiser" and "Cromwell". As for the light tanks of the enemy - for example, the English "Tetrarchs", then (as Walter Rosenwald, a veteran of the Der Fuhrer regiment, recalled in a conversation with the author), when German thirty-seven millimeter shells hit them, they "lit up like matches."

Long-awaited vacation

"Dare - and you will become who you want to be"

(William Shakespeare. "Twelfth Night")

After the end of the fighting for the Lys Canal and the Nieppe Forest, the SS Division of Special Purpose was withdrawn to the Cambrai region, where it was given a short rest, after which it was to resume the pursuit of the retreating British troops on May 31. While the Germany regiment was advancing through the Mont de Cat, the Der Fuhrer regiment entered the city of Kassel. Standing on top of the hill that dominated the city, the soldiers enjoyed the magnificent view of the Dunkirk perimeter that met their eyes. They did not have the opportunity to take part in the final blow to tighten the knot at the throat of the encircled Anglo-French troops, crowded in the boiler awaiting evacuation to England. On the evening of June 1, 1940, the SS Special Purpose Division received an order to withdraw from the Dunkirk area and redeploy to the Bapoma area, where it was to take on reinforcements.

At this time, the Gausser division received about two thousand officers and lower ranks to replenish the losses suffered by the division in battles since the start of Operation Gelb. Thanks to the arrival of reinforcements, most of the companies of the division were finally fully staffed, so that now the guard duty and other not very attractive duties for each individual rank of the division had to be carried out less often than before. When the Germans finally occupied Dunkirk on June 4, 1940, the SS Special Forces Division and other formations were already in full swing preparing for the start of Operation Mouth (Operational Plan Red, developed by the OKH with the aim of conquering the rest of France).

This operational plan provided for the advance of three groups of German armies to the south in three operational directions. North of Reims, Army Group B embarked on Operational Plan Roth, launching an offensive on June 5 over a wide area stretching from the Atlantic coast to the River Ain. Four days after von Bock's forces launched this offensive, Army Group A followed them, moving into the corridor between the river and the Franco-German border. While the French divisions garrisoning the Maginot Line turned their full attention to the enemy looming over them from the West, Army Group C crossed the frontier and attacked the Maginot Line from the east. As a result, the French soldiers of the 2nd and 3rd Army Groups were surrounded, squeezed like a vise by two powerful German groups.

Although the French army still had at least sixty divisions stationed south of the Somme, it was weakened by huge losses and bled dry by Luftwaffe air strikes. All this played into the hands of the German Army Groups "A" and "B", which broke through the defensive line hastily created by the French General Maxime Weygand, who replaced General Gamelin as Commander-in-Chief, along the Aisne River. Having quickly broken through the "Weigan Line", the Germans continued to move rapidly south without slowing down. On June 14, the troops of Army Group "B", without meeting resistance, entered Paris, abandoned by the government of the French Republic and declared an "open city". The Kolovrat flag flew over the Eiffel Tower.

Decline in French morale

Every Frenchman felt like a victim in advance.

(Emmanuel d'Astier. "Seven days of defeat")

It is not surprising that the actual surrender of the capital led to a sharp drop in the morale of the French soldiers and inspired the Germans to intensify the onslaught in all directions. Three days later, the encircled French Army of the East was thrown into complete disarray when the powerful armored spearheads of Army Groups A and C, supported by squadrons of heavy and dive bombers, crashed into the pocket south of the city of Nancy. On June 22, 1940, all French forces concentrated in the area capitulated.

During the implementation of the operational plan "Rot", the SS Division of Special Purpose operated as part of the von Kleist Panzer Group and participated in the advance south of the Somme River as part of Army Group "B" in the west. On the night before the start of the operation, the division was subjected to fierce but ineffective artillery fire, while suffering minor losses. The next day, the SS regiments counterattacked. Despite the destruction of the bridge, which they intended to use to cross the river, the calculations of the SS artillery regiment and heavy weapons companies began shelling the enemy positions on the opposite bank. Meanwhile, the grenadiers of the Deutschland regiment crossed the river and immediately forced the defending French into a hasty retreat.

