WARNED IN TIME

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 281, 27 November 1941, Page 17

WARNED IN TIME

AND DID NOTHING

BELGIUM'S INVASION

LONG PREPARED PLAN

(By H. J. J. SARGINT)

LONDON, Sept. 30

Clear proof that the German Nazi Government had long prepared its attack on Belgium arfd had not been moved by any breach of neutrality on the part of the Belgians, as was said by Germany at the time, was given to me to-day by Paul Henri Spaak, the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs who, with the rest of the Belgian Government has his headquarters in London. For the first time, photographs have been published of some German military documents which fell into the hands of the Belgians in .Tanuarv. 1940 five months before the invasion of Belgium, which quite definitely showed that the Germans were planning to overrun the country.

On January 10, 1940. M. Spaak said to me, a German military plane made a forced landing in Belgium and two German officers were rescued alive. Thev were carrying documents which were seized by the Belgian frontier authorities. The Germans were taken to a small guard-house and the papers were laid on the table before the Belgian officer who was questioning them. While one of the German officers was being addressed bv the Belgian official, the other made a dash for the papers, seized them and stuffed them into a stove which was burning in the room. A Belgian officer dashed forward, put his hand in the red hot stove and brought out the burning documents which were half charred but of which about half were still legible. The Plan of Attack These papers were of extraordinary interest. They discussed the British Army in the positions it was occupying in Northern France. They then gave the positions of the Belgian Army which, they said, covered the Liege-Antwerp line with

its main force, while lighter forces were in position in front of the Meuse-Scheldt Canal and on the frontier. Only light forces of the Dutch Army, the papers continued, were in position south of the River Waal. The German western army would direct its attack between the North Sea and the Moselle, with the strongest possible air force support through the Belgo-Luxemburg region. Further, it was intended, j with the help of part of the 10th German Army Corps reinforced by one cavalry division, to seize Dutch territory. The papers go on to set forth the disposition of the troops and points to be attacked and make arrangements for air reconnaissances to be carried out to the northwest and west of a line running from the west Frisian Islands through Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels and Nivelle. Air Dispositions Further, the documents contained instructions for finding out the disposition of the enemy air force in Northern France and Belgium and for the examination of areas where the British Army was concentrated. Certain specific instructions were contained for the Bth German Aviation Corps. On the first day of the attack this corps would support with part of its forces a landing operation of the 7th Aviation Division and, closely co-operating with the 6th Army to the west of Maastricht, it would support the advance of the land forces attacking the fortified line of the Meuse and would destroy the Belgian Army to the west of that region. All this five months before the invasion took place. . . , The documents which were sur-prisingly-complete went on to give ;an appreciation of the ground on ! either side of the Meuse and disI cussed the whole situation which might arise if the Belgian Army and air force were to offer, and it did ! offer eventually, strong resistance to ! the invaders. Parachute troops could be dropped everywhere, it was said, but air borne troops could only be landed at certain points. They gave ■' a list of five landing grounds which I had been reconnoitred and also ot Belgian anti-aircraft positions and Belgian military aerodromes.

And Nothing Was Done These documents were so complete, M. Spaak said to me, that the Belgian Government thought for a moment that they might have been suspected of being planted in Belgium on purpose to make the Government lose its head and call on France and Britain to come to the aid of Belgium in its hour of need. That would have given the Germans an excuse for invasion. The Belgian Government, however, did nothing, and it is only now nearly two years later, that these documents have been made public.—Auckland Star and N.A.N.A.