Command Post General Lafontaine

South of Sedan, near the town of Bulson, lay in the woods the command post of General Lafontaine, commander of the 55th Infantry Division. According to plan, that division should have stopped the German advance in France with a counter-attack. There was time enough for that. On 13 May, the German infantry had crossed the Meuse at Sedan. At that time the German tanks had not yet crossed the river. The French, however, thought otherwise. The unprecedented speed with which the German soldiers of the panzer divisions crossed the Ardennes led to disbelief among the French, who reckoned with outdated time-space factors. The French proved that fear is a bad advisor: on May 13, early in the evening, an officer of an artillery unit near Bulson reported German tanks (which he could not possibly have seen). Although the report was incorrect, it fueled French fears that the Germans would show up in countless places. Panic therefore took hold of both the 55th and parts of the 71st Division. The mental component of the military capability was broken, the French fled, sometimes as far as 100 kilometers away. A collective 'Panzerkampfwagen fear' took away the will of the French to fight, even before they had looked their opponent in the eye. The rest of the history is known. On June 22, France signed the armistice.

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