Word: breakthrough
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...between Lille and the Somme last winter while the B. E. F. Second Corps, which he commanded, was marking time. Observers believe that, had the French commanders prepared as wisely and industriously as Sir Alan, instead of relying on the thin pillbox line of their Maginot extension, the German breakthrough could not have been so swift and disastrous. In France the Brooke system never had a chance to prove itself, for after being ordered into, then out of Belgium, the Second Corps was swung south of its prepared positions in a brief effort to close the fatal Peronne-Bapaume...
...BreakThrough. When the way was prepared, 20-ton break-through tanks, each carrying eight to 16 men, charged in, regardless of losses two to a squadron, two squadrons to a battery, three batteries to a section, three sections to a 36 tank regiment, plus a reserve echelon. Where deep rivers or canals interposed, the bombing planes covered the break-through tanks while, according to other stories, water tight 30-ton amphibians wallowed in, to let bridges be built across their steel backs for the rest. Other tanks apparently carried pontoons for crossing water. Across tank asparagus, pits, ravines, special bridging...
...each manned by one officer or non-com and one private. Of these, five made a squadron, three squadrons a company (plus the unit leader's car, radio car and reserve echelon), three companies a battalion, three battalions to a 135-tank regiment, plus reserves. Two regiments of breakthrough and two of assault tanks made a 400-tank armored division...
Lorries carried the assault tanks to their scene of action, unloading and readying them for action in five minutes. Their function, following the breakthrough, was to fan out and attack troops in trenches, nests, pillboxes. Some were said to spew flames 70 yards into blockhouse ventilators and machine-gun nests...
...ousted until five days before Armistice by the French and the U. S. Rainbow Division. On Tuesday afternoon the soldiers of the Third Reich entered Sedan. There was now very little hope of saving Belgium. It was a question of saving France. A further German breakthrough would imperil the whole of France's western defenses to the sea. The French rear areas were taking an awesome beating from the bombs and strafing of some 7,000 planes...