On 3 May, Abwehr Colonel Hans Oster, an ardent anti-Nazi, sent a word of warning to the Dutch government through Colonel G. J. Sas of the Dutch embassy. The message, with the exact date for the invasion, was sent to the Hague via a courier on the next day. The warning was received and shared with Belgium, but none of the two countries decided to share the intelligence with Britain and France. On 9 May, Oster once again met with Sas and confirmed that the invasion was to take place the following morning, and another message was sent to the Hague. For whatever reason, the Dutch and Belgian governments again failed to share the news with Britain and France. In the morning of 10 May, as Oster warned, the German Army Group B marched into the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and conquered all three nations quickly.
The Dutch, who should had been better prepared, nevertheless faced a surprise assault by paratroopers of the 7th and 22nd Airborne Divisions under the command of Kurt Student; the Netherlands fell after a Luftwaffe bombing of Rotterdam on 14 May with thousands of 2,200-pound delay-action bombs, killing 980 people, destroying over 20,000 buildings, and left 78,000 people homeless. The surrender was offered by the Dutch commander-in-chief; Queen Wilhelmina and the government fled to London.
Luxembourg, with an army consisted of merely 400 infantrymen and twelve cavalrymen, was the least armed of the Low Countries. The government of Luxembourg withdrew quickly to London, though before it left a rough plan for a passive resistance campaign was set in motion.
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