After Germany conquered Poland in 1939, Adolf Hitler made a peace proposal, but was rejected by Britain and France, so Hitler decided to use his strength to force Britain and France to seek peace. On October 9, he explained the reason why he firmly believed that attacking Western Europe was Germany's only way out. He was worried that the treaty signed with the Soviet Union would only keep the Soviet Union neutral if it was in line with the Soviet purpose.

Therefore, once Britain and France attacked Germany, the Soviet Union was likely to give a fatal blow from behind. So he had to attack France before the Soviet Union was ready. He also believed that once France failed, Britain would submit. However, the German army generals led by the commander-in-chief of the army, Bolauchichi, firmly opposed it, on the grounds that the German army did not have enough strength to defeat the Western European army, and once the war started, Germany would be destroyed. Hitler severely denounced Bolauchichi and others for being timid and fearful, and ordered them to obey his claims unconditionally.

Since Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, it had been in a state of unwarranted war with the Allies for a considerable period of time on the continent, and was called a fake war. Adolf Hitler had hoped that France and Britain would acquiesce Germany to conquer Poland and immediately cease to fight. Because Germany's raw material storage capacity (need to be imported from other places) was very insufficient.

Currently, Germany's war machine mainly relies on raw materials from the Soviet Union, and Hitler was uneasy about the situation due to the differences in the ideological aspects of the two countries. Therefore, on October 6, he made a peaceful proposal to Britain and France. Without waiting for the two countries to reply, on October 9, Hitler also formulated military operations: "Special Order of the Head of State for Rejecting its proposals".

Under Hitler's repeated urging, the German Army Staff Headquarters formulated a Western Front Operation Plan code-named "Yellow Plan". This plan is similar to the German Schrieffin's plan to attack France in World War I, that is, to place the main force of the German army on the right wing and attack France through Belgium. However, Erich von Manstein, chief of staff of the Army Group A, hated this plan and believed it was just a re-prompt. Hitler himself did not like this plan. Manstein proposed his strategic concept: the main spearhead of the German offensive should be placed in the center, not on the right wing.

With powerful armored forces, the main assault was carried out on the Ardennes Forest Zone, a strategically decisive breakthrough. This was a shortcut to attack him and a surprise victory in the attack of France, which could cut off the connection between the North and South Allies, divide and encircle the British and French Allies, and quickly destroy France. However, the commander-in-chief of the German Army, Walter von Brauchic refused to transfer Manstein's plan to Hitler.

On January 10, 1940, a Luftwaffe officer carrying the Yellow Plan made a landing in Belgium due to landline trekking. Because he could not burn all this important document, some of it fell into the hands of Britain and France. So Manstein once again proposed his ideas to the Army Headquarters, which made Blauchic very disgusted and transferred him to the commander of the 38th Infantry Army. But Manstein took advantage of Hitler's opportunity to receive the new commanders and made a statement to Hitler directly.

Hitler's statement to Manstein was "very quick to understand like an elf". He also said that he personally fully agreed with Manstein's opinion. The next day, Hitler summoned the Army Commander-in-Chief Blauchic and the Army Chief of Staff Halde and ordered them to base on Manstein's suggestion and immediately formulate a new combat plan.

Although Braushich and Halder strongly opposed Manstein's suggestion, believing that its so-called secret passage was a crazy assumption that it would put the essence of German armored forces against French flank attacks and could lead to the resurgence of the entire army. Under Hitler's pressure, the two army leaders surrendered. Therefore, the Chief of Staff of the Army was ordered to re-form a combat plan based on Manstein's suggestion.

On February 22, 1940, Hitler approved a new combat plan that was roughly the same as Manstein's envision. The German General Staff replaced the plan as "Operation Waving the Scythe". According to Heinz William Guderian, who was then the commander of the 19th Armored Army, almost no one except Hitler, Manstein and himself had confidence in this plan.

On January 10, 1940, a German Messerchmit BF108 aircraft was forced to land in Massmechelen (the so-called "Mechelen Incident") north of Maastricht, Belgium. The passengers on board were Helmu Reinberger, an important member of the Luftwaffe Air Force, who carried the latest version of "Yellow Plan 2". Reinberger was unable to destroy the documents, and the documents soon fell into the hands of Belgium intelligence agencies.

It is often believed that this incident was the reason for the major revisions of the German army's plan, but it was incorrect; in fact, the military operation was revised to "Yellow Plan 3" on January 30, which basically conformed to the previous version. On January 27, Manstein was removed from the position of Chief of Staff of the Army A and transferred to the army-level commander in Prussia, and began his command work at Steding on February 9.

This move was made by Halder to eliminate Manstein's influence. Manstein's angry subordinates proposed his plan to attract Hitler's attention, and Hitler obtained the plan on February 2. Manstein was invited to explain his proposal to the head of state in Berlin on February 17. Hitler was deeply impressed by the plan. The next day, he ordered a change in the plan according to von Manstein's concept. The reason why these ideas attracted Hitler was mainly because they raised some hopes of achieving a real cheap victory.

Hitler ordered Franz Halder to change the plan again, and von Manstein did not intervene further. Halder agreed to transfer the main force, the so-called "tactical breakthrough force", to the south. Von Manstein's plan did not rely much on (from a defensive point of view), because the Ardennes region was full of dense forests and only had harsh road systems, which were unreliable as invasion roads. But therefore, it must contain elements of surprise victory, which would be crucial for the Allies' response to the original plan, that is, the main elite troops of France and Britain advanced north to defend Belgium.

To help ensure that in this case, the German B Army will attack Belgium and the Netherlands, giving the impression that they were the main force of the German army to attract the Allies to move eastward into the predetermined encirclement and to restrain them here. To do this, three of the existing 10 armored divisions are still assigned to the B Army.

However, Halder did not intend to deviate from the established principles and asked the seven armored divisions of the Group A to make a strategic interweaving. What angered Guderian was that this was initially completely deleted in the new plan. The "Yellow Plan 4 Plan" was issued on February 24, and the crossing point of the Meuse River in Sedao should have been captured by the infantry division on the 8th day of the invasion.

It was not until after many debates that the motorized infantry regiment of the Armored Division was changed to establish a bridgehead here on the 4th day after the invasion. Even now, breakthroughs and advances to the English Channel can only start on the 9th day, and the 5-day stay was to allow a sufficient number of infantry divisions to catch up with the armored forces to establish a continuous front line.

… (To be continued, please search Piaotianwen, novels are better, updated and faster!

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