TNA ADM 199 795

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APPENDIX 'B'
SURMARY OF OPERATIONS ON B.E.F. IN FRANCE
FROM 1ST TO 18TH JUNE 1940
1. After the evacuation of the main British Expeditionary
Force from Flanders in the first week of June the only
British troops remaining in France were the 51st Division,
which had been holding 3 sector of the Sarre Front, and
the incomplete 1st Armoured Division, which had begun its
disembarkation on 20th May and had been rushed up piscemeal
in a desperate effort to relieve the sorely tried right
flank of the B.E.F. By the 1st June this attenuated
Division, which was incomplete when disanbarked and had
lost heavily in its first engagement on the Somme, could
only muster roughly one third of its quota of tanks.
2. These two formations, the 51st Division and the 1st
Armoured Division, the only British fighting formations
General Altmayer, commanding Tenth French Army, which held
remaining in France, were placed under the orders of
the left sector of the Some front from Amiens to the S88.
The handling of the British troops, which had been delegated
to General Altmayer by General leygand, was co-ordinated
and supervisied by a British ilitary Mission at Tenth Army
Headquarters.
Somme sector was sixteen miles in-extent, an excessive
3. The frontage allotted to the 51st Division on the
Fre ch divisions were holding at the time owing to
amount, but probably not much greater than that which their many
action the Sarre front, and had had & long and arduous On
depleted resources. The Division had already been in
4th June the 51st Division Commander was ordered which to carry
journey on from the Eastern frontier to its new sector.
out the Abbeville bridgshead, for
operation an attack the newly on arrived French 31st Division and was 8 placed
under as well PS 160 French tanks
of was effective co-operation between British notice,
however, considerable not a success, ainly owing to the and
his orders, reinforcement of French artillery. difficulty The attack,
French arranging guns and tanks at such casualties... short and
the 51st infantry, Division suffered fairly heavy
4. On the following against the whole front to the
day (5th June) the Garmang held launched by the
Seventh a powerful and offensive Tenth French Armies, from in an St. exhausted uentin condition, sea.
Tenth The The after from too Division 51st wide the Army 12 a days Division front, Commander, front fought of replied to continual was bravely, be when by able that widely this asked movement to but he time resist scattered had was to no relieve and forced effectively. reserves battle, posts. back the available. Division and by Owing German was The holding
to infiltration the extent between of its frontago its the division had no depth
/in its