British Tanks On May 14, A British transport carrying men of the 24th Guards Brigade to Bodo, along with supplies and equipment, is sunk by German bombers. Most of the heavy equipment is lost, including the only three tanks the British sent to Norway during the campaign. French Tanks 342e Compagnie Autonome de Chars de Combat (CACC- Independent Tank Company) with 15 Hotchkiss H-39 SA 38 37mm guns, attached to the 1re Division Legere de Chasseurs. These left Brest on 21 April and arrived in Harstadt 6 May. This unit is notable (among several other things such as later being the first Free French tank unit) for carrying out the first ever amphibious assault involving tanks when they were landed at Bjervik by British LCM Mk.Is. 343e CACC with 15 Renault FT-17 (selected instead of modern tanks in order not to slow down the formation of the 3e DCR) attached to the 1 re Division Legere de Chasseurs. This unit never reached Norway. 21e Escadron d'AMD (Deep-Recce Armoured Car Squadron) attached to the 2e Division Legere de Chasseurs - with 13 AMD armoured cars (probably Panhard 178 / AMD 35). These were carried on the Ville de Majunga liner but events in France prevented them from going any further than Greenock. German Tanks By 24 April 1940, German strength was 1.le.Pz.Kompanie (attached to Kampfgruppe Fischer = Inf Regt 340) : 1 disabled NBfz VI, five Pz.Kpfw.II, twelve Pz.Kpfw I and two kl.Pz.Bef.Wg. (Pz.I command tank) 196 Inf Div. : Two NBfz.VI (one disabled), three Pz.II, three Pz.I and one kl.Pz.Bef.Wg. 3.le.Pz.Kp (attached to 163.Inf.Div) : six Pz.II, five Pz.I, and one kl.Pz.Bef.Wg. 2.le.Pz.Kp. (minus one platoon) in Oslo with three Pz.II and five Pz.I. One platoon of the 2.le.Panzer-Kompanie with one Pz.II, and four Pz.I. Panzer-Abteilung zbV.40 total strength = 3 NBfz .VI, 18 Pz.II, 29 Pz.I, and 4 kl.Pz.Bef.Wg. On 16 May 1940 Pz.Abt.zbV.40's strength was as follows : 1.Kompanie - 8 Pz.I; 7 Pz.II;3 kl.Pz.Bef.Wg. 2.Kompanie - 8 Pz.I; 4 Pz.II 3.Kompanie - 5 Pz.I; 5 Pz.II; 1kl.Pz.Bef.Wg. Zug Walter - 4 Pz.I; 1 Pz.II Zug Meier - 4 Pz.I; 1 Pz.II Zug Putlos - 3 Neubau Pz.VI Back to Frontline Vol. 1 Iss. 2 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Rolfe Hedges This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com