La 1RE DLM Au Combat: Chars et Blindés de Cavalerie, 1939 - 1940 (L'Encyclopedie de L'Armee Francaise) (French Edition)
Book Details
Author(s)Erik Barbanson, François Vauvillier
PublisherHistoire and Collections
ISBN / ASIN2352501636
ISBN-139782352501633
MarketplaceFrance 🇫🇷
Description
French Text
The crucial question of armored divisions initiated by Colonel de Gaulle in 1934 has overshadowed, vis-à-vis the general public, a major element of the development of the French Army during the period of rearmament: Yes, France had, prior to the war, light mechanized divisions (DLM) who had light tanks in name only and who, with their 300 armored vehicles, three dragoon battalions and their 36 guns, were more or less, the French equivalent of the Panzer Divisions. Better still, the concept of the DLM was born in France three years before the idea ever appeared on the other side of the Rhine.
This is the story of the first of these great French units. At dawn on May 10, 1940, the 1st Light Mechanical Division springs on its goal to reach as soon as possible the Netherlands with the Giraud Army.. This plan will unfortunately fail, but the men of the 1st DLM see, through the plains of Belgium and Flanders, then in the fighting on the overturned front at the Mormal and Mont-Saint-Eloi forests, their finest hour. Having escaped from the hell of Dunkirk, many of them will live, re-armed and re-equipped, through the last battles to take place on French soil, without ever having experienced the feeling of being defeated.
The crucial question of armored divisions initiated by Colonel de Gaulle in 1934 has overshadowed, vis-à-vis the general public, a major element of the development of the French Army during the period of rearmament: Yes, France had, prior to the war, light mechanized divisions (DLM) who had light tanks in name only and who, with their 300 armored vehicles, three dragoon battalions and their 36 guns, were more or less, the French equivalent of the Panzer Divisions. Better still, the concept of the DLM was born in France three years before the idea ever appeared on the other side of the Rhine.
This is the story of the first of these great French units. At dawn on May 10, 1940, the 1st Light Mechanical Division springs on its goal to reach as soon as possible the Netherlands with the Giraud Army.. This plan will unfortunately fail, but the men of the 1st DLM see, through the plains of Belgium and Flanders, then in the fighting on the overturned front at the Mormal and Mont-Saint-Eloi forests, their finest hour. Having escaped from the hell of Dunkirk, many of them will live, re-armed and re-equipped, through the last battles to take place on French soil, without ever having experienced the feeling of being defeated.
