When Germany invaded Belgium in May 1940 French and British troops rushed in to stop the German
onslaught.
Yet, did you know that British and French troops also entered the Netherlands once the
German invasion started?
This here is the story of the forgotten Allied 'assistance' during the Battle of the
Netherlands (May 1940). Keep watching.
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Just like at the beginning of the First World War the Dutch government took a position of
neutrality. Dutch military commanders however where not so sure
that if another war would break out in Europe, the
Netherlands could remain neutral.
See, the original German Von Schlieffenplan included an invasion
through the Netherlands.
The German diviated from the plan.
Dutch general Reijnders wasn't convinced that the Netherlands would be lucky again this time.
The Dutch army was lacking professional staff, training and war material.
Reijnders proposed draconic plans to reinforce the army with the purchase of artillery, anti
aircraft guns, anti tank guns, aircraft and tanks.
Years of budget cuts made these plans hard to realize. Then
on 28 August 1939, actually a few days before the German invasion of Poland, the Dutch army mobilized.
Chief of general staf Reijnders got supreme command of land and sea forces.
Even before this nomination Reijnders argued with member of the government and minister
of defense on how an ideal defense had to be realized.
Several lines of defence had to be reinforced.
There was the IJssel Line, the Grebbe Line and the Nieuw Holland Water Line.
Tensions between Reijnders and the government mounted and on 31 Januari 1940 Reijnders resigned. He was replaced by General Henri Winkelman.
With the limited resources he had, he choose the Grebbe Line as main line of defence.
The areas in front of the line were inundated, flooded.
Too deep to cross by vehicle but too shallow to
cross by boat.
The Grebbeberg was due to its higher ground open for a German
ground attack.
When Winkelman left his office by midnight, on 9 May 1940, he said to his colleague:
“Now the gentlemen [the Germans] can come, we have done everything we can.
I'm going home to catch a few hours of sleep."
Four hours later the first German troops crossed the border.
The German invasion of the Netherlands had begun.
The first German troops that crossed the border were actually troops in disguise.
They were dressed as Dutch police troops.
Most of these patrols were intercepted by Dutch border guards.
A few made it through, to the IJssel Line, only to see that the bridges had been blown up in front of them.
Some skirmishes took place after which Dutch defenders, according to plan, retreated to
the Grebbe Line.
The Germans pushed through the north and south of the Netherlands practically unapposed. The Peel Raam Line was breached within a day.
Air raids were carried out on specific targets and paratroopers were dropped near Dordrecht,
Rotterdam and Den Haag.
At Den Haag they were defeated.
The Battle of the Grebbeberg lasted till May 13.
The Germans broke through there but in the north didn't manage to push through across the
Afsluitdijk.
Also, German air landing troops got pinned down at Rotterdam and weren't able to cross
the bridges there.
On the 14th Rotterdam was bombed and the next day the Dutch unconditional surrender was
a fact.
With the exeption of the south western province of Zeeland which capitulated later.
Some people claim that unlike neutral Belgium the Netherlands had to fend for itself when
Germany invaded.
But that isn't fully true.
The Allies promised military support in case of a German attack and guess what: the support
did arrive.
Let's look at these operations.
Already on 10 May a British 95-men strong demolition crew arrived to destroy objects
useful for the Germans.
Two days later a 200-men strong marine detachment arrived.
Its commander promised a larger battallion would arrive soon.
On the night from 12 to 13 May Dutch troops stationed in Hoek van Holland saw British
ships approaching the Dutch coast.
Two British transport ships that were escorted by a detroyer arrived in the port of Hoek
van Holland.
A battallion of the Irish Guards under the command of lt-col Haydon disembarked.
His orders were to assist the Dutch at Den Haag and read as follows:
“In supporting those operations, you will perform any duty assigned to your battalion,
if you consider it a reasonable wartime operation.
You will not, however, come under his [the local Dutch commander's] orders and will not
hesitate to refuse requests for help which, in your opinion, entail a useless sacrifice
of your people.”
If the Dutch government would leave Den Haag they had to pull back to Hoek van Holland
to be evacuated from there. Now look at these orders.
With words like 'in your opinion, entail a useless sacrifice of your people', well, that's a
a rather flexible assignment.
It basically came down to the British commander on the spot who decided if, when and where
action was to be undertaken.
This would lead to disappointment among Dutch troops who hoped that the proverbial cavalry
had arrived. Where it came down to was that commander Haydon refused any request of the
Dutch and he basically took up positions around Hoek van Holland.
He refused to advance to Den Haag.
When he learned that Den Haag was safe – because the Germans were defeated
at the Battle of Ypenburg – he saw no reason to go there anyway.
He didn't want to sent any troops to Rotterdam – a city in the frontline by now – because
he believed the city was in no danger.
Now he believed the French had captured the Moerdijkbruggen, which they hadn't, so he
acted on the wrong information.
According to Dutch testimonies the morale of the British troops in Hoek van Holland was very poor.
The British war ships on the other hand were willing to provide fire against the attackers.
The Dutch asked to British troops to help them with an attack on the German positions in the Staalduinse Bossen (a nearby forest) where
remnants of German air troops were holding up. The British refused to do so.
The Dutch had to carry out the attack themselves.
A few Germans were killed, others were captured, and others
escaped.
On 13 May German bombers harassed the British troops stationed at Hoek van Holland.
This caused panic in the British ranks.
Especially when the rumour spread Rotterdam had fallen and the Germans troops were on their way.
Rotterdam hadn't fallen yet.
The city would be bombed the next day.
The British troops embarked on their ships before the order came from London.
