The Panzer troops took the lead in the advance through the Maginot Line and motored through. Engineers blew up bunkers while Panzer guns sprayed areas thought to conceal French troops.

They broke through the line and past French villages. Resistance crumbled. 'Every road out of Avesnes was crowded with refugees, carts, cars mingled together with the fleeing forces of the French army. The chaos was indescribable." Rommel wrote. His total prisoner count now totaled two divisions.

By now his supplies and communications line had been greatly extended and Rommel's superiors were out of touch with him. He had seized his objective and since he was out of touch with Army Group A's Headquarters he was unable to receive new orders. Therefore he took the initative and decided to press on to Landrecies and seize a crossing over the Sambre river.

Meanwhile a French tank battalion was moving into Avesnes, temporarily cutting 7th Panzer division's supply line. Rommel sent his Nazi adjutant, Hanke, to clear up the situation.

Just when Rommel set off for Landrecies he learned that Hanke had dealt with the French tanks. When Rommel arrived at Landrecies he found the bridge unblown and large numbers of French anxious to surrender. Rommel ordered Hanke to gather the Frenchmen and return to the east. Rommel continued his advance, thinking the 7 Panzer was invincible. Rommel was like a racehorse that needs a challenge to set any real pace.

When he arrived at le Cateau he realized he only had the leading Panzer battalion with him, so he must bring up more of his force, or at least find where they were! Ordering the leading battalion to stand fast, he headed back towards Avesnes. He directed the laggers like a traffic policeman and at 4 o'clock the rest of the division arrived at Landrecies

He continued to advance towards Cambrai. On 17 May Rommel won the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross.

Rommel had a reputation for chivalry, for treating prisoners with respect and decency, and also for feeling decency towards them. Prisoners were killed by armies on the Eastern Front, but Rommel felt such things were repugnant.

Since crossing the German Frontier on May 10, eight days before, Rommel's forces had advanced an incredible 175 miles and captured over 10,000 French prisoners. It had destroyed over 300 tanks, 30 armored cars and 20 guns, all for the low cost of only 35 men killed and 59 wounded.

Hoth thought that 7 Panzer needed more time for rest, but Rommel objected, thinking it wrong that the enemy should not have remission. "Pursuit should be to the last breath of man and beast", ran the old Prussian maxim.

One hour after midnight on May 19-20 May, Rommel set off by moonlight to Arras.

BATTLE OF ARRAS
Rommel was leading the advance of the 25th Panzer Regiment towards the small British garrison at Arras. Irritated by the often sluggish movement of his rifle regiments he drove back many times and sped up their advance. When he was reunited with the 25th Panzer in the afternoon of 21 May he found it was under heavy fire from British heavy Matilda tanks. In tank-to-tank combat, the British lost seven Matilda's in comparison to the 9 Mark III and IVs. During that battle Rommel lost his aide-de-camp, killed at his side, as well as over 400 men, more than in the entire advance across Northern France. However the British counterattack had been spent and Rommel wrote home that the war in France would be over in a fortnight.

On 24 May Hitler gave the order to halt. The counter-attack at Arras had made Hitler nervous and he switched to the defensive. Rommel showed no disappointed with the 'Halt' order, and was glad to give his division two days rest. On the 26th May, Lieutenant Hanke awarded Rommel the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, on behalf of the Fuhrer.

On the evening of 26 May, Rommel set off for the next phase of the campaign; A northward attack across the la Bassee canal to complete the encirclement of Lille.

Rommel again took personal command when he found British snipers active as the crossing point of the Canal. He directed fire from a tank and anti-aircraft guns from a railway embankment, in open view of the enemy, careless of danger. He directed fire at every house on the other side of the canal, silencing the snipers.

He had the 5th Panzer brigade transferred to his command and completed the crossing of the canal. Thereafter Rommel's advance met a great deal of opposition and he was unable to give personal orders to regiments because of the terrain.

The 25th Panzer had been surrounded and cut off from supplies and Rommel resupplied the regiment.

On 28 May Rommel organized a siege of Lille. The French defenders finally surrendered on June 1 with honors of war.

In the campaign so far Rommel had captured over 7000 POWS, had captured a considerable number of tanks and had knocked out over 300, including 18 'heavies'. A copy of 7 Panzer's report was sent to Hitler and during the Fuhrer's visit to the troops on June 3, Rommel was asked to personally accompany Hitler for the rest of the day, the only divisional commander to do so.

