Battle of the Netherlands
Part of World War II
The destroyed city of Rotterdam, after its terror bombing
Date May 10, 1940 - May 17, 1940 Location The Netherlands Result German Victory
Combatants
Kingdom of the Netherlands	Germany
Commanders
Henry G. Winkelman, Jan Joseph Godfried baron van Voorst tot Voorst	Fedor von Bock (Army Group B)
Strength
9 divisions, 676 guns, 1 tank (inoperational), 124 aircraft Total: 350,000 men	22 divisions, 1,378 guns, 759 tanks, 1150 aircraft Total: 750,000 men
Casualties
7,500 dead, missing or wounded, 343,250 captured	4,000 dead, 3,000 wounded, 700 missing, 1400 captured

The Battle of the Netherlands (Slag om Nederland in Dutch) was part of Case Yellow (Fall Gelb), the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) and France during World War II. The battle lasted from 10 May 1940 until 17 May 1940, during which Nazi Germany conquered and occupied the Netherlands. The battle ended after the devastating bombing of Rotterdam by the Luftwaffe and the subsequent decision of the Dutch military to surrender to prevent other cities from suffering the same fate. Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian... Image File history File links Rotterdam. ... The city heart of Rotterdam after the bombing, the ruin of the (now restored) Laurens Kerk is the only building that reminds people of the Rotterdams medieval architecture. ... May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (138th in leap years). ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... Motto: Je Maintiendrai (Dutch: Ik zal handhaven, English: I Shall Uphold) Anthem: Wilhelmus van Nassouwe Capital Amsterdam1 Largest city Amsterdam Official language(s) Dutch2 Government Parliamentary democracy Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Beatrix  - Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende Independence Eighty Years War   - Declared July 26, 1581   - Recognised January 30, 1648 (by Spain... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Netherlands. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Netherlands. ... Henri Gerard Winkelman (August 17, 1876 - December 27, 1952) was born in Maastricht, Netherlands. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Netherlands. ... Jan Joseph Godfried, Baron van Voorst tot Voorst (December 29, 1880 - November 11, 1963) was the second highest officer in command of the Dutch armed forces during World War II . ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ... Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock Fedor von Bock (December 3, 1880 - May 4, 1945) was a German field marshal during World War II. He was born in Küstrin, Germany. ... During World War II, the Western Front was the theater of fighting west of Germany, encompassing France, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Denmark. ... Combatants United Kingdom, France Germany Commanders Lord Gort Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A), Ewald von Kleist (Panzergruppe von Kleist) Strength approx. ... Combatants Canada United Kingdom Germany Commanders Louis Mountbatten J. H. Roberts  ? Strength 6086 1500 Casualties Canada: 907 dead, 2340 captured; United Kingdom: 555+; United States:3+; Germany: 311 dead, 280 missing The Dieppe Raid, also known as The Battle of Dieppe or Operation Jubilee, during World War II, was an... Combatants Croat SS soldiers Germany Commanders Ferid Džanić Unknown Strength 500-1,000 Unknown Casualties 146 N/A The Villefranche-de-Rouergue uprising took place on September 17, 1943, when a division composed of about 500-1000 Croats and Bosnian Muslims from Croatia, which has been sent by force... Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Norway Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe... Combatants United States1 Free France, United Kingdom Germany Commanders Jacob L. Devers Johannes Blaskowitz Strength 250,000 (approx) 230,000 (approx) Casualties 4,500 American, 4,500+ French 125,000+ (approx) Monument to the landings of Allied troops under General Patch on the beach of St Tropez, France. ... The drive to the Siegfried Line was one of the final Allied phases in World War II of the Western European Campaign. ... Combatants United Kingdom United States Poland Germany Commanders Bernard Montgomery Gerd von Rundstedt Strength XXX Corps, 35,000 airborne 20,000 Casualties 17,000 casualties 8,000 casualties Operation Market Garden (September 17-September 25, 1944) was an Allied military operation in World War II. Its tactical objectives were to... The Battle of Overloon (Code named Operation Aintree) took place between September 30th and October 18th 1944. ... Combatants Canada United Kingdom Poland Belgium Norway Germany Commanders Guy Simonds (acting) (First Canadian Army) Gustav-Adolf von Zangen (German 15th Army) Strength  ?  ? Casualties 12,873 total; including 6,367 Canadian  ? The Battle of the Scheldt was a series of military operations which took place in northern Belgium and south... Combatants United States Germany Commanders Courtney Hodges Walther Model Strength 120,000 unknown Casualties 33,000 dead and wounded 12,000 dead - number of wounded and captured not exactly known The Battle of Hurtgen Forest (German: Schlacht im Hürtgenwald) is the name given to the series of fierce battles... Combatants United States Germany Commanders William Simpson Gerhard Wilck Strength 100,000 soldiers 12,000 soldiers Casualties 2000 killed 3000 wounded 5500 killed or wounded, 5,600 POW The Battle of Aachen was a battle in World War II that took place in October 1944 in the German city of... Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge Combatants United States United Kingdom Nazi Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower George Patton Bernard Montgomery Walther Model Gerd von Rundstedt Adolf Hitler Strength Dec 16 - start of the Battle: about 83,000 men; 242 Sherman tanks, 182... During World War II, Operation Plunder was the crossing of the Rhine river at Rees, Wesel and south of the Lippe Canal by the British Second Army, under Lieutenant-General Miles C Dempsey, and the US Ninth Army, under Lieutenant-General William H Simpson. ... Combatants France United Kingdom Canada Czechoslovakia Poland Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand (French) Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) H.G. Winkelman (Dutch) Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di... Combatants France United Kingdom Canada Czechoslovakia Poland Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand (French) Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) H.G. Winkelman (Dutch) Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di... The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries (see Country) on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse (Maas) rivers. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian... May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (138th in leap years). ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... The bombing of Rotterdam was a terror bombardment by German forces on 14 May 1940, in the initial phases of World War II, when they invaded the Netherlands. ... The Deutsche Luftwaffe or   (German: air force, literally Air Weapon, IPA: ) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ...

