Gathering all eight of the Land Cruisers together, Prince Franz ordered them to stop the French armor rampaging into German rear areas, terrorizing civilians and upsetting the Kaiser. With a French spearhead driving toward their location, little preparatory movement would be needed. The huge vehicles lumbered out into the early morning haze ready for battle.

The low speed of the Land Cruisers put them at a disadvantage against the French Somua tanks, but the small Renaults were only slightly faster and utterly defenseless against the big high-velocity guns of the Germans. French attempts to close and assault the huge beasts were driven off by the German infantry riding inside the Land Cruisers for just such an eventuality, while the Imperial German Luftstreitkräfte for once managed to keep French close air support at bay.

Halder’s assessment of the action, however, indicated that the Land Cruisers performed best when the French needed to attack them. As offensive weapons, the Land Cruisers had several drawbacks. They were slow, and although powerful, could not take and hold ground, nor could they even enter certain types of terrain such as ridges or towns that were critical objectives. Some of the American observers had dubbed the Land Cruisers “LSTs” for large, slow, target. The heavy losses experienced by the French indicated that, despite their failings, the Land Cruisers were anything but LSTs.