'We were all very worried about you!' Hitler remarked on his visit, referring the exploits of the 7 Gespensterdivision (Ghost) Division. England withdrew its forces on June 3. Rommel thought that it was necessary for a friendly peace between Germany and France.

Rommel felt no hatred towards the French and even less towards the British.

After the great campaign against France, for Rommel and most patriotic Germans the sun was shining over Germany.

On 5 June, 1940, Rommel crossed the Somme. The second phase of the campaign, the mopping up of French forces, showed Rommel at his more cautious side. The French fought fiercely, although Rommel wrote that many of the prisoners taken were drunk.

On 6 June Rommel implemented an Flachenmarcsh -area march. The division would form up in a rectangular box and move across country, bypassing villages and main roads; firing on woods or other places which might be harboring the enemy. This advance was more slow but the enemy was well entrenched.

General Hoth's eyes were on the Seine Estuary. There were villages near the Seine, clearly not an area for an Flachenmarcsh. There Rommel ran into parties of British. The French inhabitants of Elbuef , a village on the Seine, were confused and terrified. An elderly woman grabbed Rommel's arm and asked if he was British. She was shaken by his reply. There was complete confusion, the streets were crowded with men and machines. The motorcycle battalion that Rommel asked to take the two bridges over the Seine had not shown sufficient energy to take the bridges. Rommel furiously ordered them to attack the bridges. He was rewarded by the blowing of both the bridges by the enemy. In Rommel's sector, at least, the Germans were halted on the Seine.

On 10 June Rommel received orders to attack and hold le Havre to block the allied retreat. He advanced joyously. His men were extremely elated at finally being on the rim of Europe. Since forcing the Somme canals, Rommel drove himself ruthlessly, always being on the move, day and night. Rommel knew his men were tired after the last month's advance and that they were starting to slacken off.

An example of this was when he was with three Panzers. A lone French anti-tank gun opened fire and hit the leading tank. The tank commander abandoned the tank, while the two others drove off the road, leaving Rommel's command car in the line of fire. Rommel directed fire from the two undamaged tanks and silenced the French gun. Rommel then told the tank commander what he thought of his performance and told him to straighten up his effort.

ST VALERY
The British and French defensive position at St Valery received heavy fire from Rommel's forces. The city was in flames but the enemy refused to surrender. Rommel sighted a transport trying to evacuate men. Rommel directed fire on the ship and sank it. With their only option being surrender, French and British prisoners came from everywhere. North and East of the Seine, the war was over. Rommel's men gave a concert on the promenade of Fecamp.

Rommel's next task was to take Cherbourg. He organized a heavy bombardment and on 5 pm 19 June the garrison at Cherbourg surrendered.

Rommel won a great name for himself, as well the Gespensterdivision . His exploits were the material of publicity. He kept a photographic record of his campaign. Rommel's methods raised the eyebrows of the high command on two counts: 

1) He ignored regulations and irritated his superiors. Some people say he was an individualist, others say an egomaniac and ungenerous about others.

2) He believed that a commander needed to be at the tip of the spear, so to speak. His critics blamed him for failure to utilize the chain of command, of failure to be in the headquarters, overlooking his whole command.

Rommel was a difficult man to serve, he could only command in the way he knew how.

On the award of the Knight's Cross Rommel expressed his thanks and reminded his men of their achievements "Dinant-Avesnes-Le Cateau-Cambrai-Arras-Lille-Somme-Rouen-Fecamp-St Valery: will remain proud memories for all the soldiers of the division throughout their lives."

Rommel's name was now known. Joseph Goebel's diaries revealed that he had made a hero out of him:- "A soldiers' soldier."

NORTH AFRICA
While Rommel was pressing across Northern France Germany's ally, Italy, had invaded North Africa. Landing through Libya, the Italian army pressed east towards Egypt. They advanced 50 miles into Egypt before they were stopped and forced back by the Imperial Western Desert Force under General O'Connor. Hitler became surprised and disturbed, this interfered with his Plan Orient:- One army would invade north into Russia from the Middle East, while another army would invade south through the Caucasus. He therefore proposed to reinforce the routed Italian army with one Panzer division and one light division. The leader of these forces would be one Erwin Rommel. No decision would have such a profound effect on Rommel's destiny.

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