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Similar Fall Rot, Operation Tannenbaum, Case Blue, Operation Felix, Operation Nordlicht | ||
Fall Grün (English: "Case Green") was a pre-World War II German plan for an aggressive war against Czechoslovakia. The plan was partially carried out as regards psychological warfare and use of paramilitary actions, however planned open war didn't take place due to French and British appeasement.
Contents
Plan
The plan was first drafted late in 1937, then revised as the military situation and requirements changed. The ultimate revision of the plan scheduled the attack for September 28, 1938; but, as France and the United Kingdom were reluctant to go to war for the sake of Czechoslovakia and expressed political will to appease Germany at all costs, the execution of the plan was postponed, then, after the Munich Conference (also called the Munich Agreement) held on September 30, 1938, abandoned altogether.
In ceding the border areas to Germany, Poland and Hungary, Czechoslovakia lost the majority of its border fortifications and was no longer defensible against any invading force. Germany invaded the remaining Czech part of Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939 (Unternehmen Südost or Operation Southeast), and annexed Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia to the Reich; Germany gave nominal independence to Slovakia and installed Jozef Tiso as head of a satellite state.
Fall Grün was later assigned to the plans for an invasion of Ireland.
Use of psychological warfare
The planning of Fall Grün had a large part dealing with psychological warfare both within Czechoslovakia as well as internationally against Czechoslovak allies. Internally, Czechoslovak government and citizenship were supposed to be intimidated and have their will to defend themselves broken, while the Czechoslovak ethnic-German minority, which was vastly pro-Nazi, was supposed to internally weaken and disrupt the country. Internationally, coordinated Nazi psychological and propaganda warfare aimed at making the country isolated to the point that it would stand alone against any aggression with defense having no perspective. Modern media, especially radio, played key role in the Nazi psychological warfare. Within Czechoslovakia, Nazi Germany also relied on using the Sudeten German Party as well as its paramilitary organization the Freiwilliger Schutzdienst.
Undeclared German-Czechoslovak war
On 17 September 1938 Adolf Hitler ordered the establishment of Sudetendeutsches Freikorps, a paramilitary organization that took over the structure of Freiwillinger Schutzdienst/Ordnersgruppe, an organization of ethnic-Germans in Czechoslovakia that had been dissolved by the Czechoslovak authorities the previous day due to its implication in large number of terrorist activities. The organization was sheltered, trained and equipped by German authorities and conducting cross border terrorist operations into Czechoslovak territory. Relying on the Convention for the Definition of Aggression, Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš and the government-in-exile later regarded 17 September 1938 as the beginning of the undeclared German-Czechoslovak war. This understanding has been assumed also by the contemporary Czech Constitutional court.