Battle of Abbeville

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Battle of Abbeville
Part of the Battle of France, the Second World War
21May-4June Battle of Belgium.png
Situation map 21 May – 6 June 1940
Date 27 May – 4 June 1940 (8 days)
Location
Abbeville
50°06′21″N 01°50′09″E
Result German victory

Belligerents
France
United Kingdom Germany
Commanders and leaders
Maxime Weygand
Charles de Gaulle
Victor Fortune Oskar Blümm
Erich von Manstein
Casualties and losses
c.  1,000 killed or captured
c.  275 AFVs destroyed or captured 500 POW[1]
Abbeville is located in FranceAbbevilleAbbeville
Abbeville, a commune in the Somme department, Picardie region, northern France
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Battle of France
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Western Front of
World War II
The Battle of Abbeville took place from 27 May to 4 June 1940, near Abbeville
during the Battle of France in the Second World War. On 20 May, the 2nd Panzer
Division advanced 56 mi (90 km) to Abbeville on the English Channel, overran the
25th Infantry Brigade of the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division and captured the
town at 8:30 p.m. Only a few British survivors managed to retreat to the south bank
of the Somme and at 2:00 a.m. on 21 May, the III Battalion, Rifle Regiment 2
reached the coast, west of Noyelles-sur-Mer.

The 1st Armoured Division (Major-General Roger Evans) arrived in France from 15 May
without artillery, short of an armoured regiment and the infantry of the 1st
Support Group, which had been diverted to Calais. From 27 May to 4 June, attacks by
the Franco-British force south of the Abbeville bridgehead, held by the 2nd Panzer
Division, then the 57th Infantry Division, recaptured about half of the area; the
Allied forces lost many of their tanks and the Germans much of their infantry, some
units running back over the River Somme. On 5 June, the divisions of the German 4th
Army attacked out of the bridgeheads south of the Somme and pushed back the Franco-
British divisions opposite, which had been much depleted by their counter-attacks,
to the Bresle with many casualties.

In 1953, the British official historian, Lionel Ellis, wrote that the Allies lacked
battlefield co-ordination, which contributed to the Allied failure to defeat the
Germans and magnified the cost of lack of preparation and underestimation of the
German defences south of the Somme. In 2001, Caddick-Adams also wrote of the
chronic lack of battlefield communication within and between the British and French
divisions, which was caused by a shortage of radios and led to elementary and
costly tactical errors. The lack of communication continued after reinforcement by
the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division (Major-General Victor Fortune) and French
armoured and infantry divisions. The Germans had committed substantial forces to
the bridgeheads, despite the operations in the north, that culminated in the
Dunkirk evacuation (26 May – 3 June). The Somme crossings at Abbeville and
elsewhere were still available on 5 June, for Fall Rot (Case Red), the final German
offensive, which brought about the defeat of France.