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Instructions to prepare options for the use of one division in the occupation of Belgium and the Netherlands

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Authors

Wilhelm Keitel (Field Marshal, Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces)

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Wilhelm Keitel

German field marshal

el Mariscal Keitel
  • Born: 1882-09-22 (Helmscherode) (country: German Empire; located in the administrative territorial entity: Duchy of Brunswick)
  • Died: 1946-10-16 (Nuremberg) (country: Allied-occupied Germany)
  • Country of citizenship: Germany
  • Occupation: military officer; military personnel; politician
  • Member of political party: Nazi Party
  • Military rank: general field marshal
  • Military branch: artillery
  • VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/74027425

Date: 28 November 1939

Literal Title: Subject: Employment of the 7th Flieger Division

Defendants: Hermann Wilhelm Goering, Alfred Jodl, Wilhelm Keitel, Erich Raeder

Total Pages: 1

Language of Text: English

Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)

Evidence Code: C-10

Citation: IMT (page 1116)

HLSL Item No.: 450871

Notes:The nature of the Flieger Division is not spelled out; it was apparently an airborne division of troops (see document C 72, page 15).

Trial Issues

IMT count 2: crimes against peace (wars of aggression) (IMT) Wars of aggression

Document Summary

Staff Evidence Analyses

C-10: Operational Plans signed by Keitel for employ-ment of the 7th Parachute Division in the event that the quick break through of the 6th Army, north of Liege, fails

Berlin 28.11.1939
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces WFA No. 221/39 Most Secret SO only [Stamp] : C in C Navy
Op 43./39 8 copies
Reed. 29 Nov. '39 2nd copy
Subject: Employment of the 7th Flieger Division
MOST SECRET .
S.O.only access only through officer.
1. Should the quick breakthrough of the 6th Army, north of Liege, fail, owing to the demolition of the bridges over the Maas and the Albert canal, the intended employment of the 7th Flieger Division against the bridgehead at G will also be cancelled.
Special orders for this event will be issued. '
2. The Fuehrer is of the opinion that the 7th Flieger Division must on the first day of the attack be employed on another task and requests that the following possibilities be examined :
a. The occupation of Watcheren Island and thereby Flushing
C—10
harbor, or of some other southern Dutch island especially valuable for our sea and air warfare.
b. Taking of one or more Maas crossings between Namur and Dinant with the object of keeping them open until the arrival of the mobile troops employed in the 4th Army sector.
c. Securing of the territory north of Carignan and north-east of Sedan, so that the mobile troops employed in the sector of Army Group A may be able to escape from the wooded heights south-west and south-east of Bouillon.
3. It is requested that the above-named possibilities be explored as quickly as possible and that the following state their opinion: OKA to 2 a and b Naval War Staff to 2 a
Reich Minister for Air and C in C Air Force to 2 a, b and c Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.
Sgd. KEITEL
Distribution:
C in C Army—Copy 1 C in C Navy—Copy 2
Reich Minister for Air and C in C Air Force—Copy 3 OKW
WFA—Copy 4 Chef L—Copy 5 la—Copy 6 lb—Copy 7 lc—Copy 8

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