The Need for Organisational Resilience - Chapter 3

Infantry crossing the river Meuse. (BArch, n.d.)

Machine-gun fire from well camouflaged positions shot down the first teams. The

remaining infantry took cover, but casualties mounted under the incessant fire of machine-

guns and artillery. Gradually, some bunkers on the left bank were identified and tank-fire

poured into their viewing ports until they were silenced.

A few flimsy dinghies, the main means of crossing the Meuse, were carried away and

entangled in the remains of a demolished bridge. Frantically, more dinghies and wooden

planks were rushed forward to improvise a footbridge. The remnants of a rifle battalion made

it across until midnight. They dug in to establish a pitifully small bridgehead. Owing to the

unrelenting fire from the heights overlooking Monthermé, there was little chance to get

heavier equipment across the Meuse the next morning.

In the north of the push towards the Meuse, sheer luck played into the hands of the

Germans. In the afternoon of the 12th, a forward unit of General Rommel’s 7th Panzer (as

part of Hoth’s XV Panzer Corps) took a foothold on the west bank of the Meuse at Houx, to

the north of Dinant. To their utter surprise they discovered an ancient weir that connected to

a very small island midstream. Under the cover of nightfall, they attempted to cross. The

French guns remained silent, oblivious to the idea that, three days after the beginning of the

campaign, German units might cross the Meuse in the very spot they were trying to defend.

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