The Battle of Gembloux (or Battle of the Gembloux Gap) was a battle fought between French and German forces in May 1940 during the Second World War. On 10 May 1940, Nazi Germany's armed forces, the Wehrmacht, invaded Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Belgium under the operational plan Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). The Allied Armies attempted to halt the German Army in Belgium, believing it to be the main German thrust. After the Allies had fully committed the best of the Allied Armies to Belgium on the 10th through the 12th of May, the Germans enacted the second phase of their operation, a break through, or sickle cut, through the Ardennes, and advanced to the English Channel.
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| - Battle of Gembloux (1940)
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| - The Battle of Gembloux (or Battle of the Gembloux Gap) was a battle fought between French and German forces in May 1940 during the Second World War. On 10 May 1940, Nazi Germany's armed forces, the Wehrmacht, invaded Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Belgium under the operational plan Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). The Allied Armies attempted to halt the German Army in Belgium, believing it to be the main German thrust. After the Allies had fully committed the best of the Allied Armies to Belgium on the 10th through the 12th of May, the Germans enacted the second phase of their operation, a break through, or sickle cut, through the Ardennes, and advanced to the English Channel.
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- 3(xsd:integer)
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| Partof
| - the Battle of Belgium, Western Front of World War II
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| Date
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| Label
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| Commander
| - Erich Hoepner
- René Prioux
- Viktor von Schwedler
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| Caption
| - The Gembloux Gap. The flat terrain on Belgium's central plain between Namur and Wavre was occupied Gembloux. Holding it was vital to preventing a German breakthrough
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| Casualties
| - 29(xsd:integer)
- 33(xsd:integer)
- 304(xsd:integer)
- 413(xsd:integer)
- /III Corps; a few hundred casualties
- AFV unknown
- IV Corps, a few hundred casualties.
- unclear
- ~ 2,000 killed, wounded and missing
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| Result
| - Operational German victory
- Tactical French victory
- Strategically inconclusive.ref|"The Allied success at Gembloux was nullified by the German victory further south, but Reichenau's failure to destroy or at least defeat the Allied corps de bataille at Gembloux was crucial. It is true that the Allied high command proved unable in the days following to utilize the corps de bataille to restore the Allied front. But it took the Wehrmacht another two weeks of fighting to encircle and capture part of First Army, allowing the rest and the bulk of the BEF to escape to Dunkirk"|group="nb"
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| Place
| - Gembloux, Belgium and the surrounding area
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| abstract
| - The Battle of Gembloux (or Battle of the Gembloux Gap) was a battle fought between French and German forces in May 1940 during the Second World War. On 10 May 1940, Nazi Germany's armed forces, the Wehrmacht, invaded Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Belgium under the operational plan Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). The Allied Armies attempted to halt the German Army in Belgium, believing it to be the main German thrust. After the Allies had fully committed the best of the Allied Armies to Belgium on the 10th through the 12th of May, the Germans enacted the second phase of their operation, a break through, or sickle cut, through the Ardennes, and advanced to the English Channel. Unaware of the German plan, the French Army intended to halt the German advance into central Belgium and France by organising two defensive positions at the towns of Hannut and Gembloux. They committed their strongest field force, the French First Army, to the defence of the Gembloux—Wavre axis. French armoured forces were sent to form an advanced guard, or screen,at Hannut, in order to delay German forces while preparing their main defence at Gembloux. In the aftermath of the Battle of Hannut, some to the northeast, the town of Gembloux represented the last major prepared defensive position for the French on the Belgian front after the withdrawal from Hannut. Throughout the two-day battle, the French repeatedly defeated attempts by elements of the German Sixth Army to break through or circumvent French defences. However, in operational terms, the damage done to the French First Army, and developments elsewhere, forced it to retreat from Gembloux, out of Belgium and eventually toward the city of Lille inside the French border. The retreat caused the absence of coherent defence on the central sector of the Belgian front which in turn allowed the Wehrmacht to advance its operations toward French territory and subdue central Belgium. In strategic terms, the battle was inconclusive. Both sides benefitted from the engagement. For the Wehrmacht, it delayed and distracted the most powerful French Army from their decisive breakthrough point near Sedan, which allowed the Germans to achieve their strategic goals as laid out in Fall Gelb. However, the French First Army survived the initial battles and diverted German forces from the Battle of Dunkirk.
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