Bismarck
06:00 hrs on 24th May, 1940. Bismarck, in the company of Prinz Eugen, opens fire with her forward 15-in guns on the Hood and the Prince of Wales. Within seconds Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy was hit and blown apart in circumstances that remain controversial today.

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Cruiser Tank Mk.IV
Cruiser tank “Agility”, commanded by Sgt. Ron Huggins of the 10th Royal Hussars, 2nd Armoured Brigade, faces the enemy at Huppy, France, May 27, 1940. This battle was fairly typical of the BEF's involvement in the Battle of France. In short, a disaster. The operation was due to start at 10am in the morning. Target: the German positions at Huppy. French artillery support was to start firing at 10am. A communications breakdown left the tanks with no idea what time to attack. At 5am, the 10th Royal Hussars and the Queens Bay advanced. B and C squadrons of the 10th Royal Hussars ran into a wall of anti-tank fire that hit them hard. The reserve A squadron advanced to try to outflank the German position and they were also decimated. Without artillery support, the attack was easily repulsed.

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8,8cm FlaK 18, 36, and 37
France, May 21, 1940. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) struck south across the neck of the German spearhead that had reached so far into France. Surprised by this ferocious British counterattack south of Arras, German forces stopped and then retreated. The heavily-armored Matilda I and II tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment threatened Rommel’s armored columns, shrugging off attacks from German Panzers and light anti-tank guns, but finally ran up against the waiting 88 mm FlaK guns of 23 FlaK Regiment, 7. Panzer-Division. 

The BEF attack faltered against the deadly accuracy and hitting power of the 88s, and the surviving Matilda's withdrew. With their failure died all hope of an Allied reprieve.

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Junkers 52/3m
Holland, May 10th 1940. Junkers Ju 52/3m transports of III.Gruppe of KGzbV1 begin dropping paratroopers of 7.Flieger-Division on Waalhaven airfield to the south of Rotterdam. These paratroops succesfully secured the airfield enabling further transports to land and disembark further troops totalling 3,700 by the end of day.

However, this operation cost the Transportverband dearly. In the five-day Netherlands campaign, the Luftwaffe lost more than 167 Ju 52s destroyed, and as many again severely damaged - greater than fifty percent of the total transport force deployed. Some experts believe that this loss had far reaching consequences on the ability of the Luftwaffe to supply the troops of the Wehrmacht in places such as Africa and Russia.

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Panzer III
May 20th 1940. A PzKpfw III of the 4. Panzer-Division advances firing into a French town near Arras.

In the rush to the sea, the fast, mobile panzers kept one step ahead of desperate French and British attempts to hold them at bay. In just a few days, the panzers reached the English Channel, trapping the northern Allied forces between two German armies.

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HMS Jaguar
HMS Jaguar (captained by Lt Cdr J F W Hine, RN), during the evacuation from Dunkirk. After evacuating 700 troops on the 28th May 1940 HMS Jaguar was returning to pick up more when, at 11:55 am on the 29th May, she was attacked by 17 dive-bombers. She damaged one, which was later finished off by a fighter.

She was attacked again at 3pm and holed near the waterline by a near miss, putting her engines and steering out of action. After some time under tow repairs were effected and she reached port under her own power. One DSC, two DSMs and 12 Mentioned in Despatches were awarded to the ship for this action

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Opel Blitz
May 14th 1940. Keeping pace with the Panzers, an Opel Blitz of 1.Panzer-division braves harassing French Artillery and sporadic air attack to cross a pontoon bridge at Sedan.

The Germans had improved the science of logistics to unthought of levels. Vital in the concept of Blitzkrieg, the supply convoys kept the spearheads moving, whilst the allied armies disintegrated under air and ground attack.

As the armoured columns punched through the French and British forces, the supply of food, fuel, spares, and equipment followed close behind.

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Bristol Blenheim
A Bristol Blenheim Mk IV of No.139 (Jamaica) Squadron. This squadron had flown the first RAF operation of WWII when they photographed the German Fleet at Wilhelmshaven.

On the 12th of May 1940, nine 139 Squadron Blenheims made a desperate attack on the Maastricht bridges in Belgium in an attempt to halt the German advance. Seven out of nine were shot down.

The attacks, despite immense and almost suicidal bravery by the British crews, did not hold up the Panzers. May 1940 saw the highest loss rates ever suffered by the RAF in their history.

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