On the 10th of May the German army invaded the Netherlands.
On the 15th the Dutch signed the unconditional surrender.
You could consider this a fairly quick knock-out.
Yet, were there any Dutch successes during these tumulteous days of May 1940?
In this video I'm going to talk about the Times the Dutch Were Effective during the
German Invasion of the Netherlands in WWII.
Stay tuned!
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Let's start!
Let's start all the way in the south in the province of Limburg with its main city of
Maastricht.
Maastricht is located on each side of the Meuse river.
Now as I mentioned in the other videos the main line of defense was the Grebbeline.
And since Maastricht was located in a far corner in the south it wasn't expected to
hold out long.
The only thing the Dutch soldiers in Maastricht had to do was blow up the bridges (the Wilhelmina
Bridge and St. Servaas Bridge) in order to delay the German advance.
The Germans had sent several patrols in civilian clothes to defuse the demolition charges one
day earlier.
These was spotted and arrested.
Now this story I gotta tell you.
One group consisted of a German NCO and six Dutch collaborators.
The evening of the 9th of May they got to Maastricht and were all pretty nervous and
went for a drink.
But á drink became many drinks and when at 3.30 hours in the morning it was time to act and
go to the bridge, they were all piss-ass drunk.
Only two managed to go out and were spotted by suspicious civilians who allerted the authorities.
Dutch soldiers encountered the two and arrested them.
One tried to grab a pistol and was shot.
German armed vehicles made it through the east side of the city and some were knocked
out by anti-tank rifles.
The bridges were blown up and Dutch troops positioned themselves across the river to
fire at the advancing German troops that tried to get to the other side by rubber boats.
Eventually these Dutch troops had to surrender.
According to historian Brongers the stubborn Dutch resistance led to a delayed surrender
of the Belgian fortress of Eben Emael which was located not far from there.
In the grand scheme of things it might not have changed much but you can consider it
a success.
The same goes for the IJssel Line which was the first line of defense.
Also here the Dutch had to blow up the bridges and retreat.
German patrols in Dutch uniforms tried to defuse the demolition charges but most of
these were already intercepted by allert Dutch border guards.
Those who made it through saw the bridges had been blown up.
It costed the Germans substantial amount of bridge material to cross the IJssel river
but no significant delay.
Yet, the Dutch had done there bit.
Meanwhile the defenders at the Grebbe Line – the main line of defense – were preparing
for their engagement with the Germans.
The Germans had coordinated their main trust at the Grebbeberg, but kept their options
open.
One of these alternatives was carried out and failed.
It happened at the Dutch town of Scherpenzeel.
There the 227th German infantry division tried to break through.
They previously had an SS regiment at their support, however this regiment was redirected
to Noord-Brabant.
Also, the attack had to take place in the morning of the 13th of May but took place
in the afternoon, because of effective Dutch artillery fire.
One German regiment managed to capture Scherpenzeel, but couldn't be reinforced, because of Dutch
artillery fire, machine gun fire and landmines.
The Dutch co-operation between infantry and artillery had been superb.
As the dairy of an officer of the 15th R.I. wrote:
“The position is still fully intact, the moral of the men is excellent and we keep
holding off the enemy”.
Another smaller attack took place at Ochten, but also their no breakthrough was achieved.
Ironically, the images from my graduation movie you've seen in this video's have been
recorded at a reconstructed trench near Scherpenzeel, where this battle had taken place.
If you want to see my graduation film, go to my Patreon page.
So far we've seen succesfull retreats and the repelling of a German attack.
Did you know that the Dutch actually won a battle?
It happened at the Afsluitdijk in the north of the Netherlands.
The Afsluitdijk is a major dam and causaway that was built during the inter war years
and links the provinces of Friesland and Noord-Holland.
The German plan of attack was to make its way into Noord-Holland by crossing the Afsluitdijk.
At the Frisian side the settlement of Kornwerderzand was provided with casemates.
These fortification were bombarded from the air followed by German howitzer fire.
Yet, it left the defenders positions intact.
When the Germans tried to cross they were met with heavy machine gun fire.
The fortress and thus the Afsluitdijk remained in Dutch hands until the unconditional surrender
on the 15th of May 1940.
The Germans had an ambitious plan.
The Germans made use of paratroopers, so-called Fallshirmjäger, and of airlanding troops.
The paratroopers came jumping from the air.
German air troops that landed near Den Haag, internationally known as The Hague.
They had to make their way to the govermental city and capture the queen, army high command
and the goverment.
A checkmate as it were.
Germans paratroopers and airlanding troops were dropped near the airports of Ypenburg,
Valkenburg and Ockenburg.
At Ypenburg surprised Dutch soldiers rushed to their machine guns and destroyed many German
landing vehicles.
Over 1000 German troops got captured by the Dutch.
The remaining German units fled.
And since the defenders blocked the way to The Hague, the Germans didn't reached that
city, let alone capture the queen and government.
Some German scattered units – among which commanding officer Von Sponeck, – managed
to hold out till the Dutch surrender and were never captured.
In any case, the ambitious German plan had failed.
And this is quite a good performance since many Dutch troops located here weren't the
best trained ones, since these were located at the Grebbe Line.
I remember having spoken to a Dutch veteran who had his baptism of fire and had never
fired his rifle before.
Now, some Dutch viewers might credit the Dutch marines in Rotterdam for their outstanding
performance.
This is due the mythical status the Dutch marines enjoyed in the years after the battle.
Stories of how they swam with knifes between their teeth across the Meuse river and fought
the Germans hand to hand.
How Germans spoke of them as the "Die schwarzen Teufel" (The Black Devils), since there uniforms
were dark blue, but these stories have no proof.
Nevertheless they fought bravily.
And that can be said about a lot of Dutch soldiers during May 1940.
See, the German invasion of the Netherlands came as a shock for the Dutch people.
Where the Belgians were like – okay, here we go again – many Dutch citizens believed
neutrality would be our safeguard once again.
Then the invasion did took place and after five days it was already over.
Many Dutch soldiers had to surrender without a fight.
The soldiers at the Afsluitdijk, Scherpenzeel
and Den Haag had actually repelled the attackers.
And yet, the had to surrender.
That was a true humiliation for them.
And because of the chaotic rout that occured at the Grebbeberg in the final stages of the
battle, some people became cynical and believed that all Dutch soldiers were cowards.
And that all Dutch soldiers gave up without a fight.
Heck, many commenting people make such claims.
But this surely isn't the case.
Then you also have those on the other side of the spectrum.
Those who take things out of proportion and claim that the Dutch could've won but also
this isn't realistic.