As the Germans approached Paris, the French began to offer more stubborn resistance to the advancing SS division. Although Der Führer's regiment succeeded in crossing the River Ain, concentrated enemy fire forced Gausser to withdraw his forces and take a more easterly route for them, where French resistance was not so stubborn. After the troops of Army Group B entered Paris, the SS Special Forces Division and other parts of Panzergruppe von Kleist continued their offensive in a southerly direction, trying to penetrate as deep as possible deep into French territory, as enemy resistance weakened. While the XVI Panzer Corps in the southeast reached the city of Dijon, units of Gausser, as part of the XIV Motorized Corps, continued to advance through southwestern France.

In this region, the SS - Verfugungs division defeated the enemy forces concentrated around Orleans, Tours and Poitiers, after which they allowed themselves a short rest. At that time, participation in the invasion became increasingly difficult for the troops of Gausser, as they moved towards the Franco-Spanish border, due to the ever-increasing heat. Near the city of Angouleme, Felix Steiner, a company of the Deutschland regiment and a group of SS artillerymen, in search of suitable apartments, suddenly noticed an approaching column of retreating French soldiers who mistook German soldiers for English.

Noticing these troops and allowing them to freely enter the city, parts of the "green SS" surrounded Angouleme. The German commanders met with the mayor of the city and warned him that they would destroy the city with artillery in case of the slightest resistance. Meanwhile, the SS Division of Special Purpose entered the city. The mayor accepted the ultimatum without hesitation. The Germans disarmed the city's small garrison and escorted French prisoners of war to Steiner's headquarters. In the final period of the campaign, the SS division carried out several more similar operations. During this time, SS units took a total of thirty thousand prisoners, losing only thirty-three people killed, wounded and sick during their march through southwestern France.

On June 25, Operation Roth ended. The new French government is no longer the French Republic, but the French State (Etat Francais)! - led by the hero of the Great War - the eighty-four-year-old old man Marshal Henri Philippe Petain (the famous defender of the famous fortress of Verdun in 1916) agreed to the terms of the peace dictated by the Axis powers (by that time France had declared war and the emboldened fascist Italy, which seized the area of ​​Nice). Under the terms of the armistice, France was divided into two zones. The southern zone, not occupied by German troops, was under the control of Marshal Petain, as a nominally independent, friendly state to the Axis powers, with its capital in the small resort town of Vichy. The northern, much larger part of France came under German control. In addition, a narrow strip of the Atlantic coast, reaching the Franco-Spanish border, belonged to the zone occupied by German troops. The Special Purpose SS Division and the Dead Head Division guarded this territory until the beginning of July 1940. According to the memoirs of Otto Skorzeny, who served at the time described in the ranks of the SS-FT division, she, along with other German and Spanish units, was to participate in planned by Hitler, but canceled due to too long hesitation of the Spanish caudillo Francisco Franco, who did not want to quarrel ahead of time with the powerful British Empire, the operation to capture the English naval fortress of Gibraltar - "the key to the Mediterranean Sea".

During the campaigns in Western Europe, the Germans lost about twenty-seven thousand people killed, one hundred and eleven thousand wounded and more than eighteen thousand missing. The French lost ninety-two thousand killed, two hundred and fifty thousand wounded and no less than one million four hundred and fifty thousand prisoners, while their western allies got off with lighter losses. The British lost only 3,000 and 457 killed and about 16,000 wounded. The Dutch lost two thousand and eight hundred and ninety men killed and six thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine wounded, while the Belgians lost seven thousand five hundred men killed and fifteen thousand eight hundred and fifty wounded.

For the ranks of the Waffen SS divisions, the fighting in Western Europe was a new opportunity to demonstrate their combat skills and military prowess. After the completion of the conquest of France, many of them were awarded and promoted for their bravery and courage in battle. Among the ranks of the SS Special Forces Division were awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, Obersturmführer Fritz Vogtis of the reconnaissance battalion, SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Fritz Witties of the 1st battalion of the Deutschland regiment and SS-Hauptsturmführer Ludwig Kepplingeris of the 11th company of the Der Führer regiment. In addition, Felix Steiner received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for the successful command of the Deutschland Regiment, and Georg Keppler for the equally successful command of the Der Führer Regiment.

