The German crossing of the Meuse at Sedan, May 1940

Soldiers in German helmets push rubber boats off a muddy bank strewn with planks and crates and paddle across a broad river through smoke from shellfire; they leap onto the far bank and climb through reeds with machine guns and ammunition boxes. Engineers stand chest-deep in the water beside a pontoon ferry, the long barrel of a heavy gun stands out against the smoke, tanks and motorcycles with sidecars roll across a pontoon bridge, and tanks advance through a damaged town and across open fields. German newsreel footage.

On the afternoon of 13 May 1940 German infantry crossed the Meuse on both sides of Sedan in assault boats. By the next morning engineers had bridged the river, and the armour followed. The breakthrough opened the way to the Channel coast, which German tanks reached at Abbeville on 20 May, cutting off the Allied armies in Belgium.