During the German invasion of the Netherlands there was also fighting in the very south for the
city of Maastricht, which happened on May 10, 1940. The Germans came from there and
the Dutch had to blow up the bridges in order to delay the German advance.
Did they succeed in this? That's what you're going to find out in this video.
We're going to talk about a forgotten World War II battle: the Battle of Maastricht.
The Netherlands mobilized at end of August 1939. On one hand it was believed the Netherlands would
remain its neutrality – just as the country had done in the First World War – but
others believed the Netherlands would not be so lucky this time. A German attack seemed
possible. And what then? Well for that several defence lines were created. The main defensive
line was the Grebbe Line. The men stationed here had to hold the Germans at any cost. More to the
east there was the IJssel Line. The men had to delay the enemy by blowing up the
bridges in time. Further south there is the Meuse River and that's where the Meuse Line
was located with the same goal: delay the enemy as much as possible and then retreat.
Now look at this map. Maastricht is here, located in the south of Limburg Province. It
wasn't really seen as a place that could be defended. However, its garrisson could play
a role in the delay of the German troops by blowing up the Meuse bridges in the city. See,
Maastricht is built on both sides of the River Meuse. Its bridges (the Wilhelmina Bridge and
St. Servaas Bridge and the railway bridge) had to be destroyed once the Germans attacked the city.
For the Germans the south of Limburg Province, and thus Maastricht, was on the route of their
advance through Belgium. Right across the border in Belgium was Fort Eben-Emael, where the Germans
made a daring glider attack. In order to relieve these troops, the Germans had to cross the Meuse
in the south of Limburg fast. Let's take a look at what happened here at Maastricht. And let's
take a look at what happened on 9 May, 1940: the evening before the German invasion took place.
The Germans they sent several patrols to defuse the demolition charges underneath the bridges.
They also did that further up north at the IJssellinie. Three different patrols were sent to the
city of Maastricht; two were intercepted; one made it to the city. They arrived here too early, it
was in the middle of the night, and they were kind of nervous. So in order to dull the census
they went for a drink and Maastricht is a good place to go for a drink I can tell you that.
But a drink became many drinks! And when it was time to act at 3.30 am in the morning these guys
were all hammered. Two of them made it out of the cafe and wanted to carry out their mission,
but they were spotted by civilians who thought they behaved a broader suspicious; they called
the authorities. Soldiers came at the scene and one of the two tried to grab his pistol
and was shot on the spot. The Germans were not going to cross the Meuse (Maas) river that easy.
At several crossing of the Meuse – at Stein,
Urmond, Berg, Obbicht, Roosteren and Gennep – the Germans conquered the bridges and overtook
the Dutch casemates. One German officer was impressed by the Dutch fighting spirit. He wrote:
“The Dutch soldier offered courageous and stubborn resistance. […] Only after heavy shelling and
after the use of bundles of hand grenades tied together could the soldiers be forced to leave
the concrete fortifications built in the ground (the casemates). Often enough we have found dead
people in them, who had suffered very serious injuries. Only then, bleeding from many wounds,
often the last man of the garrison waved a white flag, a dirty rag that was slowly raised.”
The Dutch lacked proper communication. As a result of this units stationed at other sections of the
Meuse weren't aware of the hopelessness of their situation and therefore fought on.
As the Germans advanced towards Maastricht found a total of 750 Dutch men opposite them
in the city. Of these, 200 were stationed in the Belgian border area, 300 on the eastern
edges of the city, 100 in a semicircle around the center, and one company (150 men) at the bridges.
The armament of the Dutch consisted largely of hand weapons; they had only two anti-tank guns.
Fierce fighting took place north of Maastricht at the city of Borgharen.
Estimations of German casualties vary: from dozens to over 100. Eventually the Germans
got the upper hand and they managed to cross the bridges north of Maastricht; from the north and
the east the Germans Advanced towards the city their panzers crossed the narrow streets of
Wyck, on the east side of Maastricht. The Dutch defenders at the east side of Maastricht they
fought the best they could. They fired with their anti-tank rifles at the incoming German panzers
knocking out several of them. The Germans needed more machine gun fire in order to
drive the defenders away. One Dutch soldier wrote about his experiences the following:
“About halfway through the battle, [enlisted soldier] Plusjé's left anti-tank gun was hit.
His helmet flew off. The beam above his weapon fell and the splinters flew off. Our sandbags
were also hit. They emptied. I've made another stack. I also tried to fire the machine gun,
but it failed. The armored cars fired grenades and tracer ammunition from machine
guns. I saw a bullet flash right past [enlisted soldier] Rietveld's face.
At the last moment the enemy infantry advanced along the walls and houses.”
As time progressed the Germans saw their chances to gain the bridges intact deminish.
At 6:00 hours the St. Servaas Bridge was blown up. Fifteen minutes later also the
Wilhelmina Bridge was blown up. Further up north there Railway Bridge was still
in one piece. The defenders were approached by men in Dutch Police Trooper uniforms who
started to fire at them. This firefight drew the attention of the defenders on the west side
of the Meuse river who delivered supporting fire. As the east side defenders retreated
across the bridge the Germans were hot on their heels. As the last defender crossed
the Railway Bridge and the Germans were storming across it, the bridge was blown up.
*Newsreel*
The Dutch defenders trying to hold off the German attackers the best they could. At the south of the
city they fired with their machine guns on a German recon knocking out several vehicles and
even at the destroyed bridges the Dutch kept firing at the German attackers: at some point
the Germans placed an anti-tank gun at one of the destroyed bridges; this anti-tank gun was
knocked out of action and its crew was killed. A second German try gave similar results. Also the
Germans tried to cross the Meuse River with several rubber boats. Some of them were also hit and sunk.
The heaviest fighting to place further north at the Railway Bridge between the retreating
Dutch defenders and the German attackers. Two German armored cars were immobilized and so
was a light tank. Dutch Lieutenant-Colonel Govers - Territorial Commander of Limburg -
had a meeting with his colleagues at seven hours in the morning. They realized that the
Germans had made crossings elsewhere and that it was only a matter of time before the city of
Maastricht would be surrounded. He decided that the ancient city with all its cultural heritage
should suffer no more than necessary and he went to the Germans to destroyed Wilhelminabrug
under a white flag: at 9:30 the Dutch forces inside Maastricht and its surroundings laid down
their weapons and surrendered. With that the Battle of Maastricht was over. The battle of
Zuid-Limburg demanded the lives of 47 Dutch soldiers. It is not known how many Dutch civilians perished
during the fighting; 130 to 190 German soldiers died during the battle and according to
historian Brongers the Dutch actions here led to delayment in the Belgian surrender at the Fort of
Eben-Emael. Now in the grand scheme of things I don't think it would make much of a difference...
Maastricht would have fallen in enemy hands no matter what. The Battle of Maastricht
is actually kind of a footnote in history. Heck! The German invasion of the Netherlands is a footnote
in history which makes this battle a footnote of a footnote, but you know, I wanted to cover it
regardless. Hope you enjoyed! If you wanna learn about other battles during the German invasion of the Netherlands, click here.
I want to thank you for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. En groetjes uit Mestreech!