During the Blitzkriegs of 1940 in western Europe, were there any major allied victories/German setbacks, or was it just a complete steamrolling as it is often made out to be?

by corqueval
yrotsiH

The Battle of Hannut and Gembloux could maybe be described as French victories on the tactical scale. These battles took place in Belgium to the north of the later decisive breakthrough in the Ardennes. Since the Battle of France was overall a quick and decisive victory for the Wehrmacht it is hard to find operational or even stratigical victories of the allied forces. But during these two battles the German forces met strong resistance of the French and we see pretty much the only big tank on tank engagements of the western front 1940. French tanks and infantry were able to disable a good number of tanks and managed to at least not collapse like the front to the south at Sedan. Iam not sure if this answers your question but these two battles should be worth checking out if you search for good allied performances during the Battle of France.

The Battle of Arras, while beeing a loss put a dent in the German confidence and enabled the Dunkirk success since the Wehrmacht now stopped for a while and showed hesitation. They overestimated the allied capabilities after this battle.

Dunkirk in itself could also be described as major setback for the overall war effort of Nazi Germany, while it sealed the fate of France it was extremly important so safe the british troops, which later would be used to fight in other theaters of war. Losing these troops would have also bin a major blow to the British moral. Germanys mismanagement of Dunkirk was one of the biggest victories of the allied. Since Dunkirk had major implications on the rest of the war you could describe this as a victory on the strategical scale.

Badgerfest

I'll second the opinion of Gembloux as a tactical French victory. Unlike most of Northern Belgium, the Gembloux Gap, between Namur and Wavre, had no major watercourses running perpendicular to the German axis of advance and so was chosen as the Schwerpunkt for Army Group B. Initially shocked by the German concentration of force in the area, a rearguard action by French Divisions Legere Mechanique (DLMs - Light Mechanized Divisions) protected the centre of the French First Army and prevented it from being overrun.

At the time the Somua S-35 tank, with which 1 and 2 DLM were equipped, was superior to the Panzer III and the DLMs were amongst the very best units fielded by any army in Western Europe during 1940. They were undone however by:

  • Poor communications (a problem across the French Army and the BEF);

  • Their doctrine of using tanks for infantry support, as opposed to the German doctrine of using entirely armoured units as a spearhead;

  • Poorly co-ordinated fire support from artillery or aircraft (bad communication again);

  • And, of course, being out-thought at the operational level by Army Group A's advance through the Ardennes to the channel coast.

Gembloux effectively exhausted the DLMs and they had very little influence on the remainder of Fall Gelb.

valereck

There were isolated victories in France during the Blitzkreig, but they were undermined by the complete collapse of the French nation. Only the Battle of Britain could be considered a complete allied victory.