[French Military History] Captain's Billotte Wild Ride - 13 Tanks kills

[gladius2metal]

The Wild Ride of Captain Billotte at the Battle of Stonne on May 16th 1940 was a brutal experience for the German Panzerwaffe in the Battle of France. Although the Battle of Stonne is not widely known, it was one brutal and crucial engagement. Captain Billotte managed to knockout 13 tanks and 2 anti-tank guns in a short engagement that was part of the Battle of Stonne, which lasted only for two days but say the small village change hands 17 times.

 

[krieger11b]

You would think the Germans would get the hint when the 7th Panzer II was destroyed with no damage to the Char Bis.

 

[gladius2metal]

You would think the Germans would get the hint when the 7th Panzer II was destroyed with no damage to the Char Bis.

I think, they couldn't get out, the village is rather small. Also the day before 2 x 37mm anti tank guns killed 3 Char Bis after doing no damage for quite some time.

Many possible scenarios: 1) he shot up the tank(s) at the end of the columns. 2) it all happened rather quickly (although 140 hits, well, hard to tell, also there were probably more forces involved, someone was referring to Guderian using a 47mm captured gun without effect, but I am not sure if this was the same engagement. (After all the village changed hands 17 times in 2 days) 3) they had orders to stay and/or 4) panicked, etc.

 

[Narwhal]

Nice story. Some notes :

Capitaine Billotte name is not intuitive to pronounce for a foreigner :
1. -ill is pronounced -y [like in Guillaume] - which you actually do.
2. An o before two consonnants is [usually] pronounced [ɔ] like in the German word voll
3. The t in -otte is not mute
Yes, tricky name.

So it should be pronounced something like how an English would read "Biyatte".

The name of the tank was the Eure. Each B1bis had a name.

The German tanks were stuck because the B1bis pilot took down the 13th tank with his 75 at the very beginning, while Billotte destroyed the first with the turreted 47 (one engagement, not 2 successive).

 

[gladius2metal]

thank you! I was pretty sure I had the pronunciation wrong, but had no one to ask.
I got the "ill" right probably due to my knowledge of Spanish, because I tend to pronounce almost anything from a Latin language with my version of Spanish. Funny thing, I sometimes looked at French books in the library and thought at first they were in Spanish, after all the nouns are pretty similar, but the pronunciation is "a bit" different

knew the "Eure" name, although I didn't know that every Char B1bis had a name. I skipped the name for brevity and mostly also pronunciation.

thanks! So my initial assumption was right.

glad you took no offense

 

[Imgran]

One can tell that the B1 made an impression after the invasion of France, because the Americans designed their emerging medium tank to very similar specifications, with most of the differences designed to make the American tank more powerful and flexible without sacrificing armor protection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_Lee

 

[krieger11b]

I think, they couldn't get out, the village is rather small. Also the day before 2 x 37mm anti tank guns killed 3 Char Bis after doing no damage for quite some time.

Many possible scenarios: 1) he shot up the tank(s) at the end of the columns. 2) it all happened rather quickly (although 140 hits, well, hard to tell, also there were probably more forces involved, someone was referring to Guderian using a 47mm captured gun without effect, but I am not sure if this was the same engagement. (After all the village changed hands 17 times in 2 days) 3) they had orders to stay and/or 4) panicked, etc.

You are likely right, in a situation like that panic can take place and all bets are off on what happens next.