military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (06/02/90)
Monday, 20 May, 1940 Guderian's divisions continue their drive to the Channel; Amiens and Abbeville are captured, and before dark, the coast itself is reached near Noyelles. The French 1st Army, together with the BEF and Belgian Army (some 45 divisions, all told) are cut off to the north of the German wedge, while to south lie 4 French armies. The spearhead of the German thrust has advanced 386 kilometers in 11 days. The RAF bombs oil storage tanks in Rotterdam, along with German tank formations near Arras. Tyler Kent, a US London Embassy cipher clerk, is charged with copying hundreds of secret documents over the past 5 years and giving them to Nazi sympathizers. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "Here [Querrieu] we were attacked by our own aeroplanes. It was perhaps an unfriendly action on our part, but our flak opened fire and brought down one of the careless machines. The crew of two floated down by parachute and were unpleasantly surprised to find me waiting for them on the ground." - General Heinz Guderian, _Panzer Leader_