In compliance with orders received the night before, the 7th Panzer Division gets ready to strike toward the channel. At 5am Rommel writes his wife:

Soon we shall reach the sea between the Somme and the Seine. I am in excellent shape, though always on the go. Our successes are extraordinary and it seems inevitable that the other side will crack soon. We had never imagined that the war in the west would turn out like this.

At 7:30am Rommel drives to Barentin, the rallying-pont for his division. At 9:30am, after refuelling, the division moves toward Yvetot. Rommel writes:

At 10:30am, when the Panzer regiment came in sight of Yvetot, I launched the reconnaissance battalion against the crossroads two miles west of Ourville, the regiment following close behind along the same road. I posted my signals team immediately behind the first tanks. All the other units in the division were ordered by radio to advance rapidly. There were now two columns moving along the road, occasionally abreast, the tanks on the left and the reconnaissance battalion on the right. Wherever the lie of the land permitted, the tanks drove along beside the road. The entire division was heading for the sea at an average speed of 25-40 mph.

Shortly afterwards the division ran into the rearguard of the French 31st Division, due to embark at Fécamp that afternoon, There was a sprinkling of British among them. This column was soon broken... Accompanied by my signals team, I set out ahead of the regiment via Les Petites Dalles (10 miles east of Fécamp and 6 miles west of Veulettes), heading for the coast.

The sight of the sea, lined with cliffs on either side, enraptured us - as did the thought of reaching the French Coastline. We dismounted and walked across the shingly beach to the water's edge till the waves were breaking over our boots. Several dipatch riders in long raincoats walked on in this way till the water came up to their knees. I had to call them back. Behind us Col Rothenburg, arriving in his staff car, drove down the bank and on as far as the water. We had fulfilled our mission and barred the enemy's way to Le Havre and Fécamp.

In the afternoon the 7th Panzer Division captures Fécamp, after silencing the coastal batteries and shelling some Allied warships that had been lying offshore. Several of the ships are hit. The panzer division then drives down the coast toward Tourville, arriving there at 1pm. Then Rommel returns to Veulettes, where he has set up his divisional headquarters. He gets back there at 3am, having covered 60 miles since leaving Barentin.

However spectacular this dash, it is by no means the most dramatic event of the day. For the battle's center of gravity no longer lies in the Lower Seine area, but in Champagne, where von Rundstedt's Army Group has returned to the attack, with even greater intensity, at 6:30am.

In the early hours an extremely powerful panzer force belonging to Guderian's Panzer Group pours out of the Château-Porecien-Rethel front and sweeps beyond the Retourne, while another column, setting out from the Attigny area, loses no time in reaching Vouzziers. In the Champagne plain, devoid of natural obstacles, the tanks maneuver at will and it seems as though nothing can now impede their advance.

Meanwhile Buisson's Group, consisting of the 3rd Armored Division, the 7th Light Mechanized Division and the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division, is ordered to counterattack toward Château-Porcien, on the flank for the enemy pocket. The 3rd Armored Division and the 7th Light Mechanized Division had moved up overnight. The 3rd Motorized Infantry Division, however, had been left a long way behind, for it is having to cover the distance on foot. It will arrive too late to play any part in the counterattack.

In the morning the tank units, which had been heavily reduced in strength owing to a loan of a battalion of tanks to the 7th Light Mechanized Division, muster at their starting base and vainly mark time in anticipation of the preliminary bombardment. The bombardment does not take place. The surprise element is lost, for in the meantime the attack force had been spotted by the Luftwaffe. The Germans therefore had time to set up a formidable anti-tank defense and to advance a powerful force of heavy tanks beyond the Retourne.

When the attack is finally launched in the afternoon, the fighting is very fierce, costly on both sides but hopelessly unequal. After an initial success the French units are beaten back and dispersed. 'Here, as at Dinant and Sedan,' writes Gen Roton, 'our large mechainzed units were not given the opportunity to make full use of their shock-potential.'

While these operations were going on in the 4th Army sector, Touchon's 6th Army is also in a critical position. The Ourcq front, held by exhaused divisions, has been forced by a massive tank attack, and the enemy spearhead reaches the Marne at Château-Thierry and Jaulgonne. This advance compels the 6th Army to disengage.

Disengagement of the 6th Army means withdrawal for the 4th, which has been left very much 'in the air' south of the Aisne. The French High Command is thereby faced with a really intricate problem. To resolve it, Gen Georges places the 6th Army under the orders of the No. 4 Group of Armies (Huntziger). In his Personal and Secret Instruction No 115 he specifies the maneuver with which the two armies are to link up:

The 6th Army will block the Fismes-Rheims road as long as possible to allow the left of the 4th Army to dig in along the Saint-Thierry-Brimont range (in front of Rheims).

On the Marne, the 4th Group of Armies will have to re-establish itself with its left flank at Damery bridge.