World War II

This is a story of World War II intelligence that was anything but: When Germany’s secret war plans fell into the hands of Belgian officials, Adolf Hitler was furious. “The Führer was possessed,” General Wilhelm Keitel reported later, “foaming at the mouth, pounding the wall with his fist and hurling the lowest insults at the ‘incompetents and traitors of the General Staff,’ whom he threatened with the death penalty.”


At the same time, the high commands in Brussels, London, and Paris went into little cyclones of essentially directionless activity. For one of the oddest aspects of this misadventure is that almost no one - on the German or Allied side - quite knew what to do about it. The plans confirmed an imminent threat to Belgium and Holland, Britain and France. But it also offered an opportunity to revamp their own, uninspired defensive strategies and perhaps beat their opponents to the punch.


On the other hand, the loss of their secret papers confronted Hitler and his staff with an urgent need to switch their own plans, unless, of course, the Allies might be doubly fooled by the Germans’ standing pat. As subsequent events unfolded, the incident and its aftermath became the perfect symbol of the mood on both sides during the eight-month pause in fighting after the Polish defeat, when indecision, ineptitude, and lassitude enveloped nearly everyone involved in making decisions - with the exception of Hitler and his bolder generals. Here, in this Quick Read, is the surprising story of the missteps on both sides before the world exploded in war.