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to fight to the end citing "We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender (Churchill 1940)."

Even though Hitler had visions of major military campaigns, his Generals knew that his army was not capable of successful large conflicts just yet. He still pressed them to invade the West so he had his Generals draw out plans for attack. General Franz Halder gave the first proposal which was a very careful and meticulous plan that involved gaining ground on a small scale. He proposed that the Wehrmacht should invade the Low Countries one by one in order to keep the Allies from bordering the valuable Ruhr area of Germany and then slamming the French army with a massive frontal attack that would cost many lives. Hitler immediately refused this plan for a few reasons. For one, it initially went against German Blitzkrieg tactics in its slow maneuver through Belgium and the Netherlands and secondly, it was going to cost the Wehrmacht too many lives and equipment.
The final plan that was to be used was devised by General Erich Von Manstein. Since he was originally a tank General, he used the power of the elite XIX Armored Corps to full advantage.(Dupuy, Johnson and Bongard 1992, 482) His plan called for a crossing over into France at Sedan. This would separate the main body of Allied forces to the North with their Headquarters to the South. The plan was revised slightly due to the fact that a plane carrying two German Officers and a copy of Aufmarschanweisung N 2, the formal name for Von Manstein's plan, crashed in Belgium. Very little was changed other than where various elements would be crossing into enemy territory, and in May of 1940, the plan was carried out.
The first phase of the attack was called Fall Gelb, or Phase Yellow, which was the initial invasion that was to split the allies and surround the main force. It involved cutting through the Low Countries of the Netherlands and Belgium as fast as possible to get to the French border. The Germans did this by using the Luftwaffe heavily, not just for bombing, but also deploying the elite Fallschirmjger, the German paratroopers, to take out key targets on the ground. The Dutch and the Belgians with the

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