June 27, 2023 - France
Stonne

On a pretty day, we drove out to the Point de vue de la Marfée  -- the Marfee overlook.  The Marfee Massif is south of Sedan.  It's commanding heights make it military significant as it was in 1870 and 1940.

Here looking north, with Sedan in the distance and the Ardennes Forest beyond.
   
The view is a little better from an observation tower.
   
Now looking east.
   
We continued further south to Stonne village.
 
Guderian's decided to feint south towards and behind the Maginot Line, to mask the intention to thrust to the channel. He ordered the 10th Panzer Division and Großdeutschland Infantry Regiment to attack across the Stonne plateau. In this innocuous town, a vicious two-day battle took place in which the Germans came face to face with the premier French tank, the Char B1-Bis, for the only time. One of these tanks, commanded by Pierre Billotte, proved invulnerable to German anti-tank fire and took 140 hits, and knocked out 13 German tanks (two Panzer IV and eleven Panzer III) and a number of anti-tank guns. It transpired that the French had concentrated their own armour there to mount another attack on the Sedan bridgeheads. Stonne changed hands 17 times in two days of intense fighting on 15-16 May.  Ultimately the failure of the French to hold it meant the final failure to eliminate the Sedan bridgeheads.
 
A German officer later recalled: "There are three battles I can never forget:  Stonne, Stalingrad, and Monte Cassino."
 
There's only one way to get to Stonne, a narrow winding road up a hill.  It was a tough village to capture, and then defend.
 
Battle Map by Rr016 - Own work
   

A French Char B1 Bis heavy tank sits in the center of Stonne village.
   

Notice that the Char B1 Bis has two guns:  a 75 mm  gun in the hull on the left side; and a 47 mm gun in the a turret.  Among the most powerfully armed and armoured tanks of its day, the Char B1 Bis was very effective in direct confrontations with German armour in 1940 during the Battle of France, but low speed and high fuel consumption made it ill-adapted to the war of movement then being fought.

At Stonne, the Char B1Bis tanks of the 3rd Division Cuirassée played a key role in delaying the advance of the 10th Panzer Division for two days.
   
A monument to the 1940 Battle of Stonne.
   
No English translation here.
   
A future museum?
   
We hiked a trail to an overlook.  Along the way we came across this French post-WWII tank.
   
Lynnette on the observation tower near Stonne.
   
Overlooking the pretty French country-side.
   
 
   
Previous
Home
Next