A Lightning War: Belgium
The end of Holland meant that the whole of the German army could hit Belgium, but it scarcely needed it. Already, by the evening of 14th May, the Army Group A under Rundstedt had established four bridgeheads across the Meuse between Dinant and Sedan, and it was this Group which was the real striking force of the whole invasion. The German plan had called for a big show of force in Holland and northern Belgium in order to bring the expected response of the French and British of a march northward beyond the Somme, to go to the aid of these two countries. In reality this was a huge feint, allowing Rundstedt's panzer divisions to move further into France beyond Sedan, and advance unobstructed along the north bank of the Somme.
In order to secure their own rear, however, the Germans had to deal with the strategic center of Maasricht in central Belgium and maintain pressure on the BEF due west around Brussels and the French 1st Army just to their south. Belgian resistance had been good from the beginning and it was only the sheer weight of armour and numbers that told against them. They only made one gross error of judgement and that was to assume that forts had any part in modern warfare. Unless such strongpoints are manned with at least a brigade of highly trained troops, ready to move out and cause havoc to the enemy's supply lines if they are left intact in an advance, they can safely be ignored with a token force left behind to starve them out. Most forts were manned with older men without the stamina to fight in the open and the fort Eben Emael fitted this description. It was supposed to be impregnable but the Germans had made up a model of it and trained to put it out of action, starting by a glider landing on its roof! The result was that the fort was indeed put out of action before a counter-attack by Belgian troops forced the survivors of the 85 men who had comprised the attackers, to retreat.
The Allies assumed, on 12th May, two days after the invasion, that they had established their positions as planned and felt capable of meeting what they felt was the main German thrust through Belgium. These positions stretched from Antwerp to Namur and consisted of French armies to the north and south with Belgian and British in between. Within 6 days these positions were untenable as the news came through of the arrival of a panzer division, the 2nd from General Guderian's Panzerkorps, at Abbeville. The encirclement of the bulk of the Allied forces had been completed but only the Germans knew how thin the line was between Arras and the Somme. For the few days, between 14th and 20th, Hitler had been in a screaming frenzy of anxiety about the southern flank of his strung-out divisions, but the Army Chief of Staff knew that there were no reinforcements south of the Somme, the whole of the Allied armies had been used to make the defensive line from Antwerp to Saarbrucken. The French 3rd Army, to the south of Sedan, was held by the presence of the German Army Group C, waiting orders on the Luxembourg border.
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