[PzLdr]

A good article, but the author neglects several factors in the decision to halt.

First, he omitted to mention the impact of the British counterattack at Arras on Rommel's 7th Panzer, in which Rommel initially overestimated the strength of the armor attacking him, in which his anti - tank troops found their 37 mm AT guns ineffective against the Matildas attacking them, and which required not only the 7th Pz. and elements of the 3rd SS "Totenkopf" Div. to repulse, but which also had Rommel using, for the first time in the war, the 88mm dual purpose gun in the anti-tank role. For a High Command almost pathologically concerned with its flanks, that attack had repercussions far exceeding its actual effect.

Nor was the High Command's fear totally baseless. The article fails to deal with the VERY limited motorization of the bulk of the German Army. Most of the motorized infantry was either assigned to, or in Corps with, the Panzer Divisions. The rest were "leg" infantry. Most of their support units, and the great bulk of the artillery was horse drawn [and would be throughout the war]. Thus, as the Panzers accelerated away from the Meuse, their flank protection went from organic, i.e their own motorized infantry, or Corps infantry to regular infantry, with correspondingly longer gaps on the flanks. Interestingly, the Germans failed to develop the technique used four years later by 3rd US Army and XIX Air Corps, and have the air units cover the flanks.Considering that the Senior Commanders and Staff were mostly Infantry and Artillery officers with a limited understanding of armored warfare [The Chief of Staff in 1938, Beck, had thought armored operations would not work because he didn't think you could put radios in tanks], their concerns, though misplaced, were understandable.

In any case, Case Yellow, is, IMHO, the second or third greatest military campaign in history.

[colorado tanker]

I agree this was a great campaign by the Germans. It also helped that the French got almost every major decision wrong. Gives whole new meaning to the phrase effing-up.

[Iris7]

"Fall Gelb" was a stunning success at the time, for sure.

The French and British could not coordinate their forces. I read somewhere that Gamelin's headquarters had one radio installation with forty operators. For an overall command, 500 would be more like it. The radio station was a couple miles down the road, too. I guess Gamelin did not like getting bogged down in details.

Speaking of Erich von Manstein, my deceased mother-in-law looked enough like him to have been his cousin. Imagine a feminine and attractive von Manstein nose. Hard, huh!!!!!

By Stalingrad von Manstein's head was really swollen. Lots of good reports on this. Sometimes people forget that in order to pull a rabbit out of a hat there has to be a rabbit in the hat to begin with.