16th May (part 6)
The Battle of Beaumont (part 2)
After the nasty surprise the last group of tanks had encountered, this time the advance was much more cautious. The light tanks had been replaced by PzIII tanks, and a section of Pz IV were following behind them in case infantry needed to be cleared. They were in contact with the divisional artillery, and all was properly prepared.
While this group of tanks was grinding towards 1AB, two more formations were spreading out to the north and the south of the estimated British position, intending to flank them and then attack the rear of the formations. These formations consisted of mainly Pz I and Pz II tanks, with some of his limited supply of Pz III to strengthen them. The British watched the approach along the road with interest; this time it was obvious that far more care was being taken, and that the tanks were leading on infantry.
Since it was obvious that by now the Germans knew where they were, the Sabre tanks opened fire at 1,000 yards. This time they started to the routine of shoot-move-shoot they had assiduously practiced over the last year, as the approaching force looked too strong to defeat from ambush. The initial advantage of firing from cover enabled the lead troops to destroy four Pz III tanks in the first minute. The panzers responded almost immediately, and a moving tank battle ensued. This wasn't as decisive as either side wanted; the British were hoping to draw the panzers back onto the rest of the Brigade and the anti-tank gunline, while the Germans would have preferred the British to advance and allow their infantry to help deal with them.
The big problem for the panzers was the inability of their 37mm guns to hurt the frontal armour of the Sabres. Most of the Sabres supplied to the 1st Armoured Division had been the latest Sabre Mk 3, which had 50mm of glacis protection. While there were still some of the older Mark 2, this still had 40mm of protection. The 37mm gun fitted to the Pz III couldn't penetrate either tank even at close range. In the natural confusion of a mobile tank battle, some of the panzers managed to get shots at the side armour of the British tanks, but even there they had to be within 400 yards to have a chance. The British were in a much happier situation - the HV3pdr the Sabre tanks were equipped with could penetrate even the frontal armour of the Pz III at 1,500 yards (if they could get a hit, which was actually quite difficult). The preferred firing range for the British was around 1,000 yards, where they started to get a reasonable chance of a hit, and at this range the Panzers were highly vulnerable. While the experienced crews made it as difficult as possible for the British, evasion could only do so much, especially while trying to kill the British tanks. The Pz IV tanks were in a slightly better situation, but not much. Their low-velocity 75mm gun again could only penetrate frontal armour at point blank range, although the size of the shell could put a Sabre out of action with the shock damage caused.
After a somewhat confused action over the course of fifteen minutes, ten of the twenty-five Pz III and two Pz IV tanks had been destroyed. This was a serious blow to the division, who could only muster some sixty-nine of these tanks. A fifth of the division's strength in medium tanks had been wrecked in a quarter of an hour. The commanding officer ordered the panzers to withdraw back down the road, and radioed back his intention to draw the British tanks onto his anti-tank guns. The panzer troops hadn't yet realised how little damage the 37mm guns were doing - while the British had lost four tanks, this was to damage to the suspension (which was vulnerable to the gun), and no tanks had actually been destroyed.
The 1AB tanks followed up, their infantry mounting their carriers to follow up in support. While the retreat of the panzers was welcome, these were in the main experienced pre-war crews, and they were aware that drawing tanks onto the divisions guns was a tactic they employed as well. Still, they found that they could nearly keep pace with the retreat even having to pause and fire, although some of the old hands rather missed the old fire-while-moving tactics, they might have been better suited to this job. Still, they managed to kill one more Pz III and disable another as they caught up with the main body of 5th Panzer.
The Panzer troops were very good at concealing themselves, and they allowed their tanks to fall back through them before opening fire. This was a very effective tactic, but it was at this point that the inability of the 37mm gun to stop a Sabre became obvious. Only one tank was disabled before the others started to fire on the anti-tank guns. It was lucky for the infantry that even with its HE round, the 3pdr wasn't a very good HE-thrower. While the explosions certainly worried the German gunners, and a few guns and their crews were destroyed, the bulk of them escaped without too much trouble. The infantry 37mm was easily manhandled, and the Panzer troops had made good use of terrain and cover when setting up, allowing them to move back into dead ground. Things were a bit more uncomfortable for the infantry, some of whom suffered badly as the tanks employed their machine guns to good effect.
Dealing so easily with the ambush had made the 1AB tanks perhaps rather overconfident, as they carried on advancing through the remaining infantry only to find the next anti-tank screen consisting of 88mm guns. The first sign of trouble was two of the Sabre tanks brewing up, and with no obvious close targets, the rest of the force drew back and attempted to find cover, with reasonable success, although one more tank was killed and another immobilised.
The Brigades infantry was following in close support, and when informed of the anti-tank guns started to dismount and move forward, intending to mount a classic infantry assault on the guns. This was slowed by the need to deal with the Panzer infantry - while some of them had scattered when they had seen their guns couldn't stop the advancing Sabres, many had remained, and the dismounted British infantry had to deal with them, a fierce fight ensuing as the German troops tried to keep the British away from their guns. In order to regain the initiative, the tanks called in their artillery. This was rather further forward than the Germans might have expected - one of the advantages of pulling the enemy to your screen was that often they outdistanced their artillery support. But 1AB had self-propelled Birch guns, and these had been advancing slowly behind the main body.
