Western Front: (MAIN EVENT) BATTLE OF THE MEUSE. Panzer corps of Guderian, Hoth and Reinhardt, with strong air support, establish bridgeheads over river Meuse at Sedan, Montherme and Dinant, destroying French 9th Army and opening 50 miles gap in the Allied line (ends May 17).

Picture: German infantry were crossing a blown up bridge over river Meuse, which was quickly repaired by engineers with the help of rubber dinghy's.

Battle of Tirlemont: French 2nd and 3rd Light Mechanized divisions engage XVI Panzer Corps (3rd and 6th Panzer divsions) northeast of Namur. After fierce all-day struggle, French retreat; both sides lose many tanks.

Air War: First unit of Dewoitine D-520 fighters (French equivalent of Spitfire) in action - over Meuse front - destroying four German aircraft without loss.

Home Front Britain: Churchill presents new War Cabinet in House of Commons: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.' New government''s policy is to wage war and its aim victory.Bevin becomes Minister of Labour.

Home Front Canada: Dr Manion resigns leadership of defeated Conservative Party.

TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1940

Western Front: Guderian's 1st Panzer division crosses the Meuse at Sedan. 150 British and French bombers (inc. obsolete Battles and Amiot 143s) make suicidal daylight attacks on German pontoon bridges at Sedan. Me109s, flak and small-arms fire destroy 45 RAF and 5 French bombers; bridges undamaged.

Picture: RAF Fairey Battle bombers escorted by French Curtiss Hawk fighters shortly before their attack on the German bridges at Sedan.

French tank and infantry counter-attack in Sedan sector fails. General Touchon appointed to command French reserves, earmarked to plug the gap developing between 9th and 2nd French armies west of Sedan.
Rotterdam Garrison surrenders. Dutch Army CinC, General Winkelman, broadcasts Cease Fire call.

Home Front Britain: Lord Beaverbrook appointed Minister of Aircraft Production. War Office APPEALS FOR LOCAL DEFENCE VOLUNTEERS (Home Guard), aged 17 to 65, to combat possible German parachute landings. Eden, Secretary for War, broadcasts personal appeal.

Air War: DESTRUCTION OF ROTTERDAM. In attempt to crush stubborn Dutch resistance - and bring tentative ceasefire negotiations to a speedy conclusion - 100 He 111s are despatched to bomb the city centre. Dutch garrison then offers to surrender, but 60 bombers cannot be recalled and start huge fires among fats and margarine stores, which burn for days. 30,000 people feared dead (revised total: 980); 78,000 homeless.

Picture: the destroyed old town of Rotterdam.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1940

Western Front: Hoth's tanks defeat French 1st Armoured Division west of Dinant; latter loses 125 of its 175 tanks. By nightfall, shattered French 9th Army is in full retreat west of Meuse and its commander, General Corap, is replaced by General Giraud.
German 6th Army launches major attack on Anglo-French front in Belgium (Dyle Line), but is bloodily repulsed.
FORMAL CAPITULATION OF DUTCH ARMY (isolated Dutch and French forces hold out in Zeeland, Walcheren and Beveland until May 17).

DUTCH CAMPAIGN LOSSES
	Dutch	German
Killed Soldiers	2,890	approx. 3,500
Wounded Soldiers	6,889	approx. 3,500
Planes	over 160	over 162
Killed Civilians	2,500	-

Picture from this day, taken near Le Havre: a column of French Renault R-35 tanks on the way to the closer coming front line.

Occupied Holland: First issue of a Dutch underground news sheet, the Geuzenactie. Dutch resistance groups subsequently publish approx. 1,000 clandestine newspapers, news sheets and pamphlets.

Sea War: British destroyers Valentine (sunk) and Winchester (badly damaged) bombed in Scheldt Estuary.

