The Need for Organisational Resilience Chapter-6

[Lieutenant Most] help, I brought every available gun into action at top speed against the

tanks. Every gun, both anti-tank gun and anti-aircraft, was ordered to open rapid fire

immediately and I personally gave each gun its target. With the tanks so perilously

close, only rapid fire from every gun could save the situation. We ran from gun to gun.

The objections of the gun commanders that the range was still too great to engage tanks

effectively were overruled. All I cared about was to halt the enemy tanks by heavy

gunfire. (Liddell Hart 1953, 30–31)

The deployed anti-tank guns plastered British tanks with shells, but likewise with French

medium and heavy tanks, their fire bounced off their front-armour. Rommel ordered some

divisional artillery to open up, and a few 88mm anti-aircraft guns to fire over their open sights

to engage the British armour. Artillery and the power of the 88mm guns finally silenced the

heavy Matildas (see following image).

A British Mark II Matilda. An officer points towards the entry point of a German shell. Given the thickness of front armour of the Matilda, it appears to be an 88mm shell that knocked out this tank. (BArch, n.d.)

The counterattack by Martel’s ‘Frankforce’ sent panic waves through the German High

Command, although it only achieved a tactical victory; despite this, Rommel was optimistic

that a favourable outcome was inevitable. He wrote to his wife:

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