Free Flames over France by Robert Jackson

from a crashed aircraft, its tail sticking out from a clump of trees some distance away. From its twin fins he identified it as one of the Dorniers, presumably the first one he had fired at.
    He landed safely between a scattering of fresh bomb craters and taxied in, coming to a stop close to his original dispersal. Wearily, still feeling queasy, he switched off the engine and climbed unsteadily from the cockpit, carefully keeping to the starboard side to avoid the mess on the port wing.
    He was only half aware of the ground crew clustering around him, congratulating him. Someone thrust a bottle of cognac into his hand and he raised it to his lips, drinking deeply, washing the bile from his throat.
    A few minutes later, the reconnaissance squadron and its fighter escort returned from its mission over enemy territory. Two of the Potez 63s were missing. One of them was Le Roy’s.
    *
    BATTLE SITUATION, 13 MAY 1940: THE MEUSE
    The German assault troops had been moving down through the woods towards the river crossing points throughout the early hours of the morning. Most of the soldiers were red-eyed through lack of sleep, exhausted after their long forced marches through the Ardennes and soaked through by the dripping vegetation of the forest, for it had rained heavily during the night. Nevertheless, there was to be no respite for them; the momentum of the German assault could not be allowed to falter.
    During the morning of the 13th, which dawned bright and sunny with a few tendrils of mist drifting over the Meuse and the woods on either side, the heavy artillery of the French X and XVIII Corps opened up on the river crossing points, strategic road junctions and the approaches to the Meuse. The bombardment lasted until midday, and then the French began to run out of ammunition. Apart from the general confusion that prevailed, fresh supplies coming up from the rear were subjected to incessant air attacks by the Luftwaffe . Requests for further supplies of ammunition sent through urgently to HQ Second Army never arrived, or if they did they were ignored.
    Up until noon, the Luftwaffe attacked the French defences on the Meuse in relatively small numbers, the forward positions being hit by groups of half a dozen Stukas or medium bombers. Then, in the afternoon, the full weight of two Fliegerkorps was hurled against the real pivot of the battle, in support of the armoured thrust at Sedan. Luftwaffe orders were to pin down the French defences while German ground forces established a bridgehead.
    The first phase of the assault unfolded on schedule at 1600, with a highly effective precision attack by Stukas on French artillery positions on the west bank of the Meuse. This was followed within minutes by a second raid, this time by Dornier 17s — and so it went on for hours on end, with successive waves of bombers droning over the river, unloading their sticks with deadly accuracy, and turning for home in almost leisurely manner. French fighters tore gaps in their ranks, but more often than not, the Messerschmitts prevented the French fighter groups from coming anywhere near the bomber formations.
    For the defending French troops, the air attacks were a nightmare. Most of their air-raid shelters were only half completed and afforded hardly any protection from the onslaught. Even before the air attack was over, four brigades of German 105-mm guns opened up a heavy fire on the French X Corps sector. Under cover of the bombardment, the German infantry launched themselves across the Meuse on river boats and rafts, sheltered to some extent by the vast cloud of dust and smoke that swirled across the river from the bombing on the opposite bank.
    Dazed and bewildered, the French defenders began to emerge from their shelters to be confronted by the first waves of German shock troops, storming up the river bank towards them. One by one, the French positions collapsed under the relentless pressure, many of them being taken from the rear by the