Help Wanted: Delays in the Invasion of France
- Thread starter Cook
- Start date
You mean existing postponements?
Well a big reason for postponement was the status of the military. Especially the motorised divisions had serious casualties during the invasion of Poland. Also ammo stocks where low.
Second biggest reason was that Hitler kept discarding the plans for Fall Gelb. First fully rejecting the one of Franz Halder, then 2 versions of Manstein's plan. Final plan was only approved in January.
Well a big reason for postponement was the status of the military. Especially the motorised divisions had serious casualties during the invasion of Poland. Also ammo stocks where low.
Second biggest reason was that Hitler kept discarding the plans for Fall Gelb. First fully rejecting the one of Franz Halder, then 2 versions of Manstein's plan. Final plan was only approved in January.
Snake Featherston
Banned
I don't know precisely how many times it was postponed but there were several reasons for this. The first one was that the generals were not enthusiastic at all about attacking France right after the attack with Poland, and this was compounded by the divisions between the generals and between all the generals and Hitler over the nature and scale of the attack in question. Another problem was the need for a time of X number of consecutive good-weather days for flying, and in the winter 1939/40 those days never happened in any consecutive fashion. A third was a Special Orders 191-style incident where the Allies discovered the German plan for the attack in the West due to a plane crash, and this played a major role in Hitler overcoming the objections of some of the generals and using Manstein's plan, which put into a military form what Hitler was enthusiastic about all along (there's an extent to which Hitler co-opted the plan but there's another extent to which he wanted it done the whole time and was just seizing an easy excuse to do what he would anyway). A fourth was as mentioned the depletion of fuel supplies and the need to rebuild, recuperate, and learn from some of the weaknesses exposed in Operation White.
All of this put together helps explain the reasons for the delay in the West, as does the need to shift the bulk of Germany's offensive forces to the Ardennes while avoiding any Allied detection of this shift. Ironically the Allies followed the idea that the Germans were still going to attack according to the original plan discovered in that crash which is what the Dyle Plan would have done a good job forestalling.
All of this put together helps explain the reasons for the delay in the West, as does the need to shift the bulk of Germany's offensive forces to the Ardennes while avoiding any Allied detection of this shift. Ironically the Allies followed the idea that the Germans were still going to attack according to the original plan discovered in that crash which is what the Dyle Plan would have done a good job forestalling.
Cook
Banned
I shall clarify: I am after the dates that the invasion was scheduled to take place, and when and why of each was postponement.
Allegedly there were twenty-nine postponements and while I have seen that number repeated often I have never been able to find an actual list of the postponements.
Allegedly there were twenty-nine postponements and while I have seen that number repeated often I have never been able to find an actual list of the postponements.
Rubicon
Banned
Quick Google search came up with this:
Sept 27th, Hitler orders plans for invasion with a planned date to Nov 12th. Generals complain it's to soon.
Oct. 10th Hitler orders an invasion against the low countries and France, no date set.
Nov 7th, Invasion decision postponed no reason given (weather most likely) new date set to Nov 9th.
Nov 9th, invasion decision postponed, no reason given, next date for decision Nov 13th, possible invasion Nov 19th
Nov 13th, invasion decision postponed to Nov 22nd
Nov 14th, Netherlands added to invasion.
Dec 12th, invasion decision postponed to Dec 27th
Dec 27th, invasion decision postponed to 'later date'
Jan 6th, invasion postponed to spring
Jan 10th, Date set for Jan 17th, but the (in)famous officers that got lost with papers happens. Invasion postponed indefinitely on the 13th.
May 5th, Hitler pushes the decision date for invasion to the following date
May 6th, see above
May 7th, see above
May 8th, see above
May 9th, Invasion order given.
IMO likely 20 of those 29 postponements happened in the month before the actual invasion, the rest likely due to weather and other similar issues.