Hitler: Military Commander

Falkenhorst dashed to the nearest bookshop where he bought a Baedecker Guide to Scandinavia. Then he found an empty table at a nearby cafe and sat down to prepare his plans. He was back by 6pm with a draft outline, which Hitler approved

He paused. 'Hitler then asked me 'and then what are you going to do?' Hitler was the first person who had thought to ask me this vital question. I replied that I would continue west. The supreme leadership had to decide if my aim was Paris or Amiens. I thought that I should go past Amiens to the English Channel.'
Hitler merely nodded, but his question had shown once again that he was able to grasp the potential of a new idea faster than his generals. Within a few days of the conference he was demanding that the OKH draw up detailed plans for the invasion of France based on Manstein's ideas. But Hitler added a significant touch of his own. He ordered that the attack should start in the north as originally envisaged, but that this should be merely a feint to draw the French and British deep in to Belgium. Hitler also ordered the Ardennes column to be made even stronger than envisaged by Manstein. Hitler did not see this as merely a strong flank attack. He wanted to encircle the allied armies to the north and destroy them.
Hitler was enthused by the idea, later dubbed Sichelschnitt, ('Sickle-stroke') and threw himself into the detailed planning even more closely than he had done with the Polish campaign. It was at Hitler's insistence that the Panzer IVs were removed from other panzer divisions and concentrated in those which would make the main drive through Sedan. With his usual detailed grasp of technical detail he realised that the Panzer IVs would be needed in the south while the Panzer IIIs and other models would be quite capable of the less demanding tasks allocated to them in other areas.