Battle of Arras (1940) - Prelude

Prelude

Lord Gort—commander-in-chief of the BEF—ordered a counter-attack in an attempt to delay the Germans and prevent British forces from being overrun. The counterattack would be led by Major-General Harold Franklyn; his forces—codenamed Frankforce, consisted of two divisions—the 5th Division and the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, plus 74 tanks from the 1st Army Tank Brigade and 60 supporting French tanks. A serious situation had developed to the south where the German spearheads had pierced the Peronne–Cambrai gap and were threatening Boulogne and Calais, cutting the BEF's lines of communication and separating it from the main French armies. A plan by General Maxime Weygand to close this gap included an attack by Frankforce, with the British 5th Infantry Division holding the line of the river Scarpe to the east of Arras, while the other two formations attacked to the south of that city.