THE 1ST DLM IN COMBAT: CAVALRY TANKS AND ARMOURED VEHICLES, 1939-1940

This handsome book tells the story of the first of these new-type major French formations. A story made of speed, fury, fuel, gunpowder and blood. At dawn on 10 May 1940, the 1st division légère mécanique — the 1st DLM — launched itself towards its objective: to reach the Netherlands as quickly as possible, at the spearhead of the Giraud army, as part of the overly ambitious Allied plan aimed at joining all Western forces in the face of the Hitlerian onslaught.

This plan would sadly fail, but the men of the 1st DLM would experience their finest hours during those weeks of armoured thrusts and counter-thrusts that drove them across the plains of Belgium and Flanders, through the battle of the Forêt de Mormal and then, with their front reversed, in the hard-fought recapture of Mont-Saint-Éloi.

Having escaped the hell of Dunkirk, many of these men would go on — rearmed and re-equipped — to fight the last battles on French soil, never having felt the sense of being defeated.

Over 450 period photographs, 35 profiles of the main combat vehicles, 15 maps of operations and engagements, unit insignia, and a gripping text. The finest tribute paid to our mechanised cavalrymen and our flying artillerymen, forerunners of the armoured divisions of the Victory.