Rommel’s Ghost Division: The Blitzkrieg Neither Side Saw Coming

On the 10th of May 1940 Germany launched Fall Gelb, the Invasion of Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Belgium and France. A key tool for the invasion on the ground was the Panzer Divisions, 10 of which were to be used. One of these, the 7th Panzer, was a new division with a seemingly unknown commander Erwin Rommel.

However they would make their mark in History as The Ghost Division, The Panzer Elite.

All images and footage was from public sources.

A special shout-out to ​⁠@PanzerInsight for some of the footage used, his logo is visible for those materials.

Check out my video on Operation Compass, the Allies First Offensive of North Africa in World War II. https://youtu.be/msDYTvIp-fU

Thank you for watching, be sure to like, comment and share.

My apologies for the inconsistence audio tone, I record whenever I can and not all places have good acoustics. Let me know which sounded the most clear to you so I can try to replicate it for future videos.

spring 1940 Germany invades France and the balux countries near ruen hundreds of kilometers from the German or Belgian border a local French woman sees an armored vehicle and a man in an unfamiliar uniform knowing they are not Frenchmen she goes up to them and asks if they are English to her shock she discovers they are the command vehicle of a German Panzer Division she takes off in Fright surprised since just the day before the fighting was many miles away who were they she wondered well if she stayed and asked she would have gotten reply similar to this bonjour madame I’m commander of the seventh Panzer Division Iran raml the future Desert Fox May 1940 Germany invades France with 10 Panzer divisions one of these divisions was the seventh Panzer Division and it was commanded by General mayor irn raml the seventh Panzer before the invasion of France was a relatively new division formed after the invasion of Poland but during the Battle of France it would get a new name the ghost division first let’s take a look at the division’s commander during the invasion of Poland R was not involved in the fighting being part of the fer big light brigata Hitler’s personal guard after the invasion R requested command of a Panzer Division and Hitler himself granted it this came as a surprise to many in German High command since with his experience in the Romanian and Italian Alps it was thought to give him command of a mountain division on February 17th 1940 he wrote to his wife yodel was flabbergasted at by new posting Alfred yodel was the chief of operations staff of the German Armed Forces high command ok now let’s look at the division during the invasion of Poland it was originally called the second light division with a single Panzer Battalion consisting of Panzer 1 and Panzer 2 tanks during the Polish campaign it fought its way to the outskirts of Warsaw before circling back to the Jura to help stop the Polish counter offensive it returned to Germany and on October 18th it became the seventh Panzer Division its Force now consisted of 218 tanks including some Czech models and Panzer 3s and fours for the invasion of France rl’s 7eventh Panzer Division would be the nucleus of 15th Panzer Corp which was part of the fourth Army it and the fifth Panzer Division were the only Panzer divisions in the entire Army which was one of three in Army group a this was to be the share Punk for The Invasion all while Army Group B would attack through Belgium and the Netherlands in a faint when FAL began rl’s immediate goal was to push through the Belgian border defenses and the D are Den but their main objective was the mighty Muse river which was vital to the whole German strategy from the onset Romo pushed his division hard making for denan Belgian opposition was initially light since much of the Belgian Army was further north to defend the major cities there the belgians would be joined by the bef and some of France’s best units and together would defend from the French Frontier to antp but not the Arden in the Arden the belgians conducted extensive demolitions but few of the obstacles were covered by defensive of fire this gave German Engineers little trouble clearing the obstacles and where they couldn’t be removed they were simply bypassed the seventh Panzer encountered their first serious opposition in the early hours of May 11th at shabrez there a company of Shas ad held off the Germans for hours before being forced to surrender RL would be so impressed by their bravery that he would comment they are not men they are green wolves after overcoming the belgians the seventh Panzer raced towards the orth River and crossed it at three points Beth maku and larush after crossing the or French troops were encountered for the first time at Marche these were elements of the fourth armored car Regiment of the fourth dlcis deav these were under command of Andre corap who spent much of his career in North Africa corp’s Cavalry division was supposed to delay the Germans for 5 days but when the French infantry failed to materialize they were ordered to withdraw after less than three still ral’s men kept advancing and with minimal rest in fact he Advanced so far so fast that he outpaced his neighboring units the 23rd Infantry division to the South and the fifth Panzer Division to the north the next goal for raml and the entire German Army was to cross the mighty Muse River thanks to raml the seventh Panzer not only smashed through the French defenses at denan but they reached