The Germans Call Off The Invasion
When Jodl learned on the 13th that the documents were probably unreadable, he called off plans to execute the attack three days early on 14 January — the same plans that would cause the crisis in Belgium — and postponed them to 15 or 16 January, to be decided as the circumstances demanded. In the evening came the surprising news that the Belgian and Dutch troops — who had already been mobilised since September 1939 — had been put on alert. This was attributed to the crash and the too obvious approach march of the German Sixth Army, the latter causing the element of surprise to be lost. On 15 January road conditions were so poor due to the snowfall and the weather prospects so bleak that Jodl advised Hitler to call the invasion off indefinitely. The Fuehrer hesitantly concurred on 16 January at 19:00.
Read more about this topic: Mechelen Incident
Famous quotes containing the words germans, call and/or invasion:
“That’s how the Germans are.... The aristocrats at the top hard as glass, cold as ice, servants of the King, the working masses willing, pliable, sentimental, susceptible to brutality, the middle class educated and cowardly to the point of servility.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)
“They can play a bugle call like you never heard before,
So natural that you want to go to war.”
—Irving Berlin (1888–1989)
“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not the invasion of ideas.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)