We haven’t completed our Battle of Stonne Podcast yet, but when we do, we will be using this great mapping resource. Click on the image or here to use the interactive mapping. It will be a part of our Battle of France series.
The Battle of Stonne start at 05:00 on the 15th of May, 1940. Over the next 2 days the town changed hands 17 times.
The key lesson from Stonne, was that French troops at the tactical level were capable of fighting extremely vigorously and the Char B1 bis was an excellent tank against the Panzer III and IVs. One Char B1 bis, commanded by LT Pierre Billotte destroyed 13 tanks, 2 PzKpfw IV and 11 PzKpfx III, despite being hit 140 times.
https://map.4x4earth.com/#m=16/49.55005/4.92248&l=Otm&q=Stonne&n2=_g/g/49.549098/4.927782/357.8/-9.3/0.2
This 3D interactive map was made by military cartographer Greg Lauer. He has joined together Google Streetview with a topo map of the village of Stonne. The below image is a destroyed Char B1 bis on the leading leading into the southern edge of the village.
