FRANCE, HOLLAND FRANCE, HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 1940 FRANCE, HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 1940 WILL FOWLER CONTEXTS FALL GELB 6-33 The original invasion plans for France and Flanders. Their modification by von Manstein and endorsement of these plans by von Rundstedt. The Anglo-French Dyle manoeuvre and the Maginot Line and Westwall defences. The attack on Belgium and Holland and capture of Eben Emael. Blitzkrieg: Fast armoured and mechanised warfare supported by bombers and ground attack aircraft. SCHWERPUNKT! 54-59 FALL ROT 74-94 The German armoured breakthrough at Sedan and drive by the Panzer divisions to the Channel. Attempts by the British and French to counter attack and the collapse of French resistance. Hitler's attack of nerves and attempt to slow down the advance. OPERATION DYNAMO 60-75 The attack on central France and the fall of Paris. French resistance toughens but there are not enough men and guns. The Panzers stream south. Italy attacks but is held in the Alps and on the coast. France seeks an armistice. INDEX 95-96 The successful evacuation of the BEF from the harbour and coast at Dunkirk. Admiral Ramsey's plans and the use of the "Little Ships" to assist in the operation. The unlikely heroes who helped in the operation and large numbers that were saved. FALL GELB 'At 3:30 AM today, German troops crossed the borders of Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium. Enemy resistance near the border was broken everywhere by vigorous action, often with the closest cooperation of the Luftwaffe." Situation report Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) Friday May 10, 1940 T he German invasion of Belgium, The original plan proposed for the invasion Holland and France, an operation code of France was a variant of the Schlieffen Plan. named Fall Gelb - Case Yellow - Devised by General Count Alfred von combined attacks by futuristic paratroops Schlieffen, Chief of the General Staff of the and conventional foot slogging infantry German Army from 1892 to 1906, it required backed up by horse drawn artillery. German forces to invade neutral Belgium and BLITZKRIEG then in a great swinging manoeuvre close on ABOVE: An MG34 machine gun crew covers a Paris from the northwest. It was a plan that German patrol as it advances across the no-mans assumed France could be defeated in six land between France and Germany in the winter weeks and this would then free the Germans of 1939. to attack Imperial Russia - linked by treaty to France. In a modified form the Schlieffen Plan had been put into action at beginning of World War I in August 1914 but the German thrust was halted at the Battle of the Marne. The trouble with the Schlieffen Plan was that by 1940 it was no secret. The French and British had agreed with the Belgians that if Nazi Germany tried a re-run, they would enter Belgium to support them. Known as the LEFT: King George VI meets the French President Edouard Daladier (right). Following the fall of France Daladier was interned by the Vichy government and tried in February 1942 for betraying his country. RIGHT: A German section commander on patrol in the winter of 1939-40. BLITZKRIEG ABOVE: A cheerfully optimistic group of British servicemen in the spring of 1940 on a light truck with a Bren LMG for AA protection. The tailgate has the slogan "this is for you Adolf" pointing to the Bren and its crew. LEFT: The young Erich von Manstein at the close of the French campaign. It was his imaginative plan to attack through the Ardennes that delivered victory to the Germans in 1940. Manstein would rise to the rank of Field Marshal and serve with distinction on the Eastern Front. RIGHT: General Karl von Rundstedt who was promoted to Field Marshal after the fall of France. He was a professional soldier who remained at a distance from men who had become politically enamoured with the politicians and leaders of Third Reich. BLITZKRIEG Dyle Plan it called for the French 1st, 2nd and the Atlantic Wall by the Germans and the 7th Armies under respectively Generals Cointet grilles, also known as Element C or Georges Blanchard, Charles Huntziger and "Belgian Gates" prove as formidable obsta Henri Giraud and the British Expeditionary cles on the beaches of France in 1944 as they Force (BEF) under Field Marshal Lord Gort had in Belgium 1940. to advance into Belgium as far as the river For the attack on the West the Chief of the Dyle. Here they would hold a line running General Staff at the OKW, General Franz from Antwerp through Louvain, Wavre, Haider, had proposed a variant of the Namur, Dinant to Montherme on the Franco Schlieffen Plan. This would put the weight of Belgian border. the German attack through the "Maastricht The Belgians aimed to defend their country Appendix", the strip of Dutch territory by holding a line to the north based on the between southern Belgium and Germany. deep Albert canal that ran from Antwerp to The battle would be fought in northern Maastricht and then along the Meuse to Belgium and trap the Anglo-French armies Namur and thence to Dinant. The key to against the Channel. these defences was the ultra modern fort of A variant of this idea was put forward by Eben Emael built at the southern end of the Major General Erich von Manstein, the Chief Albert Canal. of Staff to General von Rundstedt, C-in-C The Belgians had also designed some very Army Group A. It would shift the weight effective mobile anti-tank obstacles - Cointet further south so that the point where the full Grilles - and static steel tetrahedrons. These weight of the German assault would fall, the would later be lifted and incorporated into Schwerpunkt, was at Sedan on the river Meuse. The three Panzer Corps, XV, XLI and XIX, respectively under Generals Herman Hoth, Georg-Hans Reinhardt and Heinz Guderian, would have to approach the French border through the wooded and mountainous roads of the Belgian Ardennes. French planners had asserted that if defended this rugged terrain was "tank proof country - the operative words were "if defended". A flying accident and a romantic Luftwaffe staff officer would ensure that the weight of the German attack shifted south to the Ardennes. Because Belgium was neutral, the Franco- Belgian border near Sedan was not as heavily protected with concrete bunkers, barbed wire and anti-tank obstacles. If the Panzers and Stukas could punch through this thin skin, they could race through northern France to the Channel. The thrust would resemble the curved blade of sickle as it swung north