26th May
Belgium
To support the Antwerp attack, 6th Army begins a series of attacks against the Dyle Line. The first mainly intended to pin the BEF divisions in place, and force them to retain their reserve formations in case of a breakthrough. While there is always hope of a breakthrough, and units are held in reserve in case one occurs, as long as the BEF is kept from interfering the objective will have been met.
Further south the attacks are stronger. While the French 1st Army have had time to dig in along their defensive line, the terrain is more suitable for mobile warfare. While 3rd and 4th Panzer divisions are not quite back to full strength, 2nd Panzer arrived this morning and will be available to back them up. The initial infantry attacks are to find any weak points in the defence, and then a thrust by the Panzer divisions will follow. If 6th Army can destabilise the Dyle line both in the north and the south, they can force the Allies to have to fall back on the Escaut line, which has far fewer pre-war defensive works, and will given them control of nearly all of Belgium. Their initial fighting against the French DLM's has confirmed that with superior tactics these can be dealt with - the DCR, with much heavier tanks, are still south near Sedan.
While the attack south of Antwerp has gone as well as expected, it is still a slow process, and the infantry are suffering badly as they press forward. The attack has, however, progressed far enough von Richenau can consider the next option, and orders are given to the 7th Air Division and 22nd Air Landing Division to prepare. While these divisions suffered badly in the initial attacks in Holland, what he has in mind for them will leave them far less exposed. He also orders two regiments of mountain troops to board the minesweepers and other small fast ships that have been waiting for them at Wilhelshaven.
Around Antwerp the German infantry are still grinding forward, and they have managed to break the defensive positions in some places. While the pre-war defences are strong, they are vulnerable to being broken, and the use of artillery and bombers has helped in stopping the Belgians from more that local counterattacks. By the afternoon, the leading elements of the advance are north of Mechelin, and worryingly close to the Scheldt. If they can reach of get across that, the forces defending the city will be in a precarious position, as there is now serious danger of splitting the Belgian Army in two.
In order to stabilise the situation, General Blanchard orders the Belgians to attack the southern flank of the attack the following day. His reserves are less that he wishes; the Belgian Army has no mobile reserve, and IV Corps has not yet returned from the Ardennes. He expects to have 1st Armoured division available tomorrow, but this may well be needed around Gembloux, aircraft have reported a worryingly heavy concentration of panzers opposite his forces there, and he recalls how close the earlier battles were. 1DLM is his only armoured reserve here, and they have not yet rebuilt their losses in the earlier fighting.
The one mobile force he has available is the British V Corps, although this only has one Brigade of armour, it has two fully motorised infantry divisions. The Corps was to have spent time getting fully operational, but under the circumstances it is his only immediate reserve, and the Corps is ordered forward to Ghent. He also requests two more French Corps, but even will railway priority they won't arrive for 2-3 days. The one piece of good news is that additional French fighters will be available from tomorrow, to help the RAF in keeping the Luftwaffe intervention to a bearable level.
Norway
German Ju 88 aircraft attack and sink the British anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Curlew off Narvik, killing nine crew members. HMS Curlew was equipped with the only early warning radar set off Norway, and with the ongoing Luftwaffe attacks on ships a replacement is required urgently. This will cause a number of problems, as the nature of the Norwegian road network means that often support and supply from the sea is far easier than by road or rail, and without the protection given by her early-warning of raids, this just got more dangerous.
Rome
Benito Mussolini informs the Italian Chief of the Supreme Staff, Marshal Badoglio, and the Governor of Libya, Marshal Balbo, that he has told Adolf Hitler that he was considering declaring war on England and France after 5th June. Badoglio was horrified and protested vehemently that crippling shortages of equipment in the Italian Army made such a military adventure a very risky business. He also pointed out that while Germany had achieved some success in the recent fighting, this was mainly against the smaller countries, and that Britain and France had not yet suffered a substantial defeat. Unless the situation changed greatly, both countries would be able to keep forces in North and East Africa, and this could prove disastrous for Italy. Between them the Royal Navy and the Marine Nationale would control the Mediterranean Sea, rendering it at best expensive and at worst impossible to supply and reinforce the Italian Army in Libya, and there was no chance that supply could be brought to East Africa. He urged Mussolini to wait until the situation in France changed in favour of Germany, and then bring the matter to the Council again. While Mussolini still wanted to show the strength of Italian arms in the Mediterranean and Africa, the details of the strength of the Allied force, especially the British armour in Egypt for which the Italian Army had as yet no matching tanks, he was persuaded to wait and see.