- Fall Weiss (1939)
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This article is about the German campaign against Poland. For the 1943 campaign in Yugoslavia (also codenamed Fall Weiss), see Battle of the Neretva.
Dispositions of opposing forces, August 31, 1939, and the German plan of operation.
Fall Weiss ("Case White", "Plan White"; German spelling Fall Weiß) was the Nazi strategic plan for the invasion of Poland. The German military High Command finalized its operational orders on 15 June 1939 and the invasion commenced on 1 September, precipitating World War II.[1]
Contents
Plan details
The origins of the plan went back to 1928 when Werner von Fritsch started working on it.[2] Fall Weiss was developed primarily by Günther Blumentritt and Erich von Manstein while the two were serving as staff officers under General Gerd von Rundstedt with Army Group South in Silesia.
The plan called for a start of hostilities before the declaration of war. German units were to invade Poland from three directions:
- main attack from Germany mainland through western Polish border
- second route of attack from the north, from the exclave of East Prussia
- tertiary attack by German and allied Slovak units from the territory of Slovakia
All three assaults were to converge on Warsaw,[3] while the main Polish army was to be encircled and destroyed west of the Vistula River.
Fall Weiss was initiated on 1 September 1939, and was the first European military operation of World War II.
References
- ^ Kitchen, Martin (1990). A World in Flames: A Short History of the Second World War in Europe and Asia, 1939–1945. New York: Longman. p. 12. ISBN 0582034078.
- ^ Wheeler-Bennett, John The Nemesis of Power, London: Macmillan, 1967 page 302.
- ^ "Second World War: Why we delayed declaration of war". Daily Telegraph. 2009-08-31. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/6105782/Second-World-War-Why-we-delayed-declaration-of-war.html. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
Similar plans
Alongside of Fall Weiss ("Case White"), German strategists prepared other variants of the plan:
- Fall Rot ("Case Red") (1935) - the German defense plan in case of an incursion by France when Czechoslovakia is invaded
- Fall Grün ("Case Green") (1938) - the German plan to invade Czechoslovakia
- Fall Gelb ("Case Yellow") (1940) - the German offensive against western Europe
- Fall Grün - ("Case Green") (1940) - the German plan to invade Ireland
- Fall Blau ("Case Blue") (1942) - the German 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia
- Fall Weiss ("Case White") (1943) - a combined Axis operation against the Yugoslav Partisans throughout occupied Yugoslavia
See also
- Plan Zachód for the Polish defence plan
- List of military operations
- German order of battle for Operation Fall Weiss
Categories:- Battles and operations of World War II
- Polish September Campaign
- Nazi Germany stubs
- Polish history stubs
- World War II stubs
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