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• Colonel Charles de Gaulle of the French 4th Armored Division launched a 200-tank counterattack at Montcornet, France; the French forces saw initial success, capturing 500 prisoners, but the momentum quickly waned. Guderian seized upon the opportunity and launched his own counterattack in France, driving the French back several kilometers. In Belgium, British Expeditionary Force commander General Lord Gort, fearful of being surrounded, ordered his troops to fall back to the Scheldt River; this move allowed German General Reichenau to capture Brussels. Meanwhile, Dutch resistance to the German invasion comes to an end with the evacuation, by French destroyers, of the survivors of the Franco-Dutch forces in Zeeland and on the islands of Walcheren and Beverland. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | TH]
• Erwin Rommel was awarded the 1939 clasp to his Iron Cross Second Class medal. ww2dbase [Erwin Rommel | CPC]
• HMS Effingham departed Harstad, Norway with 1,020 troops, 10 Bren Gun Carriers, and 130 tons of supplies on board for Bodø, Norway. En route, she hit the southern edge of the Faksen Shoal off Bodø, Norway and was seriously damaged. ww2dbase [Effingham | CPC]

• German oil storage facilities in Bremen and Hamburg were destroyed by the RAF. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Hamburg | TH]

• Grand Admiral Erich Raeder toured Emden at Oslo, Norway. ww2dbase [Emden | Oslo, Østlandet | CPC]

• US President Franklin Roosevelt announced the plans for recommissioning 35 additional flush deck destroyers to meet the requirements of fleet expansion and the Neutrality Patrol. ww2dbase [United States Neutrality Patrol | Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]

17 May 1940 Interactive Map