Early plans for Fall Gelb; below left the original Manstein Plan as first presented to the OKH. Note that the small attacks to the south were to be carried out simultaneously to the main effort, not as a second phase operation and that only a limited number of armoured divisions takes part in the drive to The Channel

The Manstein Plan was the primary war plan of the German Army during the Battle of France in 1940. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1256x956, 389 KB) Summary Source: http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1256x956, 389 KB) Summary Source: http://www. ... This article or section needs additional references or sources to improve its verifiability. ... A plan is a proposed or intended method of getting from one set of circumstances to another. ... The German Army (German: Heer, [IPA: heɐ]  ) is the land component of the Bundeswehr (Federal Defence Forces) of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... Combatants  France  United Kingdom  Canada  Czechoslovakia  Poland  Belgium  Netherlands  Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand (French) Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) Leopold III (Belgian) H.G. Winkelman (Dutch) Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Overview of the Plan

Developed by German Lieutenant-General Erich von Manstein, the plan greatly modified the original 1939 versions by Franz Halder of the invasion plan known as Fall Gelb. One way to look at the Manstein Plan was that it was the German Army's answer to the French Army's Dyle Plan. Originally, in Aufmarschanweisung N°1, Fall Gelb, the German Army planned to push the Allied forces back through central Belgium to the Somme river, in northern France, not unlike the first phase of the famous Schlieffen Plan of the First World War.^[1] However, on 10 January 1940, a German aircraft carrying documents containing parts of the operational plans of Fall Gelb crashed in Belgium, thus prompting another review of the invasion plan.^[2] While Fall Gelb was revised by Halder, not fundamentally changing it in Aufmarschanweisung N°3, Fall Gelb, Von Manstein was able to convince Hitler in a personal meeting on 17 February that the Wehrmacht should attack through the Ardennes forest, followed by a strategic drive to the coast.^[3] Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. ... Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full year calendar). ... Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Adolf Hitler, a General Staff officer and General Alfred Jacob NOT Franz Halder Franz Ritter von Halder (June 30, 1884- April 2, 1972) was a German General and the head of the Army General Staff from 1938 until September 1942, when he was dismissed after frequent... An invasion is a military action consisting of armed forces of one geopolitical entity entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of conquering territory, or altering the established government. ... In World War II, Battle of France or Case Yellow (Fall Gelb in German) was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed 10 May 1940 which ended the Phony War. ... The French Army (French: Armée de Terre) is the land-based component of the French Armed Forces. ... The Dyle Plan or D Plan was the primary war plan of the French Army to stave off the expected German attack during Fall Gelb. ... Somme is a French département, named after the Somme River, located in the north of France. ... Alfred Graf von Schlieffen For the French counter-plan, see Plan XVII The Schlieffen Plan was the German General Staffs overall strategic plan for victory on the Western Front against France, and was executed to near victory in the first month of World War I; however, a French counterattack... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... Wehrmacht   (armed forces, literally defence force(s)) was the name of the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. ... The Ardennes (pronounced ar-DEN) (Dutch: Ardennen) is a region of extensive forests and rolling hill country, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France (lending its name to the Ardennes département and the Champagne-Ardenne région). ...

Details of the Plan

Erich von Manstein

Heinz Guderian, who provided the Blitzkrieg elements and executed them against orders

Von Manstein, chief of staff of Army Group A, had originally formulated his plan in October 1939 in Koblenz on instigation of his superior General Gerd von Rundstedt, who rejected Halder's plan, both because of professional jalousy and because it wouldn't lead to a decisive victory over France. Von Manstein's first thoughts were rather traditional, envisaging a swing from Sedan to the north to obliterate the Allied armies in a classical Kesselslacht or annihilation battle. When discussing his intentions with Lieutenant-General Heinz Guderian, commander of Germany's elite armoured corps, the latter proposed to turn it into a more "Fullerite" strategy by avoiding the main body of the Allied armies and swiftly advancing with the armoured divisions to The Channel instead, to cause a collapse of the enemy by catching him off guard and cutting off his supply lines. It was thus Guderian who introduced the true "Blitzkrieg" elements to the plan, while Von Manstein had at first many objections against this aspect, especially fearing the long open flank created by such an advance. Guderian managed to convince him that the danger of a French counterattack from the south could be averted by a simultaneous secondary spoiling offensive to the south, in the direction of Reims. Guderian before the war had generated much interest for the theories of John Fuller, though never fully endorsing them. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Army Group A was the name of a German Army Group during World War II. During the German invasion of the Low Countries and France Army Group A was the southern attacking Army Group. ... Map of the Koblenz region Koblenz (also Coblenz in pre-1926 German spellings; French Coblence) is a city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) and its monument ( Emperor William I on horseback) are situated. ... Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt (December 12, 1875 - February 24, 1953) was a Generalfeldmarschall of the German Army during World War II. He held some of the highest field commands in all phases of the war. ... Sedan is a town and commune in France, a sous-préfecture of the Ardennes département. ... Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (ca. ... Major-General John Frederick Charles Fuller, CB, CBE, DSO, commonly J.F.C. Fuller, (September 1, 1878–February 10, 1966), was a British major-general, military historian and strategist, notable as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare, including categorising principles of warfare. ... The defining characteristic of what is commonly known as Blitzkrieg is that it is a highly mobile form of mechanized warfare. ... Reims (English traditionally Rheims) (pronounced in French) is a city of northern France, 144 km (89 miles) east-northeast of Paris. ...