Ten minutes later, 25pd shells began falling among the 88mm guns, and as soon as they had the range, with devastating effect. The tanks waited for the guns to cease firing as their crews hugged the earth in the hope of cover, then advanced at full speed. The combination of artillery shells and the tank machine guns soon dealt with the problem, and they were moving forward once more.
General von Hartlieb was a worried man. So far nothing of this attack had gone as expected, the British tanks seemed to be their equivalent of the Char B, and their infantry and artillery support was coming up far faster than had been expected. Still, this was only part of his plan, what was needed now was to get things under control and allow the flanking attacks to go in. With any luck, the fast advance of this tank force would allow the lighter tanks to take them in the rear. In the mean time, he would fall back, instructing the divisions rear echelon to retreat back to clear the road. If his normal Luftwaffe support had been available, things would all have been much easier, but he had to make do with what he had. The flanking forces were ordered to get a move on - if the British tanks were still in contact, by now it should be a straightforward matter to get into their rear.
The northern pincer was soon in trouble of its own. Only one of 1AB's tank regiments had been advancing forward, the second was covering the northern approach. This time they were supported by their infantry, and the first the advancing panzers knew of the concealed anti-tank guns was when two of the Pz II tanks brewed up. Assuming this was an anti-tank screen, the commander attempted to call in his own artillery, only to find they were already engaged. The delay had allowed the waiting British tanks to get a better idea of the threat, and realising it was mainly light tanks, advanced from their hull-down positions. While the RTR lost five tanks, two brewed up by Panzer III's working around to their more vulnerable sides, the Germans lost twenty Pz II's and six Pz III before making a somewhat precipitous retreat. The Pz I light tanks had attempted to close on the infantry to get among them with their machine guns, only to find that they were well supplied with 2 and 3 pdr guns, as well as Boys rifles. While some infantry became casualties, fifteen of the light tanks were put out of action.
The report of what had happened to his northern pincer was the last straw for von Hartlieb. He had assumed he was fighting an armoured formation in front of him, but it was now obvious that the British were present in far more force that he had estimated. Deciding to cut his losses, he ordered the 88mm guns and some of his medium tanks to cover his retreat back down the road. He intended to have his infantry dig in near Florennes, while his armour regrouped ready to support them. This mainly worked. 1AB lost a number of tanks to the heavy AA guns, as well as to ambushes by the panzers, but they inflicted heavy losses themselves. By the time they started to follow east, the 5th Panzer Division had lost its 88mm guns as well as a significant number of its medium tanks. 1AB paused for a short while to regroup while Evans tried to decide if a full chase was a good idea. Obviously keeping the pressure on 5th Panzer would do even more damage to them, but he was worried about the Luftwaffe - while mainly absent today, this could change at any time - and concerned about getting too far ahead of the defence line General Giraud was hoping to form. There was also the worry that there were reports of another panzer force not that far south of him, and getting trapped between the two would be bad.
1AB was ordered to hold its position north of Phillipeville, while the Scammels got busy recovering the damaged tanks. Losses for the Brigade had been far lighter than expected, the German 37mm had been far less effective than had been planned for. The heavy 88mm guns had been an unpleasant surprise, but the artillery and infantry had dealt with them. Eight Sabres had been destroyed, and another twenty put out of action or suffered mechanical failures, but it was expect that all but two could be repaired over the next few days, and three that had suffered broken tracks would be fixed shortly. The cavalry was to stay between them and the retreating panzers; if circumstances allowed, Evans intended to pursue them again, and he didn't want them consolidating with other armoured forces. It was still only early evening, and he really wanted to locate that other Panzer Division he'd been getting fragmentary reports about.
5th Panzer had far heavier losses. 28 Pz I, 32 Pz II, over 30 Pz III and fifteen of the Pz IV. The AA regiment had been effectively wiped out, and the morale of the supporting infantry had been badly shaken by the ineffectiveness of their 37mm guns. Fortunately the British had not followed up as aggressively as they would have done themselves, and so they had been able to regroup around Florennes, but the division would not be ready for a further advance for at least a day. They had also suffered some losses in the rear echelon, mainly to the British Artillery, but given the panzer losses the level of support was still acceptable. The biggest problem was that due to the British armour following up, none of their damage tanks would be recoverable.
{ 1st AD is still in pretty good shape. Including tanks having to be sent back to be fixed, they have lost 25 Sabres, that's about half a regiment - serious, but certainly not crippling. They also lost some infantry and carriers, but again not serious from the pov of the divisions combat ability.
5th Panzer came off a lot worse. They lost around 40% of their Pz I, 30% of their Pz II, and more importantly 2/3 of their Pz III and Pz IV. They also lost their organic 88mm support. While their commander is optimistic, they aren't in shape to do much any time soon.}