the river by the afternoon of the 12th it was critical to capture an intact bridge but contrary to popular belief the French blew the bridges over the river so crossing the Muse was going to be difficult to say the least so far raml enjoyed the blessings of his Superior German general Herman halt who supported aggressive tank spearheads but aald Von K who commanded the whole Panzer Corp opted for his units to rest for the night they would attack in the afternoon the next day when they acquired enough air support RL arrived at the m in an armored car and examined the far bank with field glasses and seeing it was well defended declared it a job for the Infantry his motorized infantry moved up and were firmly in control of the East Bank of the Muse between DIN and who by the time the sun set on the 12th he thought air support would be modest at best and plan to rest just for a brief period of time before attacking at first light he launched his attack on the Western Bank of the Muse which was defended by two French infantry divisions however they had only just arrived after Marching for two straight nights and were exhausted the French resisted fiercely trying to prevent the Germans from crossing the river but the Hasty attack prevented them from putting together enough Force to stop them soldiers from ral’s Seventh motorized Infantry Regiment began to cross the Muse at denan and infantry from his sixth regiment began to cross between Li and H it was at who in fact rather than at sadan that German units first crossed the Muse at roughly 11:30 in the evening on May the 12th a motorcycle Battalion leaving their bikes behind crossed under cover of Darkness utilizing an old Dam connecting a small island to both sides of the River Bank there is some dispute over whether it was the motorcycle Battalion of the seventh or fifth Panzer Division the matter is further confused by the fact that core Commander General Herman halt had temporarily transferred control of elements of the fifth Panzer Division to raml who was making faster progress either way the Germans were very lucky because the dam had not been blown by either the French or the belgians in fear that would lower the river and actually make it affordable in some places but it also should have never been left unguarded as it was the island at who lay right at the boundary of two French core and for a single fatal moment no one was sure who was responsible for its defense the water crossing on the morning of the 13th was made largely by inflated rubber boats French machine gun and artillery fire was intense and it took a heavy toll seeing that the crossing was opposed by heavy fire and lacking a smoke unit ramble wed houses in the Muse Valley to be set on fire to supply the smoke we lacked Romo then saw that while a company-sized bridge head had been formed on the opposite Bank The Crossing equipment had been destroyed by enemy fire and things had come to a halt German tanks and artillery finally began arriving and were used to silence enemy fire up and down the point of Crossing this allowed additional troops to cross and the wounded on the opposite Bank to be retrieved RL then personally took command of the second Battalion of the seventh regiment leading it across the river and linking it up with units already on the opposite Bank French tanks apprach approached and Robble ordered Small Arms fire poured onto the enemy armor and this convinced the French to withdraw on the morning of the 14th the advanced guard of the seventh motorized Infantry Regiment which was part of the seventh Panzer Division reached on 2 mil west of denan the commander of it colonel gor Von bismar announced over the radio that he arrived there but the word for arrive angren was misunderstood for the word Ang which meant encircled or Locked In Radio communication then failed setting off a crisis that rippled all the way up the chain of command Gunther von kuga the Army Commander spoke of an Ona crisis and diverted units to its direction Romo immediately organized all the tanks then available on the West Bank of the Muse to rush to Von bismar Aid the attack was led by Colonel Carl ruthenberg commander of the 25th Panzer regiment with roml following close behind in a Panzer 3 so close that rl’s tank came under Fire from French guns suffering two hits attempting to escape the tank sled down a steep embankment where it became immobilized bailed out with the crew and escaped with only a gash on his chin it was a close call and it would not be the last time rl’s life would be in danger an attack launch that evening reestablished contact with Von bismar ending the so-called crisis for the Germans at least for rl’s sector for the French army the crisis was only beginning during the 13th and the 14th all three German Panzer Corps formed Bridge heads on the western side of the Muse though gayor Hans Reinhardt at monter was encountering stiff resistance while Hines gadarian at sedan was only marginally better it was at this fateful moment on the 15th of May that corra ordered a withdrawal of his ninth Army West to a new line it also didn’t help that at sedon French General Charles hooder pulled back his units when they were doing their job of holding off Garian spearhead this allowed both Reinhardt and Garian to pour out of their Bridge heads through and around the slow reacting French units and into Open Country the French line now had a breach 60 Mi wide with nothing to plug the Gap opposite Holt’s 15th core corp’s new line lay 15 Mi west of where rl’s