When Von Manstein first presented his ideas to the OKH, he didn't mention Guderian's name and made his classical swing to the north the main effort, while a limited number of armoured divisions protected the left flank of this movement, acting in a classical cavalry strategic reconnaissance rôle. These changes didn't reflect a change of mind on his part, but were thought necessary by him because the original conception was too radical to be acceptable and many conservative generals considered Guderian himself as too radical also. His views were flatly rejected by Halder and Walther von Brauchitsch however. Reformulating them in a more radical sense didn't help and late January Halder managed to remove Von Manstein to the east by having him promoted commander of XXXVIII Army Corps. Von Manstein and Halder were old rivals: in 1938 Von Manstein had been the successor of chief of staff Ludwig Beck but had been removed from this position when the latter fell into disgrace with Hitler because of the Blomberg-Fritsch affair. On 1 September 1938 Halder, not Von Manstein, had replaced Beck. The Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) was Germanys Army High Command from 1936 to 1945. ... Walther von Brauchitsch in 1939. ... Ludwig Beck General Ludwig Beck (June 29, 1880 – July 21, 1944) was Chief of Staff of the German Armed forces during the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany before World War II. Born in Biebrich in Hesse-Nassau, he was educated in the conservative Prussian military tradition. ... Werner Freiherr von Fritsch (4 August 1880 in Benrath - 22 September 1939 Praga near Warsaw) was a prominent Wehrmacht officer, member of the German High Command, and the first German general to die in the Second World War. ...

However two officers of Von Manstein's staff, Lieutenant-Colonel Blumentritt and Major Von Trescow, were outraged by Halder's behavior. Late January they contacted Hitler's personal Army attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Schmundt (an old acquaintance of Von Trescow) when he was visiting Koblenz, who informed Hitler of the affair on 2 February. Hitler, having found Halder's plans unsatisfactory from the very beginning, ordered on 13 February a change of strategy in accordance with Von Manstein's ideas, even after having only heard a rough outline of them. The general was invited to the Reichskanzlei in Berlin to explain his plans in person to Hitler on 17 February, during a working lunch in the presence of Alfred Jodl and Erwin Rommel. Though Hitler felt an immediate antipathy against Von Manstein, for being too arrogant and aloof, he speechlessly^[4] listened to his argumentation, becoming very impressed by Von Manstein's logic. "Certainly an exceptionally clever fellow, with great operational gifts, but I don't trust him", Hitler remarked after Von Manstein had left. Rudolf Schmundt (1896 - 1944) was a General of the Wehrmacht during World War Two who was killed in the Wolfsschanze (Wolfs Lair) near Rastenburg, East Prussia (today KÄ™trzyn, Poland) during the July 20, 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler. ... The Imperial Chancellory (German Reichskanzlei) is the traditional name of the office of the German Chancellor. ... Location of Berlin within Germany / EU Coordinates Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country NUTS Region DE3 City subdivisions 12 boroughs Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD) Governing parties SPD / Left. ... Alfred Jodl (May 10, 1890 – October 16, 1946) was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel. ... Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel ( ) (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was one of the most distinguished German field marshals of World War II. He was the commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps and also became known by the nickname “The Desert Fox” (Wüstenfuchs,  ) for the skillful military campaigns he...

