Imagine you have a gigantic fort and you have to take that; how do you do that? Do
you advance from the front; do you attack from behind? Well, the Germans in May 1940
they landed on top of this fort: this here is the story of the Battle of Eben-Emael,
a key moment during the German invasion of Belgium, May 1940. Keep watching!
Hey, good to have you back on the channel. If you're new: my name is Stefan, I'm a Dutch history
teacher and I'd like to cover history for you and preferably I do that on location. Like right
now. I'm on top of the fort of Eben-Emael in Belgium. If you find this content interesting
consider subscribing; hit the notification bell. You can support me via Patreon,
PayPal or via a Super Thanks! You can all find the information below the video. This fort was
an important Belgian defending stronghold that could ruin the German advance. To get a grip on
the Belgian defensive policy before World War II we need to go back to WW1. Belgium was neutral,
yet it was invaded by Germany in August 1914 and its major part occupied for the
whole duration of the war. After World War One the Belgian government did not want this
to happen again and had a firm alliance with France. That alliance ended in 1936 when the
Belgians adopted again for a policy of neutrality. Understand here that Belgian politics positions
we are very divided about this and it led to fierce discussions. So until the eve of the
1940 German invasion Belgium was once again neutral. Despite the past experiences many
people thought and hoped Belgium would get away with it this time. Belgium had some talks with
the Allies - France and Great Britain - as well as with their neighbor the Netherlands,
but these talks were limited and of course in secret since Belgium was neutral after all. Let's
take a look at the Belgian Army of that time. Historian Geoffrey Stewart wrote this about it:
“It was very much an army of 1918 and well capable of stubborn bravery in defence. Like France,
much had been spent on static defence positions,
such as the formidable fort of Eben Emael, guarding
the Albert Canal crossings north of Liège.” The Belgians did in fact heavily rely on the
British and French: if a war would break out Belgian troops had to perform delaying actions
and hold the line between Antwerp and Louvain (Leuven) on the Dile (Dijle) River. The British
from Louvain to Wavre and the French from Wavre to Namur. The German plan of attack
consisted of a sweeping Invasion through Belgium into France. In order to circumvent the heavily
fortified French Maginot Line on the Franco-German border. Generally speaking the German invasion was
somewhat of a repeat of the World War One invasion: the Schlieffen Plan. The fort of
Eben-Emael was built by the Belgian government in the 1930s to prevent a repeat of 1914
The fort spanned a length of 900 meters and a width measured 700 meters. This stronghold
served as a military base for infantry and artillery units, and its defensive structures
were strategically positioned to provide mutual coverage in the event of an attack. Two of its
walls stood at a towering height of 40 meters, exhibiting an almost vertical inclination.
The remaining sides of the fortress were safeguarded by an artificial trench surrounding
them. The fort contained 7.5-cm cannons, 12-cm revolving cannon; machine guns; searchlights;
anti-tank cannons and anti-aircraft cannon. The fort itself was connected within by a series
of tunnels that totalled many kilometres. There was only one access to these tunnels at Fort 17
in the south-west of the vast complex. The fort was effectively self-sufficient as it contained
barracks, sick bays and a communication centre. The tunnel complex was built with
a ventilation system complete with filters in case of a poison gas attack. The fort had
one weakness though: it was vulnerable to an attack from the air. Hitler knew:
“Hitler took it sufficiently seriously as an obstacle to devote considerable amounts
of his own time to the problem of its capture. Accurate scale models were made and much research
carried out as to how to take it. A special unit was trained to land by glider on the roof
of the fortress at first light, others were to land near the Albert Canal bridges at the same
time. The whole operation was timed to be three hours before any official declaration of war.”
The raid posed numerous dangers: the departure but mostly the arrival had many difficulties; once the
gliders reached the fort's anti-aircraft guns they could be shot out of the sky. To mitigate
the risk they performed the attack during twilight but this limited the visibility of
the pilots. The strategy involved releasing the gliders 20 kilometers away from the fort at an
altitude of 2 000 meters. The selected pilots for the raid were regarded as the finest who were able
to land their glider in a 20 meter radius of their objective. The responsibility for the attack fell
upon theKoch Storm Detachment (Sturmabteilung Koch), which was established in November 1939. The primary division of this
unit consisted of paratroopers, including those specially trained in sapping techniques. The
sappers under the leadership of Colonel Rudolf Witzig, carried out the actual assault on the fort.
