In the course of June 17th the troops had received two conflicting orders. On the one hand they were not to fight in centers of more than 20,000 inhabitants; on the other, they were not to stop fighting anywhere else until the armistice was signed. These instructions are hard to reconcile and do not make for unity of defense. Yet, almost everywhere, they are scrupulously observed.

In the west the battle for Cherbourg begins. Gen J. H. Marshall-Cornwall, commander of the British forces, gives the following account:

In order to protect the embarkation at Cherbourg, I had asked for a fresh battalion of the 52nd Div to be left to occupy a covering position some 20 miles to the south. This, combined with the 5 French battalions of the Cherbourg garrison, ought to have provided amble security, and I had hoped to continue the embarkation until the 21st in order to remove all the stores and mechanized vehicles. The enemy, however, again upset our calculations by the speed with which he followed up our rapid withdrawal. At 9am on the 18th, a column of 60 lorries, carrying motorized German infantry, reached the covering position near Saint-Sauveur. Finding resistance there, they turned west to the sector held by French troops, and succeeded in penetrating the position by the coast road. The French made little attempt to resist, and I had to make the decision at 11:30 to complete the evacuation by 3pm. The covering battalion (5th Bn K.O.S.B.) was withdrawn between 12 noon and 3pm and the last boat left at 4pm. All weapons were removed, except one 3.7-inch AA gun, which broke down and was rendered unserviceable, and 1 statis Bofors gun which could not be removed in the time. 2 anti-tank guns also had to be abandoned during the withdrawal. When the last troopship left, the Germans had penetrated to within 3 miles of the harbor.

And here is Rommel's description:

At dawn the Commander of the 7th Panzer Div drove to the positions held the night before, outside Denneville, 25 miles south of Cherbourg. The attack was launched at 8am in the face of gunfire from a handful of French sailors... The battery was not silenced till 10am, after 2 hours' intensive shelling by the division's artillery and AA guns. Whereupon the division continued on its way to Cherbourg, via Barneville and Les Pieux - but more slowly this time./

At 9pm the Germans launch their attack on Querqueville.

Examining the spot and its surroundings, my scout had discovered a position from which we could observe the naval harbor from within a mile and a quarter. As day broke we picked out the defensive works on the quays and breakwaters, and the harbor itself, where only a few small vessels were now at anchor. Otherwise the roadstead was empty: the British had presumably left...

Farther south the other units of Hoth's Panzer Corps have had no diffuculty in breaking through the very thin line sealing off the Brittany peninsula. They sweep onward to Rennes, where they capture several generals, including René Altmayer. The only forces to escape capture are the III Army Corps and the Cavalry Corps, which now amalgamate under Gen de la Laurencie. These withdraw to the Lower Loire, digging in on the left of the Paris Army under Gen Héring.

Along the Loire the Germans have established a further bridgehead at Briare and now line the river from Gien to Digoin. Farther east, forward elements of von Kleist's Panzer group have encircled Moulins and are heading for Vichy and Roanne, after occupying the industrial center of Le Creusot. Gen Besson, Commander of the 3rd Group of Armies, is alarmed by this growing threat from the rear and gives orders for the withdrawal to the Cher to be begun that night.

In the Rhône vallley the German motorized divisions are beyond Macon. They are now advancing rapidly on Lyons.

Still farther east the 1st Panzer Division is storming Belfort. Guderian personally leads the attack against those forts that refused to surrender, capturing them one by one. Meanwhile, on his left, the 2nd, 6th and 9th Panzer Divisions cross the Meuse from north to south, between Remiremont and Charmes.

The most critical area is in the triangle held by the 2nd Group of Armies. The French units are packed tight in an area bordered to the north by Château-Salins, the Sarrebourg Canal and the Vosges passes, which are being bitterly defended along the Upper Moselle as far as Épinal. Three corps belonging to Condé's 3rd Army that have been ordered to fight their way out southward are trapped between the Épinal-Tool reach of the Moselle and the Neufchâtrau-Void reach of the Meuse. South of this sector the units entrusted to Gen Dailley likewise fail to break free. The encirclement of the 2nd Group of Armies is now complete. There can be no hope of escape.

Activity in and round the seaports is growing ever more intensive. The following Admiralty order is put into effect:

To All Authorities

5025/5026

Premier reminds all servicemen that no armistice had yet been concluded and that it is their duty to continue resisting to the utmost.

No warship must fall into enemy hands intact. In case of need, the rallying point for any warship or aircraft is North Africa.

Any warship or aircraft having difficulty in getting there and in danger of falling into enemy hands is to be destroyed or scuttled on orders from higher authority.

These instructions are carried out with perfect discipline.

In Brest the 35,000-ton battleship Richelieu, which has just completed its trials, puts to sea under Capt Marzin. It is preceded and followed by 80 vessels, the force being commanded by Adm Moreau.

In Saint-Nazaire the battleship Jean Bart is still unfinished. Port-Capt Ronarc'h(?) successfully urges the shipbuilders to put every ounce of energy into their work.

Now that all possible precautions have been taken, the remaining units either scuttle or flee. Sloops and patrol-ships unable to head out to sea are scuttled at Lorient on June 19th, after the heroic defense of the port by Adm de Penfentenyo; and the same thing happens at La Pallice on June 22nd and at Le Verdon on June 24th. In other words, vessels are scuttled just as soon as German forces reach the outskirts of these ports.

The French Mediterranean Fleet is in a less vulnerable position. All the same, the commander of the Toulon Squadron, Vice-Adm Doplat, issues strict instructions as to when and how vessels are to be scuttled.

In these circumstances, was it fair for Churchill to write 8 years later that in those tragic days no French warship stirred? 'History is there to answer that not a single undamaged unit of the French fleet was captured in our Atlantic ports,' writes Varillon.

That is not all, however. For once the ships had been scuttled, the harbor installations are also destroyed. In Cherbourg, the arsenal is blown up. In Brest, Lorient and La Rochelle, oil reservoirs, magazines, ammunition dumps, workshops, office-blocks, quays, docks - all are ablaze, sending up thunderous roars and blotting out the sky with giant plumes of smoke.

The work of demolition is carried so far that local civilians grow alarmed. What was the point of blowing up bridges, scuttling ships and wrecking fleets of trucks when, in a matter of days, France will be in desperate need of these things? Mayors and deputies begin to rail against the inflexibility of military orders, which are a permanent danger to their towns. In these closing days of the battle, a struggle develops, not between the army and the enemy, but between municipalities and service headquarters, the former seeking to save as much as they can, the latter intent on complying rigidly with their instructions to take all possible steps to impede the enemy's advance.