Case brown

The Braun case was a German plan from the spring of 1940 for the campaign in the west .

The Braun case envisaged breaking into France with a German-Italian force across the Franco-German border and advancing into the Rhone Valley along the border between France and Switzerland . In order to carry out this undertaking, Hitler had proposed to the Italian dictator Mussolini at a meeting on March 18, 1940 at the Brenner Pass in Tyrol that around twenty Italian divisions should be transferred to southern Germany. 20 to 25 days were estimated for this troop relocation.

Fall Braun hadn't gotten beyond planning when Fall Gelb began on May 10, 1940. Fall yellow meant the conquest of Luxembourg , the Netherlands and Belgium by the Wehrmacht . At the beginning of June 1940, the case of Gelb was closed and in the course of its course northern northern France had also fallen into German hands. With the now planned red case , the break-in into central France should now take place from northern France. Fall Rot was then successfully carried out from June 5, 1940. A greatly reduced version of Fall Braun was carried out only with German troops while Fall Rot was running. For this purpose, Army Group C was set up, which, in contrast to Army Groups A and B, which carried out the Red case, had only weak forces. Nevertheless, Army Group C managed to break through the costly main line of defense of France against a German attack, the Maginot Line , which was built in the 1930s . With the beginning of the armistice between France and Germany on June 25, 1940, all fighting ended.

literature

Klaus Urner : “Switzerland still has to be swallowed!” Hitler's plans of action against Switzerland - two studies on the threat posed to Switzerland during World War II. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-85823-327-7 , p. 30.
Andreas Hillgruber (ed.): Statesmen and diplomats with Hitler . Bernard & Graefe, Frankfurt am Main 1967, p. 102 f.