The author, a former soldier, has written 15 well-received books but is perhaps best known as a member of the innovative team at Battlefield History TV. This is the largely untold story of how two British tank regiments counter-attacked the invading Germans, helped secure the evacuation of more than 300,000 British and French troops from the Beaches of Dunkirk and made such an impression on Rommel that he thought he was being attacked by five Divisions . – Most Highly Recommended
NAME: Arras Counter-Attack 1940 FILE: R2783 AUTHOR: Tim Saunders PUBLISHER: Pen and Sword BINDING: soft back PAGES: 204 PRICE: £12.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: British Army, WWII, World War 2, World War II, Second World War, BEF, German invasion, Dunkirk, armour
ISBN: 1-47388-912-X
IMAGE: B2783.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/y9bbfa9w LINKS: DESCRIPTION: The author, a former soldier, has written 15 well-received books but is perhaps best known as a member of the innovative team at Battlefield History TV. This is the largely untold story of how two British tank regiments counter-attacked the invading Germans, helped secure the evacuation of more than 300,000 British and French troops from the Beaches of Dunkirk and made such an impression on Rommel that he thought he was being attacked by five Divisions . - Most Highly Recommended Arras 1940 was a complex mix of triumph and failure, great courage and determination, an indictment of pre-war politicians who had neglected the British military, and a tantalizing glimpse of how the sons of the Old Contemptibles showed steel to an arrogant enemy. The author has told this story very well and supported it with a fine selection of images and maps. This is a story that deserves to be read because it, in many respects saved Britain, and made eventual German defeat inevitable. It also demonstrated what British soldiers could have achieved had they been adequately support by pre-war politicians. The British Matilda tank could not be penetrated by German anti-tank rounds. This allowed the two tank regiments to carve their way into the German Panzers leading to large numbers of German troops trying to surrender. Had the British infantry been adequately equipped with personnel carriers they could have kept up with the tanks and accepted the surrender of German troops. As it was they struggled unsuccessfully to keep up and the consolidation of gains by the armour could not be completed. The counter attack was still a great success strategically because it shook the Germans, caused Hitler to order the halting of the Panzer formations and allowed more troops to reach Dunkirk to be picked up in an outstanding evacuation under fire by the Royal Navy. That provided the British with enough soldiers to build an increasingly credible anti-invasion force around and unsettle the Germans sufficiently to convince them that no invasion could be carried out without first winning air and sea superiority. That hesitation allowed the RAF the time to complete preparations to prevent the loss of air superiority and to allow for the re-equipment of the British Army, replacing heavy equipment lost in France. It allowed the British Isles to become an unsinkable aircraft carrier off the coast of Europe and a jumping off point for the Liberation of Europe. All achieved on the efforts of two British tank regiments.