By the evening of 15 May, advance elements of Reinhardt’s 6.Pz. Div had more than made up for three days’ waiting at the Meuse; they were farther west than any other German units, having raced a recordbreaking 40 miles in one day, something few armored units could achieve in a peacetime exercise. Now they were to encounter one of the most formidable units that the French Army had in the field.
The men of France’s 2nd Armored Division had also endured three anxious days. Its tanks had been loaded onto trains and separated from the division’s wheeled elements. On the morning of 14 May the divisional commander. General A. C. Bruche, had admitted that he was not sure where all the different components of his division were. A change of orders on 15 May placed the division under a new army commander and ordered it to Signy-l’Abbaye. To join it, the tanks would have to make their own way from the railway station at Hirson.
It wasThe fate of the French 2nd Armored Division that Reinhardt’s 6.Pz. Div was heading for Signy too. The Germans blundered right through the middle of the division, knocking it out piece by piece.
Gun batteries were overrun while they were still on the road, and the French tanks were surprised as they moved from the railway station. By the morning of 16 May the 2nd Armored Division was split in two and scattered across the countryside, lacking divisional HQ communication with High Command and any supplies. The divisional commander spent the next day wandering about, trying to locate his various elements before the Germans destroyed them.
Meanwhile Reinhardt’s panzer columns continued westward. By 16 May the gap in the French defenses was over 40 miles wide.
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