division had breached the Muse before the new line could be occupied however it was penetrated by the 25th Panzer regiment rl’s panzers now with Lua support Were Striking deep into the rear of the French ninth Army and prevented any Counterattack toward denan by the newly ride French armored unit the first DCR that’s division car rapid the French first DCR seemed to be at a disadvantage with 150 tanks to almost 218 but more than half were heavy Shar B1 tanks and it outclassed any anything in the German inventory but a big disadvantage of the shb1 and the Samoa tanks was that a single person had to load aim and fire the turret gun and the 75 mm Howitzer was Hall mounted so in order to aim it the whole tank had to be redirected meanwhile inside a German tank multiple crewman could achieve a higher rate of fire the French tanks were also Big Gas Guzzlers and could only operate for less than 6 hours before they had to refuel which took longer because the fuel tankers were delayed since many of them were civilian bottles and they weren’t built or equipped for operating on off-road terrain so instead of attacking rl’s exposed right flank they were refueling near flavion when the Germans Came Upon them and a sharp engagement ensued at close range contrary to popular belief French tanks in 1940 did have impressive armor and guns so the Germans best bet was to shoot off the Treads because the German tanks lacked the Firepower to penetrate the French tanks thick frontal armor so the German panzers maneuvered around them and hit the heavier French tanks in their more vulnerable flanks and in rear by the end of the day only 13d of the French tanks in the first DCR were operational and by the 16th only 17 were operational during the same time period the seventh Panzer Division completed the destruction of the French fourth North African division which had been plugged in into the line at on reaching the French Frontier just west of C roml now was faced with attacking the Mago line extension the Germans did not make a distinction between the true Mago line which ended at Lun and its northern extension which was made up of interlocking concrete bunkers with armored kopas tank ditches and other obstacles on the morning of the 16th Perman ho issued a halt order because even though this wasn’t the main magino line the defenses were still impressive and ho ordered them not to risk the tanks and leave the fortifications to be handled by the Infantry by late afternoon though he gave the cautious order to probe the defenses but he soon clarified that no breakthrough should be attempted but Rama was long gone by then at first glance it seemed impossible to break through without heavy artillery and air support but as the sun was setting raml decided to do something unprecedented in military history at that point an armored Knight attack directly against the fortifications this was near suicidal but it was also the last thing the French Fortress divisions would anticipate they were trained for more static Warfare and not a war of movement like the Vagas Creek especially with raml as their adversary the first tanks of rl’s armored wedge smashed through the first defenses before the French could even react but resistance was Fierce Vehicles were knocked out left and right by anti-tank and artillery guns firing from the bunkers nevertheless enough German tanks got within the perimeter to silence the forward bunkers with direct hits in that LW the combat engineers moved into action with satchel charges and flamethrowers against the fieldworks firing on the move at all sides the panzers pushed forward quickly followed by the motorcycle companies they raced towards the French artillery never stopping and the French defenses were successfully pierced as the sun set and the panzers found themselves in Open Country by early evening at the head of the division riding in a command tank raml now drove the Vanguard of the seventh Panzer relentlessly instead of stopping raml drove his armored spearheads onward speeding at night over the French roads towards the city of aen unable to reach Hoth on the radio Romo refused to stop on his own initiative he ordered the panzers to push West wreaking havoc in the French rear crashing right into the French fifth motorized Infantry Division which had parked its tanks and vehicles on the roadside before arresting now they awoke to the sound of tanks on the fire of heavy guns paralyzed the surviving Frenchmen threw down their weapons and Scattered in all directions all along the road to aend the French were caught by surprise and the night was illuminated by burning tanks and trucks by the time they reached aen the first DCR had only three tanks left by sunrise on the morning of the 17th ral’s forces were now 8 miles west of lrees on a hill just east of the village of leau exhausted and nearly out of fuel and ammunition two pancer battalions were Now 50 km F farther west than they had been the day before according to author alist horn it was the most spectacular German exploit of the day possibly of the whole campaign in one which more than any other was to establish rl’s reputation now morning of May 17th as RL was on the river Sombra a new problem arose only a small portion of his spearhead was with him the rest was now far behind dangerously so in the minds of some one staff officer later wrote a memorandum submitted to both raml and ha complaining that a divisional Commander ought to remain to the rear at or close to his headquarters but when the situation became a