The Invasion of France, 1940 | Crossing the Meuse | Easy Red 2 Mod

5/13/1940 Map and mission by Lib85 https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/f... The Battle of Sedan took place from May 12–15, 1940 during the German invasion of France. German Army Group A, led by General Gerd von Rundstedt, pushed through the difficult Ardennes forest and reached the Meuse River near the French town of Sedan. French commanders believed the Ardennes terrain was too rugged for a major armored assault, so the sector was defended mainly by reserve divisions with limited anti-tank capability. On May 13, German forces launched heavy air attacks by the Luftwaffe, especially dive-bombing raids by Stuka aircraft, which shattered French communications and morale. Under the cover of this bombardment, German infantry crossed the Meuse in rubber boats and established bridgeheads along the western bank. Once the crossings were secured, German engineers rapidly built pontoon bridges that allowed tanks from General Heinz Guderian’s XIX Panzer Corps to pour through the gap. French counterattacks were poorly coordinated and failed to dislodge the Germans before the armored divisions broke into open country. The collapse at Sedan became the decisive breakthrough of the 1940 campaign, allowing German forces to race toward the English Channel and trap Allied armies farther north in Belgium and around Dunkirk. The defeat exposed serious weaknesses in French command structure, communications, and doctrine, while demonstrating the effectiveness of concentrated armored warfare combined with close air support, later associated with the term “Blitzkrieg.”