The crucial question of armored divisions, initiated by Colonel de Gaulle in 1934 with his crusade for the professional army, concealed from the general public a major element in the development of the French army during the period of rearmament: yes, France had, from before the war, light mechanical divisions (DLM) which were light only in name. With their 300 armored vehicles including 250 tanks (Somua, Hotchkiss and AMR Renault tracked) and 50 Panhard armored cars, their three battalions of dragoons carried on motorcycles and all-terrain cars and their 36 artillery pieces of 75 and 105 towed , they constituted, more or less, the French equivalent of the Panzerdivisions. Better still, the concept of the DLM was born in France three years before the idea took hold across the Rhine.
It is the story of the first of these large French units of a new type that this beautiful book tells. A story made of speed, fury, gasoline, gunpowder and blood. At dawn on May 10, 1940, the 1st Light Mechanical Division - the 1st DLM - set off on its objective: to reach the Netherlands as quickly as possible, at the forefront of the Giraud army, as part of the overly ambitious allied plan aiming at the junction of the whole of the western forces facing the surge of Hitler.
This plan will unfortunately fail, but the men of the 1st DLM will know their best hours during these weeks of mechanical rushes and counter-rushes which will lead them through the plains of Belgium and Flanders, in the battle of the forest of Mormal then, with reversed front, at the resumption of hard fight of Mont-Saint-Éloi. Escaped from the hell of Dunkirk, many of these men will live, rearmed and re-equipped, the last battles on French soil, without ever having felt the feeling of being defeated.
More than 450 period photographs, 35 profiles of the main combat equipment, 15 maps of operations and engagements, corps insignia, a breathtaking text. The most beautiful tribute paid to our mechanical horsemen and our flying gunners, precursors of the armored divisions of Victory.