bit precarious Ral would improvise Solutions so the magal line was broken but on such a narrow front it was more like a tongue protruding into enemy territory much of the main body of the German Armed Forces was still at the magal line and on Belgian territory in fact many in German High command thought it was a trap set by the French to lure them in so R put his small force in a hedgehog defense on the bridge at Le chatau leaving them isolated in in the middle of enemy territory with just a single tank RL raced back in the direction he came from to link back up with his division as R was heading back alone he encountered large swats of confused French soldiers who were shocked to see a German tank coming at them from the other direction raml ordered the tank not to stop so he kept going until he ran into a convoy of 40 trucks which was guarded with machine guns he drove past it stopped the lead truck then ordered the French to leave their trucks and disperse with just a single tank to back him up the French could have easily overwhelmed him but they didn’t even attempt to instead without halting hun led the Lori Convoy onto a parking place and there disarmed the enemy troops we now found that we had no less than 40 lores many of them carrying troops behind us after this raml continued back to link up with his division then raced back to rothenberg’s position but not before engaging with French tanks that took up a blocking position between lra sees and leau but while R was driving back and forth Rothenberg was fending off French tank attacks all without being resupplied raml was surprised to learn that for some unknown reason a supply column had not made it through so he dispatched units back again to ensure that the supplies would get through that took until 300 p.m. according to rl’s records then shortly after midnight on the 18th he was given orders to take cambre 15 Mi west of Leo but the 25th Panzer regiment which was to be used for the attack was not ready so a conf group called Battalion Paris formed mostly of motorized infantry a few tanks and two propelled flat guns was dispatched to take combre at combre the Battalion Advanced over a broad front and in great depth straight across the fields to the Northwest throwing up a great cloud of dust as they went tanks and AA guns scattered fire at intervals in the northern outskirts of combre the enemy in combre unable in the dust to see that most of our vehicles were soft-skinned apparently thought that a large- scale tank attack was approaching the north of the town and offered no resistance by that evening the town of combre the scene of heavy fighting in World War I was captured the 19th was sprent regrouping and allowing the exhausted Panzer Crews to get some rest RL then met with Hoth demanding that he’d be allowed to make another Knight attack to seize The High Ground south of aross Haw thought the troops needed more rest but was persuaded by rl’s reasoning that a successful Knight attack would mean fewer casualties and fewer casualties is always good in the early morning darkness of May 20th the panzers were again on the move with raml in the lead they reached a village 2 and 1/2 mil south of Aras at about 5: a.m. as during the Breakthrough at the magal line and the ra to aen the motorized infantry regiments did not maintain contact with the panzers falling well behind RL again retraced his steps attempting to make contact with them and again was nearly captured Alister horn wrote French Cavalry tanks were infiltrating across his lines of communication these knocked out R’s accompanying tanks and for several hours he and his signal staff were surrounded the rest of the day was spent clearing up the situation and bringing up infantry and artillery units of the SS Totten comp deaths head division were coming up in his left to cover that flank the fifth Panzer would then come up on his right as the flank was screened with infantry and artillery the armored reconnaissance Battalion was in the rear most likely for the division’s logistical tale given the problems of the previous days at this time there were rumors of British and French divisions concentrating near Aras but Ral dismissed them and continued with his own plans the 25th Panzer regiment would lead the advance around oras to the Northwest meanwhile garan’s second Panzer Division reached the English Channel and Noel SE creating a corridor splitting the Allies in two however British prime minister Winston Churchill saw an opportunity he reasoned that like a tortoise with its head sticking out of its shell the corridor was vulnerable and he was right with the Panzer Division so far forward the flanks were vulnerable until the slow moving infantry could follow up so the Allies prepared a Counterattack but ran into problems particularly in the high command other problems included Communications coordination and lack of air and artillery support nevertheless the attack went off at a Rass it was a mostly British Endeavor but the French were also involved and despite the handicaps the Allied attack began very well advancing as far as 6 miles and causing some Panic amongst the Germans this is because the British Matilda tanks proved to be semi invulnerable to German anti-tank guns at the time RL then again went to where the action was and wrote that the situation was in an extremely tight spot and new action had to be taken with the help of his age yuk MOS he rallied the gun Crews and brought every available gun into action with Moss’s help I brought every available