There were many meetings on Case Green in September 1938, some with Hitler, some with Keitel and Jodl. The timing of troop movements was discussed; the question of advance notice to OKH; preparations of railroads and fortifications; even propaganda to counteract the anticipated violations of International Law which the invasion would entail (388-PS; 1780-PS; C-2). Assistance was given by OKH to the Sudeten German Free Corps, an auxiliary military organization which operated under Henlein to create disorder in Czechoslovakia. (1780-PS; 388-PS)
In October 1938 Hitler addressed to the OKW four specific questions about the time and the forces that would be required to break Czech resistance in Bohemia and Moravia, and Keitel submitted the answers prepared by the OKH and Luftwaffe (388-PS). On 21 October 1938 Hitler signed an order (and Keitel initialled it) requiring the Wehrmacht to make preparations to take the remainder of Czechoslovakia. (C-136)
Two months later Keitel issued a supplement to this order, stating that on the order of the Fuehrer preparations for the liquidation of Czechoslovakia were to continue, and stressing the importance of having the attack well camouflaged and unwarlike in appearance. (C-138)
Keitel was present at the interview between Hitler and Hacha at the Reich Chancellery on 15 March 1939, when the Czech representatives delivered their country to Hitler, after hours of duress, which included the threat of immediate bombing of Prague. (2798-PS; 2943-PS)
(3) Aggression against Poland. On 25 March 1939—four days after Ribbentrop pressed new demands for Danzig on the Polish Ambassador—Hitler told von Brauchitsch, Commander-in-chief of the Army, that he did not intend to solve the Polish question by force for the time being but requested that plans for that operation be developed. (R-100)
On 3 April 1939 Keitel, as Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, reissued over his signature the directive for the Uniform Preparation for War by the Armed Forces for 1939/40. The directive, noting that the basic principles for the sections on “Frontier Defense” and “Danzig” remained unaltered, stated that Hitler had added the following directives to “Fall Weiss”:
“1. Preparations must be made in such a way that the operation can be carried out at any time from 1.9.39 onwards.
“2. The High Command of the Armed Forces has been directed to draw up a precise timetable for “Fall Weiss” and to arrange by conferences the synchronized timings between the three branches of the Armed Forces.
“3. The plans of the branches of the Armed Forces and the details for the timetable must be submitted to the OKW by 1.5.39.” (C-120)
It is noteworthy that, even in April of 1939, the tentative timetable called for the invasion of Poland to be carried out at any time from 1 September 1939 onwards.