The order came at 12:30 hours, only to be revoked 40 minutes later but due to the order they
had, they were allowed to leave.
Thus ended the British 'help' during the German invasion of the Netherlands.
Now let's look at the French. Where the French any better? Well, you may be surprised...
The French appeared in two Dutch provinces: Noord-Brabant and Zeeland.
Let's look at Noord-Brabant first.
The main German thrust came through Noord-Brabant.
In order to make it to the Moerdijk Bridges and then reach Dordrecht,
and then push into the heart of Holland.
The French troops that entered Noord-Brabant belonged to the French Seventh Army and were
under command of Henri-Honoré Giraud.
Before the German attack Giraud had envisioned a French-British-Belgian-Dutch front.
As we know now, nothing came of that.
Yet, the French did undertake an attempt.
Giraud was aware that the Dutch forces in Noord-Brabant were very weak and needed to be reinforced.
Also because he did not hold the Dutch Army in high regard.
When in the early morning of May 10, 1940 he was informed he ordered his troops to rush through Belgium to the Netherlands.
The French troops were under direct command by Lieutenant-Colonel Lestoquoi.
They were held up by Dutch barricades, causing great annoyances.
By the evening to managed to reach the Dutch city of Breda and met with the local Dutch commander Schmidt.
Lieutenant-Colonel Lestoquoi informed Schmidt they were coming to defend Noord-Brabant.
He also stated that both his units would choose a position behind the Wilhelmina Canal between
Tilburg and Oosterhout.
Schmidt was requested to position itself between Tilburg and the Belgian border, and on the
south side the Belgian 18th Division would link up again at Turnhout.
This was in line with the instruction given to the 7th Army.
They would not develop further than Tilburg.
After a few things had been agreed, the French delegation left.
The meeting and the general organization on site left a bad impression with Lestoqoui
Who held the Dutch in low regard.
He also expressed his negativity towards a Belgian liaison officer (he had picked up on the way to use as an interpreter).
When the French troops witnessed Dutch troops retreating from the Peel Raam Line negativity increased.
Some French spoke of the Dutch as traitors and 'Krauts from the north'.
Dutch Commander Schmidt relocated his HQ to Breda.
Once he got there he found the place to be abandoned.
He therefore rushed back to Tilburg. But he missed a turn. He therefore ran into the enemy and was captured.
Because of the German breakthrough further south French commander Gamelin decided to
let his forces take up positions near Breda and keep the Germans from getting to Antwerpen
(Belgium) and Zeeland.
Developments in Belgium (the Allies pulling back to the Dyle Line) made the French positions
untenable.
The pulled back and performed some rearguard action.
The German advance towards Moerdijk and Dordrecht was not threatened for a moment.
A weak French attempt to attack the bridgehead at Moerdijk failed miserably.
The French proceeded so cautiously that the Germans were given hours to call in the Luftwaffe
who bombed the French away - at the cost of 32 Dutch civilian and a few dozen French
casualties.
Noord-Brabant was already given up by Winkelman
before the German invasion started.
But maintaining Brabant was vital for a possible Dutch-Allied co-operation. And so was Zeeland.
French troops there, they saw more action.
French troops entered Zeeland as soon as the Germans invaded the Netherlands.
They were led by Marcel Deslaurens.
The detachment that was sent to Walcheren island was led by general Durand.
After his arrival Durand was dissapointed by the weak looking Dutch garrisson.
He and the local Dutch commander couldn't agree on
a joined plan of defense.
The center of defense was set up in Walcheren and Zuid-Beveland.
Two lines of defense were set up: the Bath Line and the Zanddijk Line where the latter
was the main line of defense.
The other islands were barely defended at all.
Durand argued the location of the main line at Zanddijk was wrong.
He feared the Germans would bypass the line via Tholen and make an amphibious attack on
Zuid-Beveland.
Reports that began to arrive on 12 May caused unrest among the Dutch troops.
On 14 May German artillery hit the Bath Line and panic among the defenders resulted into
a rout.
This obviously made a demoralizing impact on the defenders further west located at the Zanddijk Line.
On top of that: soon the report came of the unconditional surrender of the Netherlands.
Except for the soldiers stationed in Zeeland. They had to fight on, because the Allied troops needed time to evacuate the province.
And thus the Dutch defenders in Zeeland had to fight on.
French reinforcements did arrive.
These French troops did not join the Dutch at the Zanddijk Line but at the channel
behind it as well as the north of Zuid-Beveland.
The Zanddijk Line fell on 15 May.
On the 16th and 17th Tholen and Schouwen-Duiveland were taken by the Germans with some minor
skirmishes here and there.
The French were optimistic about the defenses of Walcheren, located at Sloedam, because
it was seperated from Zuid-Beveland by a long narrow dam.
On the 17th a German attack was repelled by the French.
What followed was an artillery duel which continued throughout the day.
During these barages the historical city centre of Middelburg was largely flattened.
Luftwaffe airraids on French positions lowered moral to a point that when the Germans made
the crossing the French either fled or surrendered.
A Dutch detachment stationed there had already pulled back.
And thus, Walcheren was for the taken.
Some skirmishes did occur here and there but the Dutch troops of the 38th R.I.
didn't resist any longer.
This endangered the French naval retreat.
French rear guard fighting led by General Marcel Deslaurens ensured a succesfull French
retreat.
Deslaurens fought till the end and was killed in action.
That night the city of Vlissingen surrendered.
Zeeuw-Vlaanderen wasn't heavily defender after this.
The French retreated and some Dutch troops among them.
On 19 May the last active Dutch troops left the Netherlands.