gun into action at top speed against the tanks every gun both anti-tank and anti-aircraft was ordered to open rapid fire immediately and I personally gave each gun its Target With the Enemy tank so perilously close only rapid fire from every gun could save the situation the key weapon in repulsing the Allied attack was the 88 mm with one battery claiming to have destroyed nine British tanks on the night of the 23rd Allied troops pulled back from the Aras Salient following the engagement at Aras Romo continued north towards Lil but the hard fighting was not over trying to cross labasi Canal on May 26th Romo wrote that strong enemy resistance prevented the creation of a bridge head and they had to eliminate a number of machine gun nests before two battalions could establish themselves on the Northern Bank so the French were still fighting and fighting hard the next few days RL helped establish defensive positions outside Lil fending off Allied attack a before being relieved by German infantry according to the RL papers a big source of quotes for this video there was some pretty heavy fighting even saying that the situation was extremely critical at one point with him having to drive sappers to build pontoons to get tanks across the canal which had sunken barges in it Lil fell by June 1st and R was summoned to meet Hitler on June 2nd where he was awarded the knight’s cross the F’s visit was wonderful he greeted me with the words raml we were very worried about you during the attack his whole face was radiant and I had to accompany him afterwards I was the only division commander who did June 5th Germany begins foul rot case red phase two of their invasion of France during the battle and evacuation of Dunkirk the French used the time to build a new defense dub the veon line named after the new commander of the French army General Maxim veon it was not a defense in depth and despite how weak the French army was having lost large quantities of men and armor it seemed to do the job at holding off the Germans initially except for raml who powered through it taking leoi at 1600 hours sharp the tanks moved to the attack the various arms worked in such perfect coordination that it might have been a peacetime exercise the French Colonial troops opposing us were dug in in the small Woods on the southern slopes of the hills 116 and 104 with large numbers of field and anti-tank guns defended themselves desperately the next day he drove another 50 km and by the 7th reached elu on the river sen he apparently Advanced so far so fast that at one point he had to stop because he was in danger of being bombed by the lift wafa if he went any further on the eth he took Ruan but the bridges there were destroyed still by June 9th the seventh Panzer Division along with the fifth and second Panzer divisions cut and surrounded the French n Corp off from larv where they hoped to be evacuated in operation cycle on the morning of the 12th at St valer onu French General Marcel eler gave the order to surrender despite the protests of the British 51st Highland division he wrote this to his wife that day dearest Lou the battle is over here today One Core commander and four division commanders presented themselves before me in the Market Square of St Valerie having been forced by my division to surrender wonderful moments on June 17th the division was ordered to take Sher Borg they Advanced 240 km in just one day and after 2 days of shelling the French Garrison surrendered on the 19th RL was only stopped by the Armistice which the French signed on June 22nd and took effect on the 25th at last the Armistice is in force we’re now less than 200 mil from the Spanish Frontier and hope to go straight on there so as to get the whole Atlantic Coast in our hands how wonderful it’s all been something I ate yesterday upset me but I’m better again already billets middling for the cost of less than 2500 casualties and 42 tanks destroyed rl’s division had captured 97,7 48 Allied soldiers 277 field guns 64 anti-tank guns 458 tanks and armored cars and more than 4,000 trucks in addition to enormous amounts of supplies following the Armistice the division was first sent to the S then to Bordeaux to prepare for the planned invasion of Britain this invasion was later cancelled as Germany was not able to acquire the air superiority deemed a necessity for a successful outcome in February the division was placed in reserve and returned to Germany the unit was stationed near Bond while preparations were being made for operation Barbarosa the invasion of the Soviet Union until June 8th 1941 the division was loaded onto 64 trains and transported by rail to the east Ronald’s success in 1940 stunned both the allies and the Germans during the campaign the French gave the seventh Panzer the nickname division Phantom the Phantom division the Germans called it gpen division ghost division and is still remembered by that name because of his daring exploits Rd was the Prime candidate to command the deutches Africa Corps he was was promoted to General lant by February 1941 and sent to Tripoli to help the Italians after their disastrous defeat in operation compus he would fight in numerous battles in Libya Egypt Tunisia then once again in France before being forced to commit suicide to protect his family in October of 1944 if you want to learn about another great operational success check out my video on operation Compass the Allies first North African offensive of World War II thank thank you for watching like comment and hit subscribe