James Holland

And they go over there to try and change Deladier's mind.

And it becomes absolutely crystal clear that Deladier's stance has got nothing to do with the fear of France and everything to do with getting at Raynaud, who he absolutely loathes.

And Speer says, the two men detested each other and Deladier was determined to exert his utmost power to humiliate Reynaud in every possible way.

Oh, good.

Yeah, so it doesn't happen.

So Churchill tries to persuade Deladier to change his mind.

But the latter tells him that France didn't have an air force to retaliate should the Luftwaffe bomb French cities.

He's completely wrong about this.

France has got plenty of aircraft and as many as the Luftwaffe.

Churchill returns to London and advised the cabinet to just go ahead with the Leeds anyway and forget about the Rhine bit.

But in all this faffing around, three days have been lost.

So the new date is now dawn on Monday the 8th of April.

Well, it is.

But obviously, for Wehrmacht to begin on the 9th means you've got to have your troops and see at least by the 7th.

Yep.

The task force for this grand invasion is placed into six units.

marinengruppen, sea groups, naval groups, which requires pretty much the entire Kriegsmarine, including 31 U-boats, which is the entire operational force at that time, and including landings all along the Norwegian coast.

It's ambitious, to put it mildly.

The Luftwaffe is also to seize by airborne assault key airfields of Fornebu, which is near Oslo, which is now the international airport at Oslo, and Sola near Stavanger on the southwest coast.

And much of the Kriegsmarine is simply not ready for war in any shape or form.