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4. OPERATION: FALL GELB
Mission 4: Invasion of France, Operation "Fall Gelb" ("Plan Yellow")
By May 1940 German troops, having taken over Poland, Denmark and Norway, were getting ready to invade France. For this operation, the German command allocated practically all of their available forces including 136 divisions consisting of 3,300,00 troops, 7,378 cannon, 2,580 tanks and 3,824 airplanes. Standing against the Germans was a comparable force of 147 French, British, Belgian and Dutch divisions comprised of 3,785,000 troops, 14,544 cannon, 3,099 tanks and 3,791 airplanes. The Allies were preparing to fight a long war of attrition as they were occupying heavily fortified positions and had nearly complete control of the sea. The Germans, realizing that they had no chance of winning such a war against a comparably sized and well-supplied army, decided on using the "Blitzkrieg" tactics that had worked so well in earlier campaigns. They intended to smash through France before the Allies could make full use of the potential of their armies.
The Germans decided to direct their main strike force through the Ardennes, which were poorly defended due to the Allies thinking that they were too difficult to traverse. Other German troops were used to contain the Allies along the French-German border and launch offensives in Belgium and Holland. The Allies placed half of their forces along the heavily fortified Maginot line while the remaining forces were sent to counter any attempt by the Germans to bypass the line by going through Belgium.
Germany began the offensive on May 10th with air strikes on Allied airfields and airborne assault landings. The Allied forces in the North entered Belgium in order to stop the Germans along a line of Belgian fortresses, but the Germans managed to fight through the line before the Allies even came close to it. The main German strike force pushed through the Ardennes and separated the Northern and Southern Allied commands from one another while driving the British dominated Northern group to the sea. The Allied commands, despite having overall superiority, were too bewildered to organize any successful counter strikes. Holland surrendered after just four days and Belgium after eighteen. The British evacuated across the English Channel leaving behind weaponry, ammunition and vehicles. As the Germans approached Paris, Italy entered the war on Germany's side. The French capitulated 6 weeks after the beginning of the "Fall Gelb". Germany was clearly getting the upper hand in the war.
The Germans decided to direct their main strike force through the Ardennes, which were poorly defended due to the Allies thinking that they were too difficult to traverse. Other German troops were used to contain the Allies along the French-German border and launch offensives in Belgium and Holland. The Allies placed half of their forces along the heavily fortified Maginot line while the remaining forces were sent to counter any attempt by the Germans to bypass the line by going through Belgium.
Germany began the offensive on May 10th with air strikes on Allied airfields and airborne assault landings. The Allied forces in the North entered Belgium in order to stop the Germans along a line of Belgian fortresses, but the Germans managed to fight through the line before the Allies even came close to it. The main German strike force pushed through the Ardennes and separated the Northern and Southern Allied commands from one another while driving the British dominated Northern group to the sea. The Allied commands, despite having overall superiority, were too bewildered to organize any successful counter strikes. Holland surrendered after just four days and Belgium after eighteen. The British evacuated across the English Channel leaving behind weaponry, ammunition and vehicles. As the Germans approached Paris, Italy entered the war on Germany's side. The French capitulated 6 weeks after the beginning of the "Fall Gelb". Germany was clearly getting the upper hand in the war.
FlaK 18/36
