Wonderful Herr General. Press on now toward Amiens.

Leading 1st Panzer's assault, Grossdeutschland crossed near Gaulier just after 3pm. Reaching the west bank, small groups of infantry pressed into the gaps between pillboxes, discovering few French interval troops. The more stubborn pillboxes were destroyed by Sturmpioneren attacking from the rear with explosives. The chaos in French lines and direct disobedience to orders only exacerbated the slowness of response of an army reacting at the speed of French warfare. The counterattack went in five-and-a-half hours late, with only half its allocated forces; the alarm it caused among the Germans suggests an earlier, stronger attack by the French could have had a dramatic effect. The French were slow to exploit an initial advantage and at 8:30 were struck by 1st Panzer, which destroyed half 7th Tank Battalion's obsolete tanks retaking Chemery. This failure meant the dissolution of 55th and 71st divisions, which by noon were panic-stricken mobs. Similarly Allied air forces made their efforts late - throughout May 14th, pilots fought with great courage to destroy the pontoon bridge at Gaulier. Their delay had allowed XIX Panzer Korps to erect 200 flak guns and the Luftwaffe was able to bring about 800 machines into the air. The Allies launched twenty-seven piecemeal attacks and lost ninety planes, but to no avail. The bridge remained intact. The battle of Sedan was, in effect, over.
