In Holland, as Gen Winckelmann surrenders, the whole Dutch army is taken prisoner along with its leaders. Only the forces in Zeeland, under Adm van der Stadt, are ordered to fight on beside the French. The surrender of Holland compels the French 7th Army to speed up its withdrawal.

Upon arriving at King Leopold's GHQ in Breendonck, M. Pierlot, head of the Belgian government, is lead to a map by the king. He points to the French coast lining the Straits of Dover and says, 'The Germans will be there within a week.' When M. Pierlot suggests that in that case the Belgian army ought to retreat westward and southward, the King replies, 'No, not southward - northward.'

At 4am the status of the French 9th Army is as follows: the remains of French XI Corps has been pushed back to Florennes, 7 mi west of the Meuse. The 4th North African Div is withdrawing to Philippeville. Farther south the remnants of the 22nd Infantry Div has been pushed back close to French frontier to a line holding at Monthermé. With Georges' approval Billotte orders a general retreat of the 9th Army to the Marcinelle-Cerfontaine-Rocroi-Signy-L'Abbaye-Omont line. This new line is just a string of towns. There are no defenses, no natural obstacles, no strong points. Billotte forgets that the 102nd Fortress Div has no transport. It can not fall back. Early in the morning Corap is relieved and Gen Giraud is appointed his successor. Giraud is recalled from Anvers. The troops of the 7th Army are to follow. They are to reconstitute the 9th, which has been practically annihilated.

In Flanders the German 6th Army, supported by the 2 air fleets of Kesselring and von Sperrle, heavily attacks the Allied forces. Here are the 16 French divisions of Blanchard's 1st Army. Statistically the Germans are outnumbered two to one, but they have powerful air support and Blanchard has none. Their armor is united in balanced divisions, backed by reconnaissance and magnificently equipped with anti-tank guns. The Germans are also linked by radio and are acting in coordination with their aircraft. Their technical superiority is considerable. Above all, they possess a tremendous fighting spirit. The Germans try again to break through the Gembloux Gap. The 1st Moroccan Div bears the brunt of the attack along with the 12th Motorized Infantry Div. These are the two divisions that had relieved Prioux's cavalry corps. The Allied front is dented, but afer a momentary disarray the German thrust is contained with the aid of French artillery. The armor does not manage to pierce the French lines and have to withdraw behind Baudeset. This Allied success is only temporary as the postion will soon be undermined by advances on northern and southern flanks.

Along the Meuse, on the other hand, the breakthrough is complete and the debacle that started the day before is gradually taking final shape. The success of the breakthrough is so complete that the German General Staff can scarcely believe their good fortune. An unexpected stiffening in French resistance in the area of Stonne makes them uneasy and prompts Gen von Rundstedt to issue the following order, 'Advancing beyond bridgeheads forbidden.' Blind with rage, Guderian blazes up at this 'disastrous' order. He explodes, subjects Group Headquarters to vehement protests and finally wins his case. He later writes in his memoirs, 'I received no orders extending beyond the creation of bridgeheads on the left bank of the Meuse... The High Command was principally concerned with slowing down my advance.'

Just before dawn Gen Libaud, commander of the French XLI Corps, is notified of the 9th Army's order to withdraw. During the early morning German engineers equipped with flamethrowers and riflemen of the 6th Panzer Div attack the French bunkers under cover of and artillery barrage and after dawn Stuka dive-bombers. The French first line of defense is broken and soon reserve positions are overrun. The tanks of the 6th Panzer Div soon begin crossing a pontoon bridge constructed across the Meuse. Having no transport the 102nd's withdrawal soon turns into rout. The majority of the divisions exhaused soldiers quickly surrender. Motorcyclists of the 6th Panzer Div are soon roaring past a French munitions dump and abandoned guns. Many of the French aretaken prisoner being simply surprised and overwhelmed by the speed of the panzer advance.

Reinhardt's panzers drive westward and by nightfall have captured Montcornet, 37 miles from the Meuse and a half-hour's drive from the French 9th Army's headquarters at Vervins, some 12 miles to the northwest. Reinhardt's corps is now deep into the French rear defense zone and there is very little left of the 9th Army. A gap now exists in the French front about 60 miles wide. Hoth's and Reinhardt's panzers are advancing virtually unopposed into the French heartland.

