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FALL GELB
1940 (2)
Airborne assault on the Low Countries
DOUGLAS C DILDY
ILLUSTRATED BY PETER DENNIS
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
CAMPAIGN 265
FALL GELB
1940 (2)
Airborne assault on the Low Countries
DOUGLAS C DILDY
ILLUSTRATED BY PETER DENNIS
  
Series editor Marcus Cowper  
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
CONTENTS
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
CHRONOLOGY
OPPOSING COMMANDERS
German commanders • French commanders • British commanders • Belgian commanders •
Dutch commanders
4 
8 
10 
OPPOSING PLANS
Fall Gelb
plan • The French ‘Plan D’ • Belgian defensive plans • ‘Fortress Holland’ – the Dutch
defensive plan
15 
OPPOSING FORCES
German forces • Allied forces • Neutral forces • Orders of battle, 10 May 1940
20 
THE CAMPAIGN
Unternehmen
‘F’: The Luftwaffe strikes Holland: 10 May • Gruppe Nord – the
coup de main
•
Gruppe Süd – the original ‘Bridge Too Far’ • Meanwhile, at the frontier • Panzers to the rescue
The ‘Matador’s Cloak’: The Luftwaffe strikes Belgium: 10 May • The ‘Matador’s Cloak’ unfurled:
10–11 May • The tank battles at Hannut and Gembloux: 12–15 May • The bitter retreat: 16–20 May •
A change in the air: 15–21 May • The road to Dunkirk: 21–28 May
34 
AFTERMATH
THE BATTLEFIELD TODAY
FURTHER READING
GLOSSARY
INDEX
89 
91 
93 
94 
95  
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
Hitler and his Oberkommando
der Wehrmacht (OKW) and
Oberkommando des Heeres
(OKH) generals in conference at
the planning map table. To
Hitler’s right is Franz Halder, the
OKH chief of staff and architect
of the
Fall Gelb
plan; to his
immediate left is Generaloberst
Walther von Brauchitsch, the
chief of the army (OKH), with
Generaloberst Wilhelm Keitel,
the chief of the OKW, looking
on. (IWM HU75533)
The neutral states have assured us of their neutrality … This assurance is
sacred to us and as long as no other nation violates their neutrality, we will
also honour it with painstaking punctuality.
Adolf Hitler, 1 September 1939 – the day Germany invaded Poland
On 27 September 1939, only hours after the surrender of the Polish Army
besieged at Warsaw, Adolf Hitler met with the commanders-in-chief of the
three Wehrmacht services and announced his intention to invade France
through ‘Belgium and the Dutch appendix of Maastricht’. The Führer’s
objective was to reach the Channel coast in order ‘to defeat … the French
Army and the forces of the Allies fighting on their side, and at the same time
to win as much territory as possible in Holland, Belgium, and Northern
France, to serve as a base for successful prosecution of the war against
4
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
England’. He was anxious to quickly and decisively end the war that – on the
Western front at least – had already expanded beyond his initial designs.
To achieve this aim and to do so before winter, in little more than three
weeks the OKH (Oberkommando des Heeres, the army high command),
under direction of General der Artillerie Franz Halder, developed
Aufmarschanweisung Fall Gelb
(‘Deployment Directive, Case Yellow’). It
was a hastily prepared improvisation calling for an offensive directly through
Belgium and southern Holland, with the initial assaults swinging around the
north and south sides of the fortress-ringed city of Liège before driving to
the coast.
When the initial draft was issued on 19 October, it naturally employed
only those German forces then arrayed in the West. Nine days earlier
Generaloberst Fedor von Bock and his Heeresgruppe Nord (Army Group
North) staff, fresh from their victorious conquest of northern Poland, arrived
at Düsseldorf and was retitled Heeresgruppe B. Generaloberst Gerd von
Rundstedt’s Heeresgruppe A was established at Koblenz a fortnight later.
Three armies deployed along the German frontier opposite Belgium and
southern Holland. After some reorganization these became, from north to
south, Generaloberst Walter von Reichenau’s Armeeoberkommando (AOK)
6, Generaloberst Günther Hans von Kluge’s AOK 4, and General der
Kavallerie Maximilian Freiherr von Weichs zu Glon’s AOK 2. These were
soon reinforced by General der
Artillerie Georg von Küchler’s AOK 18.
In total these comprised 43 divisions,
including nine panzer and four
motorized infantry.
Heavily mechanized, Reichenau’s
AOK 6, followed by AOK 18, was
to attack through the ‘Maastricht
Appendix’ – the sliver of the
Netherlands on the east bank of the
Maas River, extending south between
Belgium and Germany, just north of
Liège – while Kluge’s AOK 4, followed
by AOK 12, was to bypass Liège to the
south and then merge with Reichenau’s
army in central Belgium for the drive
to the Channel coast. With another 22
infantry divisions, Heeresgruppe A was
to provide flank coverage to the south.
Alarmed at the absence of Holland
from the territory to be occupied,
Luftwaffe Chief of Staff (COS)
Generalmajor Hans Jeschonnek met
with Hitler on 30 October to object
that, ‘if no Dutch territory is occupied,
the English will take possession of
Dutch airports’. Initially Hitler was
unmoved, but 12 days later Jeschonnek
was back, protesting that ‘Holland
must be occupied, because England
Luftwaffe Generalmajor Hans
Jeschonnek, the chief of staff
of the ObdL (Oberbefehlshaber
der Luftwaffe), was the avid
proponent for including the
subjugation of the Netherlands,
in its entirety, in the
Fall Gelb
plan. Once authorized, it
was up to the Luftwaffe to
devise the means – an
airborne invasion – for its
accomplishment. (NARA)
5
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