A Lightning War: Holland
It has to be said that the only reason to invade the Low Countries and France was to ensure that Hitler's self-ordained purpose in the east would not be attacked from the west. He had bought Stalin with half Poland and the eastern Baltic countries to secure his back while he cleared the west. Then it would be time to turn again, and find the mythical lebensraum of hid imagination among the plains of the Ukraine and the steppes of Russia. All this had long been spelt out in Mein Kampff, but no one in the Allied camp had yet read it as prophecy, or had even read it at all.
After the debacle in Poland brought about by the use of the blitzkrieg, one would have imagined that the Allies would have been co-ordinating strategy with the Dutch and Belgians, in secret because of their neutrality. But nothing of the sort happened, and they all kept their distance until it was too late. As it was, the last minute advance of a French army and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) into Belgium only left the commander of the BEF that much more difficult a task in getting his men out.
For the Germans, in a masterstroke, adopted a late change in their plans which exploited to the full the power of the tank. Originally they had planned to do no more than push west through Belgium and Holland, more in the hope than the certainty that they would get to the coast, considering that in the sector the two sides would be more or less equal in numbers. Even Hitler did not like this plan, especially after hearing from a new corps commander, Manstein, of his plan to drive straight through the Ardennes with a huge tank force, take Sedan and then head for the coast at Abbeville. No stopping for consolidation, or to wait for infantry to cover their flanks; as had been demonstrated in Poland this type of rapid movement took the enemy by surprise, and could not be met with any proper defence unless they had extremely fast maneuverability. German intelligence told them that the transports used by the Allies were principally for supplies, and their troops marched. By moving over the Belgian border, it was almost certain that the French and British would head for the major defensive line of the Somme, north of the line the panzers would take, thus becoming trapped inside a circle of German armies, as the bulk of the Germans advanced from the north and east.
Latest Articles