French Armoured and Artillery War Diaries for May 1940 required

Can anyone help - I'm looking for war diaries covering May 1940 for the following units:

1er Régiment de Cuirassiers

2e Régiment de Cuirassiers

12e Régiment de Cuirassiers

11e Régiment de Dragons Portés

76e Régiment d’Artillerie

10e Batterie antichar.

I'm especially interested in any entries from 20th to 22nd May.

I'm not really to sure how the French Archives filing system works and in what quantity they come in. I'm happy (ish) to pay for copies of the documents but would prefer to swap the service and undertake the same amount of work at the British National Archives for free.

Cheers
Andy

 

I have a (summarized) report of 12.RC. It only speaks in general wording. Not what you are looking for. I have also looked for anything on 3.DLM on the internet but in vain. The French archives are the only solution indeed. I have vague plans to go there this summer. If I go, I let you know.

 

Andy... I made an error in my PM to you (serves me right for trying to do 3 seperate things covering 3 seperate wars at the same time!!!).

For your particular search in this case, I think you are actually looking for the diaries of the 1er Régiment de Cuirassiers , 2e Régiment de Cuirassiers , 12e Régiment de Cuirassiers and the 11e Régiment de Dragons Portés (5 & 6 BLM of the 3 DLM).

I think you may also find something useful in the diary for the 76e Régiment d’Artillerie especially if there is a seperate one for the 10e Batterie antichar.

Some of the French diaries (and ancilliary files) are absolutely superb in detail.

Dave

 

Thanks Dave-I'll let you off this once but don't do it again

I'll edit the title-I just hope no one complains

 

geneahist-goupil.over-blog.com/article-2683363.html (a private war diary from a Batterie anti char commander from May to June 1940)

1er Regiment cuirassiers :may calendar of the events
deuxième guerre mondiale - 1940

2eme regiment cuirassiers
Memoire ecrit par Vincent Dupont

I'm in a hurry,sorry,will try later...Hope it helps you a bit...

 

Wahhh....I forgot that you are all English......
Sorry no offense minded...

 

Diane,could you please translate the following 2?Thank you.Cause i'm not keen in this kind of operation...

Tanaka-World.net - 3e Division Légère Mécanique
Tanaka-World.net - 11e régiment de Dragons Portés (11e RDP)

 

Just came over this one ."french after action reports" (journaux de marche).Many regiments,thus the ones you're looking after.

Chars français - JMO - HISTORIQUES

I had a quick look on some of them.It is really detailed as you said formerly..

 

One more please Diane...
It's a personal blog,from a son of a french veteran.I don't know if it is what Drew is loking for,but it is extremely interesting ,and is about the 4th Dragons portés,if i'm correct...From May til June 40..
Thanks!
frisee's blog - 4eme dragons portés - Skyrock.com

 

Thank you very much Diane....
May i advise you to read these accounts,they're amazing!

 

That's my pleasure.I have so much joy reading your Brits account that i had to try to find something related to the frog's..

 

Thanks for the links and your hard work searching for info.



Seconded, thanks very much Seb !

 

Thank you,i appreciate ...
One more ,already in English.French army order of battle 1940

French Army Order of Battle, 10 May 1940

and another one,EXTREMELY complex order of battle...I can hardly understand a word because it is so detailed...

ordre de bataille

 

One more please Diane...
It's a personal blog,from a son of a french veteran.I don't know if it is what Drew is loking for,but it is extremely interesting ,and is about the 4th Dragons portés,if i'm correct...From May til June 40..
Thanks!
frisee's blog - 4eme dragons portés - Skyrock.com

This one I know and is indeed interesting. It is however on 1.DLM, that lost much of its leverage in the Turnhout - Tilburg area as the mechanized back-bone of the French 7th Army. 4.RDP was (together with 4.RC and 6.RC) forming 1.DLM.

I consider 1.DLM the most mis-used French unit. It was the best and first modern French mech. unit, abused to spearhead the bizarre Gamelin 'Hypothese Breda'; the over-exposure of the French field army into Holland. In the plans of the French commander of the Field Army, Georges, the 7th Army would have been in the rear of the 2nd and 9th, as a strategic reserve. Gamelin moved it onto the far left flank of the Belgian field army to lour the Dutch in connecting their strategy onto the French in safeguarding Antwerp and the northern route into Belgium. The Dutch disagreed (for obvious reasons) but Gamelin held on to stretching his lines. It costed him and the French darely. The 7th Army was very much missed when the German armour had managed to cross the Meuse between Dinant and Sedan and managed to slam a wedge between the forces in Belgian and those south of the Somme.

I wouldn't go as far as to call this the most significant French cock-up but it is pretty close to that. Since the Corps de Cavalerie (lacking any adequate air cover) with the other two very able DLMs was pretty much slammed to pieces at Gembloux and the follow up retreat, the entire offensive French tank capacity was decimated to nearly zero before the second week of the invasion was on. That prelude was essential to the Arras events. Arras wouldn't have been if the French command had been wiser in applying their most capable mechanized units.

 

Thanks again-I've spent most of the evening reading through them on and off and they are quite interesting. Sadly not much detail on the French side of things at Arras though.

Onwards and Upwards