FALL GELB

FALL GELB (Operation Yellow), codename for the German offensive in the west which started on 10 May 1940 and culminated in the fall of France the following month. Hitler initially employed just under 119 divisions for it and had committed a further 23 by the end of the campaign (see Table ).

In its original form FALL GELB had the limited aim of destroying a large proportion of the forces which would oppose the German offensive and of gaining access to parts of the Belgian and French coastline to speed the defeat of the UK. Postponements of the offensive—nearly 30 of them from November 1939 onwards—allowed time for the plan, and its aim, to be considerably altered, most notably by Manstein's plan (SICHELSCHNITT, or sickle-slice) which meshed with Hitler's growing ambitions. SICHELSCHNITT envisaged the total destruction of the Allied armies by alloting the main effort (Schwerpunkt) to Army Group A in the south, which advanced through the supposedly impenetrable Ardennes, instead of to Army Group B in the north. As a result, the Allied advance to the Dyle Line ended in a hasty withdrawal, the Dunkirk evacuation, and the fall of France.

FALL GELB: German divisions on the Western Front on 10 May 1940

Grouping	No.
Army Gp. B (Bock)
Eighteenth Army (Küchler)	10 1/3 (1 armd. div.)
Sixth Army (Reichenau)	19 (2 armd. div.)
total	29 1/3
Army Gp. A (Rundstedt)
Fourth Army (Kluge)	13 (2 armd. div.)
Twelfth Army (List)	10
Armoured Group Kleist	8 1/3 (5 armd. div.)
Sixteenth Army (Busch)	13
total	44 1/3
Army Gp. C (Leeb)
First Army (Witzleben)	13
Seventh Army (Dollmann)	4
total	17
Available to Army High Command (incl. 7th Air Div.)	28 (3 brigades)
grand total	118 2/3 (3 brigades)
Reserves employed by the end of June	23
total number of divisions participating in the campaign in the west	141 2/3 (3 brigades)
Source: Deist et al., Germany and the Second W orld War, Vol. 2 (Oxford, 1990)