on 13 june, 1st panzer division reached the canal at étrepy. while xxxix army corps had instructed 1st panzer to not cross the canal, guderian reversed that directive and hermann balck's units of rifle-regiment 1 began establishing a bridgehead on the other hand of the canal. the germans secured a bridge across the canal and managed to save it from destruction by allied explosives. guderian in his memoirs points to one "leutnant weber" of the 1st panzer division's engineers and one "hauptmann eckinger", a battalion commander of the 1st panzer's riflemen, as the primary architects of that small but important victory. guderian awarded both of them with the iron cross 1st class.