The Supreme Commander Of The Armed Forces.

Berlin.   29th November, 1939.   11 copies

Directive No. 9 -- Instructions For Warfare Against The Economy Of The Enemy
                1. In our fight against the western powers, England has shown herself to be the animator of the fighting spirit of the enemy and the leading enemy power. The defeat of England is essential to final victory.

                The most effective means of ensuring this is to cripple the English economy by attacking it at decisive points.

                2. The development of the general situation and of our armaments should provide within the foreseeable future favourable conditions for extensive operations against the economic foundations upon which England rests. Early preparations must therefore be made, by concentrating the appropriate weapons upon the most important objectives, to deal an annihilating blow to the English economy.

                Nonmilitary weapons will be employed in conjunction with the measures taken by the Armed Forces and in accordance with special orders.

                3. Should the Army succeed in defeating the Anglofrench Armies in the field and in seizing and holding a sector of the coast of the Continent opposite England, the task of the Navy and Air Force to carry the war to English industry becomes paramount. Efforts will be made to secure the cooperation of the Sabotage Column and Fifth Column organisations.

                4. The Navy and Air Force will then carry out the following tasks, given in the order of importance:

                (a) Attacks on the principal English ports by mining and blocking the sea lanes leading to them, and by the destruction of important port installations and locks.

                In this connection aircraft are extremely valuable in mine laying, particularly outside English west coast ports, in narrow waterways, and in river estuaries.

                (b) Attacks on English merchant shipping and on enemy warships protecting it.

                (c) Destruction of English depots, oil storage plants, food in cold storage, and grain stores.

                (d) Interruption of the transport of English troops and supplies to the French mainland.

                (e) The destruction of industrial plant whose loss would be of decisive significance for the military conduct of the war, in particular key points of the aircraft industry. and factories producing heavy artillery, antiaircraft guns, munitions, and explosives.

                5. The most important English ports, which handle 95 percent of foreign trade and which could not be adequately replaced by other harbours, are:

London     } for the import of foodstuffs and
Liverpool  } timber, the import and refining
Manchester } of oil.

                These three ports, accounting as they do in peacetime for 58 percent of total imports, are of decisive importance.

Newcastle  }
Swansea    }
Blyth      }
Cardiff    } for the export of coal.
Sunderland }
Barry      }
Hull       }

                Alternative ports, of limited capacity, and for certain types of cargo only, are:

Grangemouth
Holyhead
Leith
Bristol
Middlesbrough
Belfast
Grimsby
Newport
Southampton
Goole
Glasgow
Dundee

                It will be necessary to keep constant watch for any possible shift in the use of these ports. We must also seek constantly to compress and shift English foreign trade into channels which are open to effective attack by our own Navy and Air Force.

                French ports need only be attacked in so far as they are involved, geographically or economically, in the siege of England, or are used as harbours for troopships.

                6. In ports where effective minefields cannot be laid, shipping will be crippled by blocking the approaches to the ports with sunken ships and by destroying vital harbour installations. In this connection it is particularly important, in the harbours of

Leith
Sunderland
Hull
Grimsby
London
Manchester (Ship Canal)
Liverpool
Cardiff
Swansea
Bristol-Avonmouth,

to destroy the large sealocks upon which, particularly on the west coast, the regulation of the water level, and thus the effectiveness of the ports, depends.

                7. In preparing these operations it will be necessary:

                (a) To constantly check and bring up to date all facts known to us about English ports, their equipment and capacity, and about the English war industry and supply depots.

                (b) To develop with high priority an effective means of employing aircraft as minelayers for anchored as well as floating mines.

                (c) To provide a supply of mines sufficient to satisfy the very heavy demands and equal to the capacities of the Navy and Air Force.

                (d) To ensure that the conduct of operations be the joint responsibility of Navy and Air Force, coordinated as to time and place by both services.

                Preparations to this end will be undertaken as quickly as possible. I request Commanders In Chief Navy and Air Force to keep me constantly informed of their intentions.

                I reserve to myself the right to decide the moment at which the restrictions imposed by my previous Directives for Naval and Air Warfare shall be lifted.

                This will probably coincide with the opening of the great offensive.

Adolf Hitler.