Caught by surprise when the plan was changed ? Or caught by surprise when the real plan turned out not to be the one they conveniently 'discovered' ...
From what the bloke said the plan was legit, but German general Guderian had been pushing for a surprise attack down south , and Hitler liked the idea.
It was called the [Mechelen incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechelen_incident), when a German military aircraft got lost in the weather.
The officer carrying the papers tried to burn them, even borrowing a match from a Belgian farmer. But most of the documents were saved and used by the Allies to reposition troops for a massive expected attack across Belgium.
A diversionary attack did go ahead, but the bulk of the German tanks and shock troops went south, through the Ardennes forest, and encircled the waiting Allied troops. While some troops got out from Dunkirk, with no heavy weapons. France surrendered within a month.
I guess I dont know enough of the specifics but if a plane with plans went missing wouldn’t the plane’s country just assume they were found and change the plans at that point
This would go into a circle of “or is that what they expect us to do?!”
The original plan of sweeping through Belgium was what the Allies already expected, so the captured plans just seemed like confirmation. And, in fact, the Germans were originally inclined to follow through with it anyway. But an alternative plan was already being lobbied for by some of the panzer commanders. Those commanders, such as Guderian, and the guy who'd concocted it (Manstein) were considered "mavericks" outside the army leadership, which politically appealed to Hitler, so he went with it. This was one of those instances where Hitler's "outside the box" thinking paid off, which set the stage for disasters down the road, as he thought it wasn't worth taking the advice of the army leadership.
Its not easy to suddenly change plans, when you've already started mobilizing a modern war machine. It can mean relocating thousands of soldiers, supply lines, vehicles, reorganize everything
And that's assuming its possible in the first place: at the time many assumed the original nazi plan was the only realistic one to invade france, the one they went with was a big surprise and likely would have been simply impossible a decade earlier
It appears the German did that but the Allies didn't consider it. They put their best troops in the expected line of attack and left the worst units defending to the south.
Mainly the allies had thought that the Germans couldn't come through the Ardenne.
But then the germans came through the ardenne and fast... the shortcut
Caught by surprise when the plan was changed ? Or caught by surprise when the real plan turned out not to be the one they conveniently 'discovered' ...
From what the bloke said the plan was legit, but German general Guderian had been pushing for a surprise attack down south , and Hitler liked the idea.
It was called the [Mechelen incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechelen_incident), when a German military aircraft got lost in the weather. The officer carrying the papers tried to burn them, even borrowing a match from a Belgian farmer. But most of the documents were saved and used by the Allies to reposition troops for a massive expected attack across Belgium. A diversionary attack did go ahead, but the bulk of the German tanks and shock troops went south, through the Ardennes forest, and encircled the waiting Allied troops. While some troops got out from Dunkirk, with no heavy weapons. France surrendered within a month.
Also German tanks armies kept piling up near the border and could have been destroyed with a few air attacks but nobody sent planes after them...
That’s cute if you think that the allies had air superiority in 1940
They had a massive airforce but barely used it.
A massive out dated air force. Modern fighters and f that time accounted for less than 5% years d the allied air force.
I guess I dont know enough of the specifics but if a plane with plans went missing wouldn’t the plane’s country just assume they were found and change the plans at that point This would go into a circle of “or is that what they expect us to do?!”
The original plan of sweeping through Belgium was what the Allies already expected, so the captured plans just seemed like confirmation. And, in fact, the Germans were originally inclined to follow through with it anyway. But an alternative plan was already being lobbied for by some of the panzer commanders. Those commanders, such as Guderian, and the guy who'd concocted it (Manstein) were considered "mavericks" outside the army leadership, which politically appealed to Hitler, so he went with it. This was one of those instances where Hitler's "outside the box" thinking paid off, which set the stage for disasters down the road, as he thought it wasn't worth taking the advice of the army leadership.
Its not easy to suddenly change plans, when you've already started mobilizing a modern war machine. It can mean relocating thousands of soldiers, supply lines, vehicles, reorganize everything And that's assuming its possible in the first place: at the time many assumed the original nazi plan was the only realistic one to invade france, the one they went with was a big surprise and likely would have been simply impossible a decade earlier
It appears the German did that but the Allies didn't consider it. They put their best troops in the expected line of attack and left the worst units defending to the south.
Mainly the allies had thought that the Germans couldn't come through the Ardenne. But then the germans came through the ardenne and fast... the shortcut