Siege of Lille (1940)
| Siege of Lille | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second World War | |||||||||
 Situation, 21 May – 4 June 1940 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 France |
 Germany | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Jean-Baptiste Molinié (POW) Alphonse Juin (POW) Gustave Mesny (POW) |
Alfred Wäger Erwin Rommel Joachim Lemelsen Max von Hartlieb-Walsporn Ludwig Ritter von Radlmeier Fritz Kühne (POW) | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
Elements of 6 divisions |
4 infantry divisions | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
| |||||||||
The siege of Lille, or Lille pocket, (28–31 May 1940) took place during the
The
Prelude
During the morning of 27 May, the
Siege
The forces in Lille, commanded by Général de corps d'armée Jean-Baptiste Molinié, were fortunate that a patrol captured Generalleutnant (Lieutenant-General) Fritz Kühne, commander of the 253rd Infantry Division and recovered documents showing the positions of the German troops surrounding the city. Molinié used the information to plan a breakout for 28 May.[5] At 7:30 p.m. the IV Corps (général de corps d'armée André Boris) and V Corps (General Darius Bloch) attempted to break out on the west side of Lille and retreat towards the Lys. The 2e Division d'infanterie nord-africaine (2e DINA, Major-General Pierre Dame) tried to cross the Deûle river over the bridge to Sequedin (just south of Lomme). The 5e Division d'infanterie nord-africaine (5e DINA, Major-General Augustin Agliany) tried to escape over the Moulin Rouge bridge on the Santes road, south of Haubourdin.[6] Another attempt was made during the morning of 29 May; the Germans had mined the bridge but two French tanks and two companies of infantry got across but were then forced back.[6]
Molinié and five divisions of the First Army fought from house to house in the suburbs of Lille, German troops trying to infiltrate the French defences through gaps and among the many civilian refugees stranded in the city. On 29 May, the 15e DIM surrendered; with food and ammunition dwindling, Molinié and Colonel Aizier negotiated a surrender and hostilities ended at midnight on Friday 31 May/Saturday 1 June. Molinié, another 349 officers, 34,600 French troops surrendered to the Germans at the Grand Place.[7] The German commander, General Alfred Wäger, allowed the French the honours of war; the garrison paraded through the Grand Place, as German troops stood to attention, a compliment for which Wäger was reprimanded.[8]
Aftermath
Some parties of French troops managed to get out of the pocket; Capitaine
Alistair Horne wrote in 1982 that the French defence of Lille enabled the BEF and the rest of the First Army to retreat into the Dunkirk perimeter and in 2013, Douglas Fermer wrote that the Battle of Lille diverted about seven German divisions during the evacuation of Dunkirk.[11] In a 2016 publication, Lloyd Clark wrote that the French breakout attempts were doomed to fail but that the German besiegers had been held off for four days when the Dunkirk perimeter was being consolidated. Feldmarschall (Field Marshal) Walther von Brauchitsch blamed the halt order to the panzer divisions, issued by Hitler, for the delay; had the panzer forces been allowed to continue the pocket would have been sealed along the coast, preventing the Allied evacuation.[12]
Casualties
Lloyd Clark wrote in his 2016 publication that the Germans took prisoner "seven generals, 350 officers and 34,600 men, 300 guns and 100 armoured vehicles....".[12]
Orders of battle
French
Commander: Général de corps d'armée Jean-Baptiste Molinié[5] Data from Lloyd Clark (2016) unless specified.[13]
- III Corps (général de corps d'armée de La Laurencie)
- 1e Division d'Infanterie Motorisée
- 2e Division d'infanterie nord-africaine
- IV Corps (général de corps d'armée André Boris)
- 1e division d'infanterie marocaine
- 15e Division d'Infanterie Motorisée (Général de brigade Alphonse Juin)[5]
- V Corps (général de corps d'armée Darius Paul Bloch [Dassault])
German
- XXVII Corps (General der Infanterie Alfred Wäger)
- XV (Motorised) Corps (General der Infanterie Hermann Hoth)
- XI Corps (Generalleutnant Joachim von Kortzfleisch)
- 217th Infantry Division
- Army Group A Reserve
See also
Footnotes
- ^ a b c Lormier 2005, p. 148.
- ^ a b Shirer 1969, p. 746.
- ^ Forczyk 2019, p. 221.
- ^ Ellis 2004, p. 191; Ellis 2004, Map, 214–215; Umbreit 2015, pp. 294–295.
- ^ a b c d Forczyk 2019, p. 222.
- ^ a b Sebag-Montefiore 2006, p. 624.
- ^ Horne 1982, p. 538; Clark 2016, p. 305.
- ^ Fermer 2013, p. 208.
- ^ Churchill 1949, p. 94.
- ^ Lormier 2005, p. 149.
- ^ Horne 1982, p. 604; Fermer 2013, p. 208.
- ^ a b Clark 2016, p. 305.
- ^ Clark 2016, pp. 395, 392–393.
References
- Churchill, W. S. (1949). Their Finest Hour. ISBN 0-395-41056-8.
- ISBN 978-0-85789-732-9.
- Ellis, Major L. F. (2004) [1st. pub. ISBN 978-1-84574-056-6. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
- Fermer, Douglas (2013). Three German Invasions of France: The Summer Campaigns of 1870, 1914 and 1940. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 978-1-78159-354-7.
- Forczyk, R. (2019) [2017]. Case Red: The Collapse of France (pbk Osprey, Oxford ed.). London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4728-2446-2.
- ISBN 978-0-14-005042-4.
- Lormier, Dominique (2005). Comme des lions: Mai–juin 1940, l'héroïque sacrifice de l'armée française. Paris: Calmann-Levy. ISBN 978-2-7021-3445-0.
- Maier, K. A.; Rohde, H.; Stegemann, B.; Umbreit, H. (2015) [1991]. Falla, P. S. (ed.). Germany's Initial Conquests in Europe. Germany and the Second World War. Vol. II. Translated by McMurry, D.; Osers, E. (Eng. trans. pbk. Clarendon Press, Oxford ed.). Freiburg im Breisgau: Militärgeschichtliches Forchungsamt (Research Institute for Military History). ISBN 978-0-19-873834-3.
- Umbreit, H. "The Battle for Hegemony in Western Europe". In Falla (2015).
- Sebag-Montefiore, H. (2006). Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-102437-0.
- Shirer, William (1969). ISBN 978-0-671-20337-5.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-08-037700-1.
- ISBN 978-0-85052-811-4.
- ISBN 978-0-304-93217-7.
- Cooper, M. (1978). The German Army 1933–1945, its Political and Military Failure. Briarcliff Manor, NY: Stein and Day. ISBN 978-0-8128-2468-1.
- Corum, James (1997). The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918–1940. Lawrence, KS: ISBN 978-0-7006-0836-2.
- Cull, B.; Lander, Bruce; Weiss, Heinrich (1999) [1995]. Twelve Days: The Air Battle for Northern France and the Low Countries, 10–21 May 1940, As Seen Through the Eyes of the Fighter Pilots Involved. London: Grub Street. ISBN 978-1-902304-12-0.
- ISBN 978-1-59114-294-2.
- ISBN 978-0-306-81101-2.
- Harman, Nicholas (1980). Dunkirk: The Necessary Myth. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-24299-5.
- Marix Evans, Martin (2000). The Fall of France: Act with Daring. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-85532-969-0.
- Taylor, A. J. P.; Mayer, S. L., eds. (1974). A History Of World War Two. London: Octopus Books. ISBN 978-0-7064-0399-2.
