Matilda II tanks among the Matilda Is advanced through the artillery and anti-tank fire unscathed, German shells bouncing off their armour. The tanks destroyed the German anti-tank guns with return fire and rolled over them, killing the crews. The British tanks were eventually stopped short of Hill 111 by fire from another artillery battery but other tanks bypassed the area on both sides. On the southern flank of the 7th Panzer Division, the Division was attacked and some SS troops fled in panic. Allied retirement The maximum depth of the British advance was ; had been taken, many tanks and much equipment had been destroyed but two Matilda IIs had been knocked out. Only were still operational and both tank battalion commanders had been killed; during the evening, Franklyn ordered both columns to withdraw. French cavalry remained near Warlus, was surrounded during the night and only a few tanks managed to break out. The infantry of the Right Column in Warlus were rescued, because six French tanks arrived with two armoured infantry vehicles and broke out through the German position on the Warlus–Duisans road. The garrison in Duisans also retired after dark, in the Bren carriers of the 9th DLI, covered by the anti-tank guns of the brigade reserve in Marœuil. The Left Column troops in Agny and Beaurains were bombed and then attacked by tanks as they retreated, one party missing the road (and eventually reaching Boulogne). The 7th Panzer Division laagered overnight south of Dainville, with advanced parties of infantry close to the south bank of the Scarpe. Aftermath Analysis In 1953, Lionel Ellis, the British official historian wrote that the attack at Arras succeeded in easing German pressure round Arras and delaying the encirclement of the BEF. The ground between Arras and the Cojeul was re-occupied and there was no serious German attack on the town, Rommel making the alarmist claim that the attack was made by five divisions. Beyond the delay imposed on German moves and the many casualties inflicted on the Germans, the attack was bound to fail without a force sufficiently powerful to follow up and consolidate the captured ground. Rundstedt, the commander of Army Group A, had intended that the panzer divisions should rest after the exertions on 20 May. In 1978, Cooper wrote that the attack at Arras led to the German higher commanders to continue to attack northwards, to capture the