A veritable race ensues between the various Panzer divisions. 'At about 9am,' writes Rommel, 'the tanks started moving forward. After a brief engagement with enemy tanks near Flavion, the Panzer regiment advanced in column to Philippeville. On the way it passed numerous guns and vehicles belonging to a French unit whose men threw themselves flat at our approach. No doubt they had previously suffered badly from our dive-bombing.'

The 1st Armored Division under Gen Bruneau advances westward of the Anthée-Dinant road. Rommel does not give Bruneau the time he needed to launch a counterattack. At 8:30am Rommel's panzers supported by bombers and artillery hits the tanks of Bruneau's 1st Armored Div. The German attack concentrates on the two battalions of heavy 'B' tanks which are in the process of refueling. Unable to move without fuel several of the tanks are set on fire by their own crews. The French tanks, however, do manage to knock out several panzers. The German 37mm guns do not penetrate the French armor and the German anti-tank gunners conclude to aim for the treads. Most of Rommel's panzers, however, swing around Bruneau's flank and continue their westward thrust. Having delivered the initial blow, he leaves the mopping up work for Col Werner's panzers which are following. Moving at about 40 miles an hour the 7th Panzer Division successively passes through Seuzeille, Cerfontaine and Froidchapelle.

When Werner arrives, he sees the French armor facing him is made up of heavy tanks. He withdraws his light panzers and sends in his own heavies: 35 Panzer IIIs and 32 Panzer IVs supported by artillery. Not knowing they were out of fuel, Werner wonders why the French tanks are not moving. He arrays his tanks in an advancing semicircle and opens fire on Bruneau's 26th Battalion. Bruneau orders a company of the 37th Battalionn which had refueled to move to its assistance. The French tanks advance knocking out several panzers before coming under fire of the German 105mm guns. The battalion commander then orders a withdrawal. Bruneau's 1st Armored Div may have had a chance against one panzer division, but not two. Realizing he is being outflanked by Rommel whose advance is heading toward Philippeville, about 18 miles from the Dinant crossing point, Bruneau orders his entire division to pull back to the Mettet-Florennes line. Bruneau's division may have knocked out as many as 100 panzers, but he suffered heavy losses. Only 50 of the 150 tanks he had in the morning are able to retreat. 2 of the 3 companies of the 'B' tank 37th Battalion have been completely wiped out. The 26th Battalion has only 6 light tanks left. The 28th Battalion has only 3 of its original 36 heavy tanks. Most had run out of gas or had been destroyed by its crew. Only the 25th Battalion remained intact because it had arrived too late to participate. When the 28th Battalion receives the order to fall back to the line Florennes-Mettet, it has only 7 tanks left. Gen Bruneau tries to regroup his decimated forces in the area of Solre-le-Château. His communications are so weak that he has to abandon the attempt. He then orders a general retreat of his armor to Beaumont. The German Panzers, however, have already outflanked the French units and hold many of the points through which they will have to pass. A further 28 tanks are lost in the course of this retreat. By the evening of May 15th nothing is left of the 1st Armored Division. 'It found itself up against the two Panzer divisions that had crossed the Meuse at Dinant,' records Bardies. 'It fought bravely, though outnumbered 2 to 1. It was sacrificed in the hope of stemming the rout, sacrificed entirely in vain, for the rout went on.' Under cover of night, the division withdrews to the French frontier.

Near Vocedée, 3 miles east of Philippeville, Rommel engages briefly with some French tanks. 15 French tanks are captured, some damaged, some intact. Unable to leave a guard to stay with them, the French tanks join the German column. By midday Rommel occupies Philippeville and is pushing on the west to Cerfontain, 6 miles to the southwest. He has broken through Corap's intermediate line before it could be occupied by French troops. The 7th Panzer Div had lost only 15 killed this day in advancing 17 miles, taking 450 prisoners, and knocking out or destroying 75 tanks.