Notes:

The pentagram, or pentkal (pantacle) - a five-pointed (in heraldry - "five-stinged") star (first encountered on Sumerian-Akkadian clay tablets) is a magical figure that personified the goddess of the "morning star" Ishtar (Istara) among the ancient Chaldeans, whose name literally means "(five-pointed) star" (the Chaldean Ishtar-Istara corresponds to the Phoenician Astarte, the Canaanite Asherei of the Parthian-Armenian Astghik-Astlik); considered the emblem of the Pythagoreans ("pentalph") and related - along with the hexagram (the six-pointed "seal of David" or the "star of Solomon") - among the most common magic symbols in witchcraft practice of late antiquity and the Middle Ages, gradually penetrating into heraldry. In the era of the European Enlightenment (XVII century), it established itself as one of the favorite symbols of the Rosicrucians and Freemasons, becoming, in particular, one of the main figures of the state emblem and flag of the United States of America (whose founding fathers were a separate Masonic lodge). The inverted pentagram (as a schematic representation of the goat's head, in the form of which Lucifer appeared to his adherents at the "black masses") still symbolizes the satanic (Luciferian) anti-church. Maybe that's why the stars on the shoulder straps and buttonholes of the German army, the SA and SS assault detachments under Hitler (as, indeed, many soldiers of the white volunteer corps - for example, the Russian-German "Baltic Landeswehr" in 1918-1919) were not five-pointed, but quadrangular. Despite all these indisputable facts, the red five-pointed star has remained with us in Russia a comprehensive symbol of the "glory of our weapons", since the founding by L.D. Trotsky in 1918 of the Red Army (on the first order of which - the Order of the Red Banner of War - exactly the inverted pentagram was depicted) and for many of our compatriots, being in their consciousness distorted by decades of Bolshevik propaganda, firmly associated with the concepts of loyalty to military duty, heroism and victories in the fields Great Patriotic War. However, the lack of a unified historical and philosophical approach to the traditional historical national Russian symbolism, which is now reviving in our country, inevitably and almost everywhere leads to an unexpected, absolutely chimerical combination in one of its attributes (for example, on the field of the coat of arms, the flag or battle banner) completely antagonistic and mutually hostile to each other, in their deepest essence, symbols. So, for example, the ancient symbol of Russian statehood, inherited from the Orthodox Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), inherited from us of the same faith, at least since the time of the Grand Duke of Moscow and the sovereign of all Russia Ivan III - the double-headed eagle - was placed on the banner of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation along with ... five-pointed stars (! ), under the sign of which, until recently, a merciless, bloody struggle was waged on Russian soil not only with the cultural-historical and religious-moral Russian identity, but also with the very ethnic integrity of the Great Russians!

Just before the end of World War II, in the spring of 1945, the XV Cossack Cavalry Corps of the German Wehrmacht under the command of General Helmut von Pannwitz was included in the SS troops under the name XIV Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS, which, however, under the conditions prevailing by that time was purely formal in nature (so , for example, none of the ranks of the corps, except for von Pannwitz himself, had an SS rank, did not wear an SS uniform and personal numbers, mandatory for all SS ranks, tattooed under his arm).

Freikorps; for some reason, in Russian-language literature they often write about these white German detachments in the singular - "Volunteer Corps" - although we are talking about more than two thousand units and subunits that never had a single command or a single organization!

Norwegian: Nasjonal Samling (NS); a similar (ZBOR) name was given to the Serbian Orthodox-monarchist fascist organization of Dmitry Letich, who collaborated with the German occupation authorities during World War II, from among whose members the "Serbian SS Volunteer Corps" (Serbisches Freiwilligenkorps der SS) was formed.

German: Macht mir den rechten Fluegel stark!

English: British Expeditionary Force (BEF); in Russian-language literature, the expression "British Expeditionary Force" (BEC) is also accepted.

All the more impressive, given the small size of the Dutch army, is the fact that in the future, the Waffen SS fought two divisions completely manned by the Dutch plus a significant Dutch contingent as part of the SS division "Viking", not counting the Dutch ("German") territorial "SS units general purpose in the Netherlands", or "Dutch parts of the SS general purpose" (Algemeene SS in Nederland / Nederlaandsche SS).