The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

attack. Georges was not enthusiastic about the decision but nonetheless
delivered two options. The first, a short advance to the River Escaut, the
first major water obstacle that ran as a natural line of defence across southwest
Belgium, was known as ‘Plan E’. The second was a further advance to
the River Dyle, which ran from Antwerp all the way to Namur, where it
linked up with the Meuse. This was called ‘Plan D’, and at a meeting of the
Supreme War Council on 17 November was the one provisionally adopted.
Gort and his commanders were broadly happy with this plan. General
Pownall thought Plan D much better than an advance to the Escaut. It
would not be an easy move – some eighty miles in a bit of a hurry – and
would require some serious logistical effort. ‘But of course it can be done,’
he noted, ‘and if we can bring it off neatly it would be an excellent move.’
Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke, commander of the British II Corps, was
also receptive to the plan. ‘If we can get there in time to organize ourselves
properly to meet the German onrush,’ he scribbled in his diary, ‘it is without
doubt the right strategy.’
Meticulous planning and preparations continued over the winter, but
then, on 20 March, Gamelin added his so-called Breda Variant to the plan.
Rather than try to link up with only the Belgians, Gamelin’s new idea was
to thrust further north from Antwerp to Breda in Holland so as to link up
with the Dutch army too and thus make a continuous Allied front, just as in
the Western Front of the First World War. On paper, this seemed like a
small addition, but logistically it was a major revision. Breda was twice as
far from the French border as it was from the German, and so in a race
against the Germans the French could not hope to win. Also, the plan
required considerably more manpower. In the original D Plan, ten French
and five British divisions were to advance to the Dyle. The Breda Variant
required thirty divisions. To achieve this, Gamelin moved the entire French
Seventh Army north so that, when the moment came, it could move
northwards towards the Dutch border; it had been Georges’s intention to
keep this army in reserve in the centre of his North-East Front.
It was this version of the D Plan that the Allies were putting into action
this morning, 10 May. Général Gamelin was happy. At the French War
Ministry, the Supreme Commander had been walking around with a broad
smile on his face. Just as he had predicted, the Germans seemed to be
attacking through the Low Countries. His forces were perfectly prepared.