On May 22, 1940, the British Army led by Montgomery launched a surprise counterattack against the advancing German troops in the Arras area, and was suddenly blinded by the advancing German troops, and the 11th Infantry Division and the 23rd Infantry Division under Army Group A of the German Army Group were caught off guard and could not resist retreating again and again.

After winning the battle on the 22nd, Montgomery made a posture to continue to advance to the northeast on the 23rd, attracting a part of the German army to outflank his left and right flanks, but the Germans did not expect that this was just a little trick of Montgomery, he shook a shot and then continued to kill to the southeast, leading the troops to appear, and wanted to outflank the right flank of the German 15th Infantry Division, which was still in a state of marching, the artillery had not yet been taken off the shelf, and the troops had not had time to deploy, so they were beaten by Montgomery's troops like a wolf and a tiger, and only after paying one-third of the casualties did they retreat in embarrassment under the cover of the air force。

On the 24th, Montgomery's troops once again adopted a successful tactical deception, making signs of wanting to attack another outflanking German army, and the 29th German Infantry Division, which was responsible for outflanking, immediately stopped advancing, dug fortifications, and waited for the battle, but waited left and right and did not see the arrival of Montgomery's headquarters, and it was not until the 26th that they received a telegram from the headquarters of the army group group, and it turned out that this was another deception, Montgomery's troops turned their guns again, attacked the back of the unsuspecting 33rd Infantry Division, and pressed the 33rd Infantry Division to the ground and beat it violently, and the 33rd Infantry Division was beaten with a blue nose and swollen face, and could only helplessly flee under the cover of the Air Force.

In the four days from the 22nd to the 26th, Montgomery's division disrupted the deployment of the German Army Group A. Army Group A made a wrong judgment and offered Hitler a proposal to postpone the attack on Dunkirk, so Hitler issued the first erroneous order of World War II on the 24th, suspending the attack on Dunkirk.

Montgomery's troops were exhausted and continued to recuperate after the battle, so they stopped the attack, and the whole army disappeared without a trace under the cover of night, and the Germans sent a large number of reconnaissance planes but could not find the trace of Montgomery's troops. Five infantry divisions and one tank division had to be sent to stay near the Arras area in case Montgomery's unit suddenly reappeared, who did not know where to hide.

Taking advantage of this rare opportunity to breathe, Churchill, then British Prime Minister of the war, immediately issued a generator plan, but the number of ships in the navy was insufficient, so the Admiralty began to requisition ships along the coast and along the Thames, and even called on all those who owned ships to go to Dunkirk through the radio.

The owners understood what it meant for Britain to withdraw their expeditionary force, so they responded to the Admiralty's call and sent barges, tugboats, cargo ships, passenger ferries, fishing boats, motorboats and even private yachts to Dunkirk. Six hundred and ninety-three British ships and one hundred and sixty-eight French, Dutch, and Belgian ships, a total of eight hundred and sixty-one ships of all kinds, joined the rescue procession and set sail from various ports to Dunkirk, the last hope of the coalition forces.

On May 20, 1940, Guderian's armored forces swept through northern France and reached the English Channel near Abbeville, and the next day the German high command ordered the Panzer Forces to advance north from Abbeville and occupy the ports of the Gili Channel on LinkedIn.

As soon as Guderian received the order. It was immediately decided that the 10th Panzer Division would advance to Dunkirk and the 1st Panzer Division to Calais. The 2nd Panzer Division advanced towards Boulogne. Guderian knew that the offensive line formed by his Army Group A from Sedan to the west coast of France had cut off the retreat of the French army from the north to the south.

Army Group B to the north had captured the Netherlands and eastern Belgium, and the left flank of the main force of more than 300,000 British and French Allied troops was actually under deep encirclement by the Germans. The only hope of escape is in the northern French seaports, including Dunkirk. Therefore, he had to quickly occupy several seaports in northern France in order to completely cut off the sea retreat of the coalition forces.

From 23 to 24 May 1940, Guderian's armored forces occupied Boulogne and then Calais. On the afternoon of the 24th, Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps had reached Gravlin. It's only sixteen kilometers away from Dunkirk.

On its right flank, Reinhardt's 41st Panzer Corps had also reached the line of the El St. Omer Graflin Canal, and the two armoured armies only needed to make a little more effort to take Dunkirk, and dozens of infantry divisions were also following suit. Guderian and others were determined to lead their armored forces to fight another encirclement and annihilation battle, completely annihilating hundreds of thousands of British and French troops in the coastal area.

However, at the same time, the 19th and 41st Panzer Corps received orders from Kleist, the commander of the Panzer Corps, to halt their advance, and said that "the enemy of Dunkirk will be left to Marshal Goering's air force to settle down." Upon receiving the order, Guderian immediately questioned and protested to Kleist, but received the final reply: "This is an order given by the Führer himself, and it must be carried out." ”

"Damn bureaucrats!"

Guderian slammed the red and blue pen in his hand on the table, and the duck that was about to arrive flew away, and a person would be angry, let alone a hot-tempered soldier, but no one in the whole of Germany dared to disobey Hitler's order, and he Guderian could only endure it even if he was angry.

The irritable Guderian walked around his headquarters, the evil fire in his heart was getting bigger and bigger, he couldn't hold it back, and he had to find a place to vent it, and after scanning the map, a place name fell into his eyes, Arras.

Montgomery's troops have disturbed the entire Army Group A in the past few days, and it was Montgomery's counterattack that indirectly contributed to the order to stop the pursuit, so finding a way to eliminate Montgomery's troops became the target of Guderian's fire, so Guderian immediately ordered the 1st Panzer Division near Calais to occupy Arras in order to cut off the connection and retreat of the Montgomery and Dunkirk coalition forces, once Arras was occupied, Montgomery's troops became a turtle in the urn, and it was only a matter of time before they were destroyedand on May 26 arrived on the outskirts of Arras. (To be continued.) )