Colonel Witzig's unit underwent six months of training for this operation. They planned to employ 11 gliders,
with the expectation that the glider pilots would also participate in the attack. Each glider was
intended to transport seven or eight individuals, excluding the pilot. Each glider unit had two
targets to engage. The sappers carried substantial amounts of explosives and various weapons such as
flamethrowers. “Koch’s orders to Witzig’s group, code-named ‘Granite’, were direct ‘…you will put out
of action the armoured cupolas … destroy the enemy’s resistance and defend the gains you have made
until relieved’. Three other detachments of Koch’s battalion were to drop and land at the same
time to seize the Albert Canal bridges at Veldwezelt, Vroenhoven and Canne. Those groups were code-named
‘Steel’, ‘Concrete’ and ‘Iron’”. At 1 30 am, May 10 1940, the Belgian Army was put on high alert. The
soldiers stationed here in the fort were second rate and inexperienced troops. At 25 minutes after
five o'clock am the assailants arrived here on the fort, which was actually five minutes before
the actual German invasion of Belgium began. In order to bewilder the defenders the Germans
also made use of mock gliders; these served no purpose, landed in the vicinity and their only
goal was to confuse the defenders. Out of the 11 gliders nine successfully landed here on
the fort; one was lost due to anti-aircraft fire and another one landed just outside Cologne (Köln) due
to a broken tow rope. The Koch Storm Detachment merely took 60 minutes to establish control on
the roof of the fort. Once landed they embarked from their gliders and quickly placed explosive
charges on the different turrets you see here. So paratroopers they got their way
through these cupolas. And they put depth charges in this and then made them explode.
They successfully destroyed several targets, including an artillery observation casemate
and a traversing turret holding artillery pieces. However some objectives proved more challenging:
a pair of twin turrets with heavy caliber guns required the troops from two gliders to destroy
them. Primitive shaped charges were used but they only shook the turrets without destroying
them, necessitating the troops to climb the turrets and disable the gun barrels. And in
order to deactivate these guns they took their explosives and they threw them in the barrel.
Similar actions were taking place in the northern section of the fort where the troops aimed to
disable fortifications housing artillery pieces; they successfully destroyed a casemate and
observation coppola fitted with machine guns. However they encountered unexpected resistance
from a retractable coppola housing artillery pieces, which opened fire on the airborne troops.
Air support was called in and the Stuka squadron bombed the cupola, forcing the Belgians to retract
it. The Germans they used explosives in order to seal off the entrances and access of the
fortress so that the Belgians could not make a proper counter attack. And to get an impression
of the results of the explosives, look at this! This was concrete; concrete is built to last but
here you see the result of the explosives the Germans used. Meanwhile the commander Witzig,
I mentioned earlier, he did not make it to the fort initially: he had to land earlier due to
malfunctions; eventually he arrived on the fort as his troops had already began attacking the
emplacements and coppolas. The Belgians at some point did undertake a counter-attack which failed
due to effective German machine gun fire. The Belgians then made requests to fortresses in the
vicinity to aim their guns at Eben-Emael in order to shoot the attackers of the roof. This
however proved to be ineffective. Patrols deployed to keep the garrison inside the fort at
bay and prevent them from launching a counter attack. The relief of group Granite was delayed
due to heavy Belgian resistance and the need to construct new bridges; eventually the relief force
arrived. Confronted with the presence the enemy both within the fort and encircled by the massive
opposing force the defenders had no realistic option but to surrender. In total Belgian losses
were 23 dead and 59 wounded against the losses of the paratroopers: six dead and 15 wounded. A part of
the paratroopers involved in this battle wouldn't survive WW2: ten were killed on Crete and
another 20 on the Eastern Front: “The Fallschirmjäger, as with all of Germany’s armed forces, paid
a terrible price for Hitler’s hubris between 1939 and 1945. Yet in May 1940, with the victory of Eben
Emael fresh in their minds and in the public imagination, they must have felt unconquerable.
Only subsequent fighting under very different circumstances would strip them of such illusions.”