Battle of Abbeville

rdf:langString Battle of Abbeville

rdf:langString Battle of Abbeville

rdf:langString Anglo-French Co-operation during the Battle of France

rdf:langString AFVs destroyed or captured

rdf:langString killed or captured

rdf:langString Charles de Gaulle

rdf:langString Battle of Abbeville

rdf:langString

rdf:langString P.

rdf:langString Caddick-Adams

rdf:langString Abbeville

rdf:langString France

rdf:langString the Battle of France, the Second World War

rdf:langString France

rdf:langString Military of Germany

rdf:langString United Kingdom

rdf:langString World War II

rdf:langString German victory

rdf:langString Taylor

rdf:langString Bond

rdf:langString The Battle of Abbeville took place from 27 May to 4 June 1940, near Abbeville during the Battle of France in the Second World War. On 20 May, the 2nd Panzer Division advanced 56 mi (90 km) to Abbeville on the English Channel, overran the 25th Infantry Brigade of the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division and captured the town at 8:30 p.m. Only a few British survivors managed to retreat to the south bank of the Somme and at 2:00 a.m. on 21 May, the III Battalion, Rifle Regiment 2 reached the coast, west of Noyelles-sur-Mer. The 1st Armoured Division (Major-General Roger Evans) arrived in France from 15 May without artillery, short of an armoured regiment and the infantry of the , which had been diverted to Calais. From 27 May to 4 June, attacks by the Franco-British force south of the Abbeville bridgehead, held by the 2nd Panzer Division, then the 57th Infantry Division, recaptured about half of the area; the Allied forces lost many of their tanks and the Germans much of their infantry, some units running back over the River Somme. On 5 June, the divisions of the German 4th Army attacked out of the bridgeheads south of the Somme and pushed back the Franco-British divisions opposite, which had been much depleted by their counter-attacks, to the Bresle with many casualties. In 1953, the British official historian, Lionel Ellis, wrote that the Allies lacked battlefield co-ordination, which contributed to the Allied failure to defeat the Germans and magnified the cost of lack of preparation and underestimation of the German defences south of the Somme. In 2001, Caddick-Adams also wrote of the chronic lack of battlefield communication within and between the British and French divisions, which was caused by a shortage of radios and led to elementary and costly tactical errors. The lack of communication continued after reinforcement by the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division (Major-General Victor Fortune) and French armoured and infantry divisions. The Germans had committed substantial forces to the bridgeheads, despite the operations in the north, that culminated in the Dunkirk evacuation (26 May – 3 June). The Somme crossings at Abbeville and elsewhere were still available on 5 June, for Fall Rot (Case Red), the final German offensive, which brought about the defeat of France.