Manstein Plan
The Manstein Plan was the German war plan for the WW2 invasion of France. It was designed by General Erich von Manstein, who modified and improved an earlier version devised by Franz Halder. The plan was successfully executed by Army Group A in May 1940 through two military operations: Fall Gelb and Sichelschnitt. In Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), the German forces advanced through the Ardennes (southern Belgium) and then swung up from Sedan toward the English Channel; in the latter, on the other hand, the Wehrmacht’s units swept across Holland and northern Belgium to encircle the Allied forces.
At the behest of his superior General Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of Army Group A, von Manstein had originally formulated his plan in October 1939 in Koblenz. Manstein believed that to destroy the Allied forces, the German divisions would have to drive through the Allies between Sedan and Namur at the Ardennes. General Heinz Guderian, commander of the XIX Panzer Corps, advised Manstein to concentrate most of the armored divisions and other powerful motorized units at Sedan, making their way through the Ardennes forests.
After the initial attack into France through this forest, the German forces would drive straight to the sea at Abbeville and encircle the British Expeditionary Force and the French 1st and 7th armies. Thus, instead of driving south to Paris, as it had been traditionally established in the World War I Schlieffen Plan, Manstein believed that the main push of the German army should be northwest, away from Paris. Adolf Hitler approved the Manstein Plan on February 17, 1940, but it was not activated until May 10, 1940, when the Luftwaffe bombed Dutch and Belgian airfields and the German Army captured Moerdijk and Rotterdam.
