Dyle Plan

Dyle plan/Plan D, 1940

By late 1939, the Belgians had improved the defences along the Albert Canal and increased the readiness of the army; Gamelin and GQG began to consider the possibility of advancing further than the Escaut. By November, GQG had decided that a defence along the Dyle Line was feasible, despite the doubts of General Alphonse Georges, the commander of the North-Eastern Front, about reaching the Dyle before the Germans. The British had been lukewarm about an advance into Belgium, but Gamelin talked them round, and on 9 November, the Dyle plan was adopted. On 17 November, a session of the Supreme War Council decided that it was essential to occupy the Dyle Line, and Gamelin issued a directive that day detailing a line from Givet to Namur, the Gembloux Gap, Wavre, Louvain and Antwerp. For the next four months, the Dutch and Belgian armies laboured over their defences, the (BEF, General Lord Gort) expanded, and the French army received more equipment and training.