Air War: RAF BOMBER COMMAND BEGINS STRATEGIC AIR OFFENSIVE AGAINST GERMANY. 99 aircraft (1 lost) sent to attack oil installations and marshalling yards in the Ruhr; targets only slightly damaged (night May 15-16). Germans announce that they consider city of Brussels a legitimate military target. Radio Brussels bombed.

Home Front France: PANIC IN PARIS on reports of German break-through at Sedan. Many thousands of civilians leave city; government departments burn secret files; Premier Reynaud telephones Churchill: 'We are beaten; we have lost the battle !'.

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1940

Western Front: By nightfall Guderian's leading tanks are 60 miles west of Sedan. Anglo-French-Belgian armies commence withdrawal from Dyle Line to Scheldt Line, west of Brussels. Belgian Government moves to Ostend.

Air War: 26 LeO-451s (4 lost) with fighter escort bomb German tanks refuelling at Montcornet. RAF's Advanced Air Striking Force withdraws from bases south of the Meuse to Troyes area east of Paris.

Picture: By French air attack destroyed German Panzer 38(t), in the background the grave of one of it's crew members.

Diplomacy: Churchill flies to Paris to consult with Reynaud, Daladier and General Gamelin.

Neutrals, USA: Roosevelt sets US aircraft industry a production target of 50,000 warplanes a year.

FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1940

Western Front: Germans enter Brussels. Colonnel de Gaulle's 4th Armoured Division counter-attacks Guderian's XIX Panzer Corps at Montcornet, but is repulsed. General von Kleist reprimands Guderian for the 'excessive' speed and extent of his advance ! Guderian immediately resigns; he is persuaded to reverse his decision later in evening by List and Rundstedt. XVI and XXXIX Panzer Corps detached from German 6th Army in Belgium and sent south to Meuse sector.

Picture: General Guderian, the leading German 'Panzer General', commanding from his half-truck in France.

Air War: German bombers destroy Middelburg on Walcheren (Holland).

Picture: Uffz Stephani of II/KG76 was attacking an ammunition carrier in low altitude on this day when the vehicle blew up. Badly shaken, the crew managed to get the Dornier Do17 back to the airfield of Vogelsang.

Sea War: Cruiser HMS Effingham hits uncharted rocks off Bodo (Norway) and capsizes (finally scuttled, May 21).
German aircraft commence minelaying operations outside French Channel ports, from Le Havre to Dunkirk (night May 17-18).
Venezuelan Navy seizes two German merchant ships at Maracaibo to prevent them leaving and causing diplomatic incidents.

SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1940

Western Front: Guderian's tanks reach Peronne, on river Somme. Hoth's tanks reach Cambrai (scene of first British tank attack in 1917). Germans capture Antwerp.

Sea War: Heavy bomb penetrates battleship Resolution during Ju88 raids over Narvik area.

Air War: Germans raid Dieppe (night May 18-19).

Home Front France: Cabinet reshuffle. Prime Minister Reynaud takes over Defence Ministry, Daladier becomes Foreign Minister, Marshal Petain returns from Madrid to become Vice-Premier, Mandel to Ministry of the Interior.

SUNDAY, MAY 19, 1940

Western Front: GAMELIN DISMISSED. WEYGAND MADE ALLIED C-IN-C. De Gaulle's tanks make second counter-attack on Guderian's Corps, in Laon-Montcornet sector; some French tanks threaten Guderian's HQ and he summons assistance from 10th Panzer Division, but Stukas halt French advance before they arrive.

Sensational picture: one of the French tanks was hurled into the air by a direct hit of a bomb from a Stuka dive-bomber.

General Giraud, commander of French 9th Army, captured by German tank unit. Germans capture St Quentin.

Picture: the captured French General Giraud arrives on the Bonn-Hangelar airfield. Later he was able to escape and played a prominent role during the Allied landings in Vichy North Africa in 1942 (Operation Torch). Remarkably, it was his second escape from a German POW camp, because during World War I he did the same from a castle in Saxony to Switzerland.