Rommel's panzers and the Totenkopf Division were swung north from Arras to confront the retreating British. Desultory skirmishing characterized the following days' fighting as the SS followed up the British rearguards, who struck back on the evening of 22nd with a surprise tank raid that was driven off with loss by Eicke's men.

The Totenkopf storms La Bassee Canal

The British now fought a series of determined rearguard actions to hold defensive lines along key rivers and canals that criss-crossed the industrial landscape of northern France. Eicke's men came up against serious resistance along the La Bassee Canal on the evening of 22 May. The next day the first SS battalion to reach the canal was impetuously ordered to cross it by Eicke before a proper reconnaissance had been conducted. The Totenkopf men soon found themselves dangerously exposed in open fields as British artillery and mortar fire rained down on them. To counter this threat and prepare for a second advance, Eicke brought up his own guns and began an artillery duel.

A bloody fiasco

Early on 24 May, Eicke personally led the assault across the canal after his engineers had built an assault bridge. The first wave of troops was soon pinned down by heavy British fire, but Eicke called up reinforcements and he was able to secure a small bridgehead. Just as success seemed in his grasp, orders arrived from higher headquarters ordering him to pull back. Hitler wanted to rest his tired panzer troops for a more deliberate attack on the British bridgehead in a few days. No German troops were to cross the so-called "canal line". The withdrawal order threw the Totenkopf troops into chaos and the British intensified their artillery fire, which eventually resulted in 42 Germans dying, 121 being wounded and 5 going missing.

When Lieutenant-General Erich Hoepner, Eicke's corps commander and immediate army superior officer, arrived later in the evening to inspect the scene, he had a blazing row with Eicke in front of his staff, accusing the SS officer of being a "butcher" who cared nothing for the lives of his men. For two days the Totenkopf Division sat licking its wounds in pouring rain as it prepared for the big offensive to finish off the British.

The Leibstandarte and SS-VT

During this pause, the Leibstandarte Regiment and the SS-VT Division were racing to catch up with the panzer spearheads. After navigating through the chaotic road network of Belgium and northern France, clogged with German supply columns and civilian refugees, they began moving into the line on 24 May. The Leibstandarte joined the 1st Panzer Division close to Dunkirk along the Aa Canal and the SS-VT took up positions farther south, towards the Totenkopf. Elements of seven panzer divisions, supported by the SS, were being mustered for the attack. Hitler was now undecided what to do. Hermann Göring assured him that his Luftwaffe could finish off the British in Dunkirk, while the army High Command was pushing for a ground assault to mop up the remaining British troops before they could be lifted off the beaches by the Royal Navy.

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