0513_01: Der Schwerpunkt - PzC 12 France '40

The Battle of Sedan, 13 May 1940: "The Ardennes is impassible to tanks!" "The Meuse cannot be
crossed." Between wars, these platitudes were so oft-repeated by French officers that they became
doctrine. Convinced that no major effort could be mounted through the Ardennes, Gamelin
deployed the best, most mobile elements of the French Army to the north, ready to intervene in
central Belgium and the Netherlands when the attack came. The German operations to the north
were no more than a "matador's cloak" aimed at drawing Allied attention away from the real effort.
Not bound by the myth of the impenetrable Ardennes, millions of German soldiers and thousands of
artillery pieces, motor vehicles, and tanks filed through Luxembourg and southern Belgium in the
first days of the campaign. The Schwerpunkt, the point of main effort, was to be made at Sedan, site
of Von Moltke's victory over Napoleon III in 1870. By the morning of May 13th three Panzer
divisions from Heinz Guderian's XIX. AK (mot.) had concentrated in front of Sedan. These were
reinforced by the elite I.R. Grossdeutschland, corps and army artillery, combat engineers, assault
guns, and Flak assets. The Lufwaffe maintained a rolling bombardment of the French positions at
Sedan from late in the morning on the 13th until late in the afternoon. Though this bombardment
inflicted relatively few casualties, it strained the defenders' already fragile nerves and disrupted
communications. At 15:00, Guderian's elite soldiers attacked... [Size: Small] Design Note: This
scenario should be played with the optional indirect fire rule.