The German invasion, originally set for 12 November 1939, was
repeatedly postponed because of bitterly cold weather and pleas
from Hitler's generals for additional time to prepare. Then, on
10 January 1940, an event occurred that may have changed
history. On that date, the pilot of a German military aircraft
flying from Munster to Köln became lost in dense fog and was
forced to land near Mechelen-sur-Meuse, Belgium. The passenger,
Major Helmut Reinberger, was a staff officer of the 7th Airborne
Division and was carrying top-secret operational plans for the
German attack in the west. Reinberger was to have traveled by
train, but delays led him to fly. Although the two Germans tried
to burn the papers, the Belgian police secured the bulk of them.
That discovery was only one of several indications of a German
plan to strike west that caused neutral Belgium to open military
talks with France and Britain. In any case, when Hitler learned
that the invasion plan had been compromised, he abandoned it.
The need to rec