Halder now had to make a fourth main version of the attack plan, Aufmarschanweisung N°4, Fall Gelb. Von Manstein would no further be involved in the planning process, returning to his command of the Army Corps. This new plan conformed to Von Manstein's proposal in this respect that Army Group A would provide the central thrust of the invasion through the Ardennes in southern Belgium.^[5] After crossing the Meuse River between Namur and Sedan, Army Group A would then swing northwest towards Amiens, while Army Group B executed a feint attack in the north to lure the Allied armies into the trap^[6]. However in many ways the plan was fundamentally changed by Halder. It no longer envisaged a simultaneous secondary attack to the south. Also the "Blitzkrieg" elements were largely removed. The river crossings were to be forced by infantry and there would be a long consolidation phase during which a large number of infantry divisions would be built-up in the bridgeheads. The armoured divisions should then advance in a coherent mass together with the infantry divisions. There would thus not be an independent deep strategic penetration by the German armour. Army Group A was the name of a German Army Group during World War II. During the German invasion of the Low Countries and France Army Group A was the southern attacking Army Group. ... The Meuse (Maas) at Maastricht Meuse near Grave The Meuse (Dutch & German Maas) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea. ... Namur is the name of a city in Belgium, capital of Wallonia, as well as a province and a diocese named after it. ... Sedan is a town and commune in France, a sous-préfecture of the Ardennes département. ... Amiens is a city and commune in the north of France, 120 km north of Paris. ... Army Group B was the name of three different German Army Groups that saw action during World War II. The first was involved in the western campaign in 1940 in Belgium and the Netherlands which was to be aimed to conquer the Maas bridges after the German airborne actions in... Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Infantry are soldiers who fight primarily on foot with small arms in organized military units, though they may be transported to the battlefield by horses, ships, automobiles, skis, or other means. ...

Executing the Plan

In reality however, Guderian and the other tank generals, Rommel among them, would simply disobey orders and advance to The Channel and further to the coastal French towns of Calais and Dunkirk as fast as they could without waiting for the infantry, only temporarily halted by Hitler's orders on 17, 22 and 24 May. The effects of the Manstein Plan were devastating for the Allied armies, as they were effectively encircled by Army Groups A and B, thus sparking an impromptu evacuation from Dunkirk. The losses in the north led to the defeat of the remaining French forces and Germany's complete victory over France. Calais is a town in northern France, located at 50°57N 1°52E. It is in the département of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sous-préfecture. ... For other uses of Dunkirk or Dunkerque, see Dunkirk (disambiguation). ... In general, allies are people or groups that have joined an alliance and are working together to achieve some common purpose. ... French troops rescued by a British merchant ship at Dunkirk British evacuation on Dunkirk beach Operation Dynamo (or Dunkirk Evacuation, the Miracle of Dunkirk or just Dunkirk) was the name given to the World War II mass evacuation of Allied soldiers from May 26 to June 4, 1940, during the...

Halder just after the war

This resounding success came as a complete surprise even to the Germans, who hardly had dared to hope for such an outcome. Most generals had vehemently opposed the plan as being much too risky; even those supporting it had mainly done so out of desperation, because Germany's geostrategic position seemed so hopeless. Count Ciano later in the war observed that "victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan",^[7] and Fall Gelb would have no lack of sires. The two most prominent among them would be Hitler himself and Halder. Because Hitler hadn't liked Halder's original plans, he had suggested many alternatives, some of them bearing some resemblance to the Manstein Plan, the closest a proposal made by him on 25 October 1939^[8]. Soon Nazi propaganda began to claim that the victory was a result of Hitler's military genius; Hitler praised Von Manstein with the words "Of all the generals, with whom I spoke about the new attack plan in the West, Manstein was the only one who understood me!". Halder after the war claimed he was the main inventor^[9], supporting this with the fact that he had begun considering to change the main axis to Sedan even before 13 February — indeed as early as September 1939 — and that Von Manstein's original proposal was too traditional. Geostrategy is a subfield of geopolitics. ... Galeazzo Ciano. ...

