The Original German War Plan (Hypothetical) - TWiE The First Blitzkrieg

France - 10th May 1940: On the morning of 10th January 1940, two Luftwaffe majors prepared to fly to Cologne, only eighty miles distant from the little airfield at Munster, Westphalia. One of the majors was a member of the planning staff for General Student's newly formed 7th Air Division. He knew it was expressly forbidden for members of the planning staff to fly, but knowing the long waits on the trains at the time, he had weighed up the risks and accepted the offer of the flight. Initially it went well, in glorious sunshine, and then murky tendrils of clouds started to engulf the plane. The pilot continued on, seemingly unconcerned, but when the clouds were too thick to see through, he changed course several times. He was trying to find a gap in the cloud cover to find the Rhine. Eventually he saw a winding black trail of water under the white horizon, in his mind; it had to be the Rhine. As he raised himself in the seat to get a better look, disaster struck! His hand hit the fuel cut-off switch and the engine sputtered, then died, he was too low to do anything but try to safely land the Me 108. This he did, but both men were badly shaken by the crash. It was only after being found by an old farmer did they realize the river was in fact the Meuse, and that they were in Belgium. They hastily tried to burn the Top Secret documents of Hitler's plan to invade Western Europe. Unfortunately, border guards caught them and rescued the burning documents from the fire. Belgian Intelligence soon translated the documents and decided they were genuine. This was the course of events that led the German High Command to adopt Manstein's plan instead of the original CASE YELLOW. In this scenario, the historical CASE YELLOW plan is used for the set up of opposing forces at their approximate start positions.