The French hastily put together another group of tanks. This group is hurried to the Sissonne area and christened the 4th Armored Division. Its leader, Col de Gaulle, is summoned to GHQ for his instructions. 'These were communicated to me by the Chief of Staff,' writes de Gaulle. 'They were wide. "The High Command," Gen Doumenc told me, "wishes to establish a defensive front along tha Aisne and the Ailette which will bar the way to Paris. The 6th Army under Gen Touchon, made up of units mustered in the East, will deploy there. With your division, which will operate alone in the Laon area, you must gain enough time for them to take up their positions."'

While the 4th Armored Division prepares to carry out this mission, other units that had been unable to take up their positions during May 14th enter the cauldron. It is under these conditions that Gen Touchon strives to plug the gap with his 6th Army. His main orders are to resist at all costs along the line Rocroi-Lèprou-les-Vallére-Sig;ny l'Abbaye-Poix-Terron: the second line of defense.

'The tragedy was,' writes Col de Bardies, 'that we did not know to which units this order applied. Those fleeing from the first line of defense were in no condition to carry it out. We needed orgainzed units from behind the front. But of all the reinforcements announced by GHQ only the 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry, was in position. At about 12:30pm it ran into a column of 200 tanks near Poix-Terron. It was held up and encircled; at nightfall it finally managed to disengage after losing all its 25-mm guns and a third of its men but destroying some 20 tanks... '

With the consent of GHQ, Gen Touchon decides to re-form his forces along the Aisne.

Meanwhile Guderian's and Reinhardt's panzer divisions continue their movementt toward the sea. At 8pm they are near Montcornet, 22 miles from Laon. As the crow flies, the breach in the flank of the French armies is now measured at 44 miles. It stretches from Maubeuge to Château-Porcien. There is now nothing left to stem the advance of the German columns. 'Looking back towards the east from a hilltop,' writes Rommel, 'I observed innumerable columns of dust rising as far as the eye could see in its gathering darkness, encouraging signs that the advance of our armor into conquered territory had begun.'

With Guderian's two panzer divisions heading west, Corap's right wing becomes endangered. He has no armor, only a 'B' division in reserve, the 53rd Infantry, and the 3rd Spahi Brigade which is already weak from combat in the Ardennes. These are all he has to defend the gap left by the withdrawal of Huntziger's left flank. The brigade is in a strong defensive position around the village of La Horgne, 5 miles west of the Ardennes Canal. Early in the day it is attacked by Balck's 1st Panzer Regiment. The fight is ferocious and the German advance is held for several hours. A frontal attack by 1st Panzer's 3rd Battalion fails, then a flanking maneuver is tried with the 2nd Battalion which runs into the surprised staff of Spahi's 2nd Regiment. The commanding officer is killed and the rest captured. Then a combined frontal and flank attack on La Horgne with tanks finally breaks the French resistance around 6pm. The Spahis suffer 27 officer and 610 men killed. The 1st Panzer Regiment continues its westward advance reaching Bouvellemont about twilight. They then run into elements of the French 14th Infantry Div under Gen Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. Capture of this town would cut off the French forces in the neighboring village of Chagny and also shatter the last line of French defenses behind the Meuse. With support from 1st's artillery battalion, the storm the village and after vigorous house-to-house fighting, capture it. During night the French troops in Chagny, realizing their situation is hopeless, withdraw toward Rethel. To the north the 2nd Panzer Div smashes through the 53rd Infantry Div without much difficulty. Its reconnaissance units make contact with Reinhardt's panzers at Montcornet, 40 miles west of Sedan. The German bridgehead, which 24 hours earlier were 3 isolated bulges, now formed one continuous pocket 62 miles wide with no bottom. For the panzers now there are virtually no obstacles between them and the English Channel.

De Gaulle arrives in Laon area where he is supposed to gain time for Gen Touchon to establish a defensive front and block the way to Paris. De Gaulle is supposed to have two battalions of 60 31-ton 'B' tanks and two battalions of 80 12.5-ton Renault tnaks, one rifle battalion, and two groups of artillery with 75mm guns. Upon arrival all he finds are a number of French troops from several different units. He has no idea when his units would arrive.

Gen Gamelin is overwhelmed by the reports reaching him from all sectors of the front. At 8:30pm, at his GHQ in Vinciennes, he telephones M. Daladier, the Minister of National Defense, to inform him of the gravity of the situation