Battle of Sedan (1940) 1940
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 13 May 1940 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1940 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Battle of France, World War II | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United Kingdom | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 49.7025, 4.9425 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Sedan or Second Battle of Sedan (12–15 May 1940) took place in World War II during the Battle of France in 1940. It was part of the German Wehrmacht's operational plan codenamed Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) for an offensive through the hilly and forested Ardennes to encircle the Allied armies in Belgium and north-eastern France. German Army Group A crossed the Meuse with the intention of capturing Sedan and pushing westwards towards the Channel coast, to trap the Allied forces that were advancing east into Belgium as part of the Allied Dyle Plan.
Sedan is situated on the east bank of the Meuse. Its capture gave the Germans a base from which to take the Meuse bridges and cross the river. They then advanced across the open and undefended French countryside to the English Channel. On 12 May, Sedan was captured without resistance and the Germans defeated the French defences around Sedan on the west bank of the Meuse. German Luftwaffe bombing and low morale prevented the French defenders from destroying the bridgeheads. On 14 May, the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the French Armée de l'Air jointly tried to destroy the bridgeheads, but the Luftwaffe prevented them from doing so.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Sedan (1940) (revision 1374299113), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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