The crucial question of armoured divisions initiated by Colonel de Gaulle in 1934 has overshadowed a major element of the development of the French Army during the period of rearmament: indeed, France had, prior to the war, light mechanised divisions (DLM) who had light tanks in name only and who were more or less the French equivalent of the Panzer Divisions, with their 300 armoured vehicles, three dragoon battalions and their 36 guns. 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 sprung on its goal to reach the Netherlands as soon as possible with the Giraud Army. This plan unfortunately failed, 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.
- ISBN10 2352501636
- ISBN13 9782352501633
- Publish Date 1 January 2012
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 30 January 2014
- Publish Country FR
- Imprint Histoire & Collections
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 160
- Language English