page_title: Battle of Gembloux (1940)
section_title: First Battle of Perbais
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Gembloux (1940) / Battle / First Battle of Perbais
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Panzer des 1. Pz-Rgt. 4. Komp. kommen aus der Deckung, sichern und gehen in Feuerstellung. 22.6.40, 8-8,20 Uhr, Servance,
context_page_description: The Battle of Gembloux was fought between French and German forces in May 1940 during the Second World War. On 10 May 1940, The Nazi German Wehrmacht, invaded Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Belgium under the operational plan Fall Gelb. Allied armies responded with the Dyle Plan, intended to halt the Germans in Belgium, believing it to be the main German thrust. The Allies committed their best and most mobile to an advance into Belgium on 10 May and on 12 May, the Germans began the second part of Fall Gelb, the Manstein Plan an advance through the Ardennes, to reach the English Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium.
  Unaware that the German invasion of the Low Countries was a decoy, the French Army intended to halt the German advance into central Belgium and France on two defensive positions at the towns of Hannut and Gembloux. The French First Army, the most powerful Allied army, was to defend the Gembloux–Wavre axis. The French Corps de Cavalerie, advanced to Hannut, to screen the deployment of the rest of the First Army at Gembloux, by delaying a German advance.
context_section_description: The day was hot and clear. French artillery had fired heavily all night, but the planned Stuka attacks and German artillery preparation went forward from 07:30. At 08:00, the infantry of 4th Panzer Division advanced undisturbed by enemy shelling. At 08:10, riflemen fired white starshell indicating that they had crossed the railroad line, but at 08:20 French artillery engaged the incursion and as the German tanks drove forward, they were pinned down. At 09:30, 36th Panzer Regiment was suffering heavy losses standing before the obstacle, 35th Panzer Regiment similarly at 09:45. When 5th Panzer Brigade headquarters asked why the infantry was not advancing, they were told "attack hopeless". By 10:00, II Battalion of the 12th Rifle Regiment had a company on the railroad line at Gembloux, but the advance was slow and costly and had halted by 11:00. Radio contact with 5th Panzer Brigade was lost and the tanks were milling around before the obstacle and being picked off one by one.
  Meanwhile, infantry of 3rd Panzer Division attacked from Walhain-St.Paul against Perbais at 09:15, but they too stuck fast by 11:00. The war diarist of XVI Corps complained that the tanks of 4th Panzer had joined the fray before the anti-tank obstacle had been cleared. The  corps operations officer of French descent, Chales de Beaulieu, criticised the 3rd Panzer Division for allowing its infantry to bog down while leaving its tanks in reserve.
  The Ju 87s and artillery failed to silence the French guns. Most of the reports of French batteries were too imprecise to be of use. One scout aircraft was hindered in its work by enemy fighters. At 10:30, the heavy artillery battalion had itself to flee French counterbattery fire. By 11:18, the weight of French shelling on approach routes and installations drove the corps artillery commander to conclude that holding gains made and bringing in reinforcements were "gravely threatened". One German source reported that the assault stuck fast on the Wavre-Gembloux road with only one battalion at first reaching the railway, followed immediately by a French tank and infantry counterattack against which German anti-tank guns had little effect. Some of the German anti-tank gun crews fled without even opening fire. However, there is no known French record of French tanks on the field at this point in the battle.
  Oberst Breith led his 5th Panzer Brigade in his command tank, forward with 35th Panzer Regiment. Seeing his attack bog down, Breith had some of his officers leave their machines to rally the riflemen to attack the anti-tank guns. His crew could see anti-tank mines lying unburied on the ground. Some of the French and Moroccans surrendered. An infantry support gun arrived and added its fire. Breith's command vehicle then took two hits, although it was not penetrated. The tank began to move toward Ernage when "a blue flash traversed our vehicle like a thunderbolt." Breith was lightly wounded and the crew bailed out. A light tank which tried to rescue them as in turn hit and the tankers had to seek shelter in shellholes. Captain von Jungenfeld was not far from them and noted that as they reached the railroad line all the heavy vehicles of Fourth Company were destroyed, the tank of Oberstleutnant Eberbach, commander of the regiment, was knocked out. Eberbach told his subordinates "further advance is simply impossible. Our tanks st and before the obstacles the defence fire strikes us mercilessly."
  When the tanks finally began to fall back, the I. Battalion of the 12th Rifle Regiment also withdrew, contrary to orders, forcing staff officers to turn out to stem the retreat. An attempt by 36th Panzer Regiment to exploit a gap in the railroad embankment near Lonzee against the 15th DIM broke down immediately under French fire. The 4th Panzer Division was halted.
  Since 3rd Panzer Division withheld its tank brigade, its battle went rather differently. At dawn on 15 May, Third Battalion, the 3rd Rifle Regiment was to the northeast of Ernage, but its I and II Battalions (to the north and northwest of Ernage respectively) had m
caption: German armour suffered considerably on 15 May.
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