On 21 May 1940 two British tank battalions and two infantry battalions counterattacked at Arras, into the flank of Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division as German armor drove for the Channel. They took several villages and about 400 prisoners before pulling back that night, and the German command took the blow for a far larger attack.
Battle of Arras
21 May 1940 · 86 years ago
An army cut in two
On 20 May 1940 the German breakthrough south of Arras widened, and German armor reached the Channel coast near Abbeville, cutting the Allied armies in the north off from the rest of France. One of the panzer divisions driving past Arras was the 7th, commanded by Major General Erwin Rommel.1
Lord Gort, commanding the British Expeditionary Force, formed Frankforce under Major General Franklyn: the 5th and 50th Divisions, each of only two brigades, and the 1st Army Tank Brigade. Gort's despatch describes the plan as a counterattack south of Arras; the official historian L. F. Ellis argues that Franklyn's order of 20 May was only to support the Arras garrison and block the roads south of the town, and said nothing of a counterattack.2
Two battalions and a worn-out tank brigade
Most of the two divisions went to hold Arras and the line of the Scarpe, so the attack of 21 May was made by two tank battalions, the 4th and 7th Royal Tank Regiments, with two infantry battalions. Major General G. le Q. Martel commanded the attacking troops, and they went in early in the afternoon.3
Long road marches and breakdowns had worn down the 1st Army Tank Brigade. By the count of the British official history, it could put 74 tanks into the attack: 58 Mark I tanks armed only with a machine gun, and 16 of the larger Mark II, with a 2-pounder gun.4
Through the villages
Two columns swept west and south of Arras and took several villages, among them Agny and Beaurains, where they ran into the 6th Rifle Regiment on the flank of Rommel's division and inflicted heavy losses on its 1st Battalion. The German anti-tank guns were too light to stop the heavily armored British tanks; many were knocked out or overrun with their crews.5
Rommel's artillery and anti-aircraft guns, among them 88 mm guns, finally brought the British armor to a halt, firing from a gun line west of Wailly. Ellis found much in Rommel's claim that this fire was decisive, and noted that the British attack had no comparable artillery support of its own.6
Pulled back at nightfall
As night fell the British columns were pulled back toward Arras. French light mechanized cavalry had co-operated on the western flank.7
The 7th Panzer Division recorded its losses that day as 378 men killed, wounded and missing, 173 of them missing, with nine medium and several light tanks lost. The British took about 400 prisoners: "nearly 400" by Ellis's count, "over 400" in Gort's despatch.8
Among the men decorated after the battle was Alfred Longstaff of the Royal Tank Regiment, awarded the Military Medal; The Tank Museum quotes his citation, which records his repeated efforts in a light tank to reach his commanding officer's tank after it had been knocked out.9
A shock out of all proportion
The German commanders took the attack for a far bigger one than it was: Rommel's situation maps showed it as coming from five British divisions, and his account speaks of the enemy's superior numbers. Rundstedt, commanding Army Group A, counted the attacks at Arras among the reasons to close up his armored divisions before going on. On 24 May the panzers were halted short of Dunkirk, on Rundstedt's decision, which Hitler endorsed when he visited him that morning.10
Ellis judged that the action had "a considerable measure of success" in its general purpose; its immediate object "was bound to fail" unless a force strong enough to hold the ground followed up, yet it was "at least a limited success". The Tank Museum calls it "a successful Allied counter-attack, which allowed French and British troops to be evacuated at Dunkirk". The days that followed are told on our page for 22 May and in our article on Dunkirk, and the German commander in our biography of Erwin Rommel.11
Also on 21 May: Iquique, 1879
In the War of the Pacific the Chilean squadron sailed north on 16 May, leaving the Esmeralda and the Covadonga to keep up the blockade of Iquique. On the morning of 21 May the Peruvian ironclads Huáscar, under Captain Miguel Grau, and Independencia appeared off the port, where Arturo Prat commanded the Esmeralda.12
After hours of gunfire the Huáscar rammed the Esmeralda three times. At the first blow Prat leaped onto the Huáscar's deck, sword in hand, and was killed. The Esmeralda went down after the third blow without striking her flag. Chasing the Covadonga, the Independencia ran onto the rocks off Punta Gruesa and was lost. The Huáscar's later fate is told in our article on Angamos.13
Also on this day
Battle of Abaran
21 May 1918 · 108 years ago
In the Caucasus campaign of World War I, Ottoman troops marching on Yerevan met Armenian forces in the Bash Abaran pass. An Armenian counterattack drove them back, and with Sardarabad this halted the invasion and helped found the First Republic of Armenia.
