Blitzkrieg In The West (Images Of War - Rare Photographs From Wartime Archives)

This latest illustrated history by Ian Baxter concentrates upon Unternehmen Fall Gelb from the Third Reich's viewpoint, beginning with its inception through to its conclusion in 1940. It examines the plan as created by the Wehrmacht with its twin core objectives of driving the BEF back to the English Channel and out of Europe, while at the same time capturing Paris. Also known as The Manstein Plan or as Operation Sichelschnitt, the original Oberkommando der Wehrmacht version of it was described as being overly complicated and unworkable when first proposed. To make matters even worse in January 1940 a monumentally bad intelligence failure occurred when in breach of standing orders, an officer in an aircraft carrying an early version of the plan crash landed inside of Belgian territory. The Germans feared (correctly) that it may well have been recovered from the wreckage and was even now in the BEF's hands. The plan was therefore passed on from OKW to one of the Reich's best generals to be comprehensively redone. Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Manstein (1887-1973) had already assisted in devising the successful operations against Poland in 1939 and Scandinavia in 1940, and he reworked the unworkable plan into something much more simpler and with a far greater chance of success. Based on the original Great War plan it involved the concentration of the large bulk of the Reich's forces inside the area of impenetrable woodland known as the Ardennes, while another smaller Army Group invaded and tricked the Allied forces into moving away at another location. After the Allies responded, an ever larger Army Group would launch its own offensive and cut the Allied forces off, forcing them to withdraw to the channel or be annihilated. The codeword Danzig was transmitted at 2100 Hours 9 May 1940, and at 0435 hours the next day the plan commenced with simultaneous and ferocious attacks being launched upon Luxembourg, Belgium and The Netherlands. This superbly illustrated book captures the dramatic action of May and June 1940. The speed and ferocity of the German onslaught took the Allies by surprise as Hitlers land and air forces annihilated the inferior opposition. After 9 months stalemate the collapse was cataclysmic and Holland and Belgium quickly fell leaving the British and French forces outflanked and outfought. Panic set in and huge numbers of civilian refugees clogged the roads making the Allies withdrawal even more precarious. The miracle of Dunkirk saved vast numbers of British and French forces but could not prevent the surrender of France, leaving Britain to fight on virtually alone. The splendid photographs in this Images of War series book tell the story of this extraordinary period of history. They include previously unseen images of Rommels Ghost Division. [Elib] Overview: This superbly illustrated book captures the dramatic action of May and June 1940. The speed and ferocity of the German onslaught took the Allies by surprise as Hitler's land and air forces annihilated the inferior opposition. After 9 months stalemate the collapse was cataclysmic and Holland and Belgium quickly fell leaving the British and French forces outflanked and outfought. Panic set in and huge numbers of civilian refugees clogged the roads making the Allies' withdrawal even more precarious.