The Manstein Plan is often seen as either the result of, or the cause of a mid-twentieth century Revolution in military affairs. In the former hypothesis, expounded by Fuller and Basil Liddell Hart immediately after the events, the Manstein Plan is presented as a natural outcome of deliberate changes in the German military doctrine during the twenties and thirties by men as Guderian or Hans von Seeckt implementing Fuller's or Lidell-Hart's ideas. Thus an explicit "Blitzkrieg-doctrine" would have been fully established by 1939 of which the Manstein Plan was but the most spectacular implementation and the Invasion of Poland an earlier application. The doctrine would have been reflected in the organisation and equipment of the German Army and Airforce and would have been radically different from the obsolete doctrines of France, Britain and the Soviet-Union — except for the contributions of some farsighted individuals in these countries such as Mikhail Tukhachevsky and Charles de Gaulle and of course Fuller and Liddell-Hart themselves. That the earliest plans by Halder or Von Manstein and the final plan by Halder did not conform to this doctrine is then seen as an anomaly, to be explained by special circumstances. The military concept of Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) is a theory about the future of warfare, often connected to technological and organizational recommendations for change in the United States military and others. ... The military historian Basil Liddell Hart. ... Hans von Seeckt Hans von Seeckt (22 April 1866 - 27 December 1936) was a German soldier. ... Polish Defensive War of 1939 Conflict World War II Date 1 September - 6 October 1939 Place Poland Result Decisive German and Soviet victory The Polish September Campaign or Defensive War of 1939 (Polish: Wojna obronna 1939 roku) was the conquest of Poland by the armies of Nazi Germany, the Soviet... Marshal of the Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky (Russian: Михаил Николаевич Тухачевский, Polish: MichaÅ‚ Tuchaczewski) (February 16, 1893 [O.S. February 4] – June 12, 1937), Soviet military commander, was one of the most prominent victims of Stalins Great Purge of the late 1930s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

In the latter hypothesis, promoted by Robert Allan Doughty and Karl-Heinz Frieser, the Manstein Plan is instead a return to the classic principles of the 19th century Bewegungskrieg but now radically adapted to the full potential of modern technology by a sudden and unexpected departure from established German doctrine through the Blitzkrieg-elements provided and executed by Guderian. It claims that the influence of Fuller and Liddell-Hart in Germany was limited and much exaggerated by the two writers and that no explicit true Blitzkrieg-doctrine can be found anywhere in the official pre-war German army documentation. It finds further support in the fact that German tank production had no priority and that the plans of the German war economy were at first based on the premise of a long protracted war, not on the expectation of swift victories. The hypothesis allows for a gradual implementation during the thirties of technological advances in a shared moderated Bewegungskrieg doctrine used in all major powers prior to 1940, with more subtle differences between the nations. The Invasion of Poland would then not yet be a true Blitzkrieg campaign, but a classic annihilation battle instead. The lack of Blitzkrieg elements in the official German plans for Fall Gelb is seen as the normal and expected outcome of this situation. Only after the sudden success of the radical execution of the Manstein Plan by Guderian, Blitzkrieg would have been adopted as an explicit doctrine, in this view making Operation Barbarossa the first deliberate Blitzkrieg campaign ^[10] Combatants Germany, Romania, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler, Ion Antonescu, C.G.E. Mannerheim, Benito Mussolini, Miklós Horthy, Jozef Tiso Joseph Stalin Strength ~3. ...

Guderian himself, who in both hypotheses plays a key rôle, presented the situation in his postwar book Erinnerungen eines Soldaten (literally "Memories of a Soldier" but translated under the titel Panzer Leader) as basically conforming to the second hypothesis, with him being a lone voice struggling against the resistance by a reactionary majority of the German officer corps. Erinnerungen eines Soldaten (Memories of a Soldier) is the German language title of Heinz Guderians autobiography of his service in the Panzer arm of the Heer during World War II. Guderians insights are important because of his association with the Panzer forces from a very early period, his...

Summarizing the Plan

It is not uncommon in the literature to call the Manstein Plan Operation Sichelschnitt and this had led to the misunderstanding that this was the official name of the entire plan or at least of the attack by Army Group A. The official name however was Aufmarschanweisung N°4, Fall Gelb as issued on 24 February 1940 and the suboperation through the Ardennes had no special designation. Sichelschnitt is nothing but a literal German translation of "Sickle Cut", a catchy expression used after the events by Winston Churchill. After the war it would be adopted in the writings of the German generals. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can) (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was an English statesman, soldier and author. ...

Notes

1. ^ Julian Jackson, The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 30.
2. ^ Julian Jackson, The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 30.
3. ^ Julian Jackson, The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 30.
4. ^ Karl-Heinz Frieser, Blitzkrieg-Legende, p. 81
5. ^ Julian Jackson, The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 30.
6. ^ Julian Jackson, The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 30.
7. ^ Diary (1946) Vol. 2, 9 September 1942: La Vittoria trova cento padri, e nessuno vuole riconoscere l'insuccesso
8. ^ Karl-Heinz Frieser, Blitzkrieg-Legende p. 92
9. ^ Franz Halder, Hitler als Feldherr, 1949, p.28
10. ^ Maurice Vaïsse e.a., Mai-juin 1940, Défaite française, Victoire allemande - Sous l’oeil des historiens étrangers Autrement - Mémoires 2000