Luxemburg set out with the vast majority of the armoured forces of the 7th Panzer Division, retreating several kilometers to avoid the observation of the Anglo-French forces, before bypassing the airfield from the east of Arras.

Rommel was certainly not wrong in arranging tactics this way, but he ignored a problem, that is, Bismarck's defensive position had just begun to be built, and the Seventh Panzer Division originally carried a large number of sandbags, but it was misappropriated by Rommel to fill the pit, so Bismarck could only rely on sappers to dig the defensive position.

If the Anglo-French forces do not launch a counterattack, Rommel's Seventh Panzer Division will indeed not be in any danger, and passive defense is the tradition of the French army, but today there is a British division participating in the defense of Arras.

The commander of the guard Arras was Major General Franklin, and the two divisions he commanded were the French 50th Infantry Division and the British 5th Infantry Division. Of course, Franklin knew what the French 50th Infantry Division was, and it was impossible to think that a new unit formed in the first half of this year, a group of French peasants who had just laid down their hoes and taken up arms, could use such troops to hold back the wolf-like German Panzer Division.

Fortunately, Franklin also had an elite British infantry division in his hand, which was the only card in his hand, and Franklin understood that if he blindly defended, he would never be able to hold Arras, so Franklin planned to counterattack.

Franklin arranged this way, he let the French 50th Infantry Division defend, and he personally led the LinkedIn 5th Infantry Division to counterattack the German 7th Panzer Division, which was not firmly established, and participated in the counterattack with 74 Matilda heavy tanks from the British army and 60 light Renault tanks drawn from the French army.

These tanks were Franklin's strength, and Churchill gave Franklin a piece of information - the Germans did not have anti-tank guns that could destroy the front of Matilda's tank, and the British were very accurate, but the Germans did not have any type of anti-tank gun that could penetrate the front of Matilda.

The 37 mm anti-tank gun that the Germans are now equipped with is completely unable to penetrate the front of the Matilda tank, and the 50 mm anti-tank has an armor penetration depth of 78 mm within 500 meters, while the frontal armor of the Matilda is just 78 mm, but the front of the Matilda tank is oblique, so the 50 mm anti-tank gun equipped by the Germans is helpless against Matilda.

This was where Franklin dared to counterattack Rommel's 7th Panzer Division, and Franklin threw his trump card at the beginning, but Matilda's armor was too thick and heavy, and the speed of advance was about the same as that of the infantry on foot, which was also similar to the British army's use of tanks only as a support weapon for the infantry, rather than forming tanks into separate assault groups like the Germans.

God favored the infantry, and it was ultimately up to the infantry to make the final solution to the war - this was the view of Franklin and Churchill, and of course the French army.

Frankly speaking, the British did a really good job of counterattacking this time, and the Germans still didn't know about it. Because Rommel's armored forces had already departed, his infantry had just begun to set up defensive positions, and as a result, a British and French armored division launched a counterattack against Rommel.

The 7th Panzer Division is sweating and digging trenches at this time! As a result, Britain and France ran out of their defensive positions and came out to counterattack, and the entire Seventh Panzer Division followed Rommel one victory after another, faintly thinking that Lao Tzu was the first in the world.

The infantry left behind by the 7th Panzer Division immediately threw away their sapper shovels, took up their weapons and lay down on the spot, and then opened a fierce fire on the British troops who rushed on, and the light 37-mm anti-tank guns were also pushed up, because Rommel had already distributed the 37-mm anti-tank guns of the division's anti-tank battalion to the infantry below.

Therefore, the infantry and infantry under Rommel are now awesome and coaxing, and the British troops who have tanks to cover the charge are not false at all, and they can fight a word.

Outside the city of Arras, there was a burst of gunfire and artillery fire. Following the tanks, the British did not return fire at all, but let the Germans fire at the tanks in front of them, and something happened that surprised all the Germans.

The 37-mm anti-tank in their hands could not penetrate the British tank, and they could not penetrate it from 500 meters away, so they waited for the British to get closer, and as a result, the 37-mm anti-tank gun still could not penetrate the distance of 200 meters from their position.

At this time, the British tank guns and the infantry that followed began to return fire fiercely, the Matilda equipped with 40 mm tank guns first hit the German anti-tank guns, the German 37 mm anti-tank guns were blown into the sky, and the British Matilda tank turned the muzzle to destroy the German machine guns after hitting the 37 mm anti-tank guns.

The German machine guns were also destroyed one by one, and then the British infantry came out from behind the tanks and charged at the German positions.

Even some German soldiers risked being killed at a distance of 5 meters from Matilda, but they were still unable to penetrate Matilda's armor.

At this point, the heroism of the soldiers was meaningless, all they could do was watch Matilda rotate the turret, destroy the German anti-tank guns one by one, and then storm the German positions and wreak havoc on the German army. The defending Germans suffered heavy casualties, and Rommel's 15 No. 2 tanks for the 6th Infantry Regiment were all destroyed, and even the deputy commander of the 6th Infantry Regiment was killed.

The Sixth Infantry Regiment of the Seventh Armored Division was at the front, but it was miserable, and it was impossible to retreat, because behind it was the logistics force composed of the division headquarters and hundreds of trucks, and the Sixth Infantry Regiment could only grit its teeth and bear huge casualties, and the British counterattack force was hard topped.

The 6th Infantry Regiment dared to fight the British counterattack regardless of casualties, believing that their division commander would soon come to their aid and completely crush the British in front of them. But mortal bodies really can't withstand tanks and guns! The 6th Infantry Regiment was forced to fight and retreat.

The first encounter with the Germans was defeated. The reason is that the British army used the Matilda heavy tank, which had been hidden, and the armor of this tank, especially the front armor, was extremely thick, and the armor-piercing shells issued by the German standard 37mm anti-tank guns were like tickling. Rommel actually ignored the British Matilda tank throughout the crossing, and it seems that Rommel's entire traverser still needs a lot of experience! Traversers are not omnipotent.

The Goddess of Victory had already arranged her skirt to the British, and the British rejoiced, wishfully believing that it was the Goddess of Victory who was flattering them. They once again affirmed the achievements of the intelligence services: "All models of anti-tank guns of the Nazis, with their dirty armor-piercing shells, absolutely could not penetrate the armor of the Matilda tank of the Holy British Empire".

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