French Forces

‘Crécy-au-Mont’ battle

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The last battle of ‘Crécy-au-Mont’ On the 4th of June 1940 the battered French 2ème D.C.R. (Armoured Division), together with other French and British units, was ordered to attack in the direction of Abbeville, were the Germans had established a bridgehead south of the river Somme. Like so many others, the attack was poorly coordinated, and soon the French Infantry –fired upon by the Germans and, it was said, by its own artillery and tanks- retreated, leaving the French tanks unprotected. Nevertheless the behemoths, Renault B1bis, kept moving forward, firing, and destroying a number of German Paks and infantry positions of the 57. Infanterie Division. Three French tanks, ‘Crécy-au-Mont’, ‘Kléber’, and ‘Maréchal Lefèvre’, broke through the German defenses and reached the Mont de Caubert, a hill just to the west of Abbeville, but without support they were forced to retreat, losing ‘Crécy-au-Mont’ in the process. The final moments of ‘Crécy-au-Mont’ were later described by its driver, Sergent Robert Job, of which this is a short resume: “We moved downhill and the Lieutenant suddenly came down from the turret to point out a group of men we were unable to identify at first. (…) They were Germans! I saw a gun abandoned with shells piled beside and I drove for it, intending to destroy it. (…) we approached quickly but a direct hit stopped us a few meters from the gun (the 88mm Flak gun in the photo), the engine stalled and the tank started to burn. I cut off the ignition (…) and turned just in time to see another direct hit explode in the tank. Everything was burning and the air was suffocating. (…) I dragged myself to the door. (…) Before I realized what was happening, two Germans grabbed me and dragged me away. (…) (Caporal Marcel) Juteau was brought near me and shook my hand; sadly we thought of our two comrades who had remained in the tank.” (adapted from “Blitzkrieg in the West” by J. P. Pallud) ‘Crécy-au-Mont’ burned so fiercely that in the 1980s, when visiting the site, French historians found the exact spot where it had burned: a rectangle of sterile soil still clearly visible amid a field of grasses, a silent monument to Lieutenant Marcel Blondelet and Caporal-Chef Robert Célérier, who died there for France. Image and text from In Colore Veritas taken from fb/the France-Flanders campaign 1940