Background

Britain and France declared war on Germany in 1939 following the invasion of Poland, but no land operations in Europe occurred during the period of the Phony War, while both sides built up their forces, expecting a long war. Hitler on 9 October ordered to make plans for an invasion of the Low Countries, to use them as a base against Great Britain and pre-empt a similar attack from the Entente, which could threaten the vital Ruhr Area. British Ministry of Home Security Poster of a type that was common during the Phony War The Phony War , or in Winston Churchills words the Twilight War, was a phase in early World War II marked by few military operations in Continental Europe, in the months following the German... Hitler redirects here. ... European military alliances in 1915. ... Map of the Ruhr Area The Ruhr Area (German Ruhrgebiet, colloquially Ruhrpott or Kohlenpott or simply Pott) is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, consisting of a number of large (former) industrial cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west, and Lippe to...

Although the Netherlands had been neutral during World War I, the sympathies during that conflict were more on the German side. Wars with Germany had been non-existent and even before the unification of the German nation in 1871 wars with German states had been extremely rare. Wars with the main allied parties on the Western Front (France and Britain) however had been frequent, especially the recent actions by the British against the Boers (Descendants of Dutch immigrants) in South Africa (once a Dutch colony) had been detrimental to the overall image of the Entente. An event well portraying this attitude was that of the asylum given to the German Emperor Wilhelm II after he fled to the Netherlands in 1918 and giving him a castle called Huis ter Doorn where he lived until his death in 1941. However this didn't by far mean the Dutch people weren't shocked by the atrocities committed against the Belgian civilian population by the German army. They in fact sheltered more than a million refugees. Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz... Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the contested armed frontier between lands controlled by Germany to the East and the Allies to the West. ... Afrikaners are white South Africans of predominantly Calvinist Dutch, German, French Huguenot, Friesian and Walloon descent who speak Afrikaans. ... A map showing the territory that the Netherlands held at various points in history. ... Wilhelm II of Prussia and Germany, Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Hohenzollern (January 27, 1859 - June 4, 1941) was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and the last King (König) of Prussia from 1888 - 1918. ... The bust of William II at Huis Doorn Huis Doorn (Doorn House) is a small manor house that lies outside Doorn, a small town near Utrecht, the Netherlands. ... Army The German Army (German: Heer  ) is the land component of the Bundeswehr (Federal Defence Forces) of the Federal Republic of Germany. ...

When Hitler came to power, the Dutch began to rearm but much slower than other nations. The consecutive governments just did not see, or wanted to see, Nazi Germany as a threat. Partly this was caused by a wish not to antagonise Germany; partly it was made inevitable by a policy of strict budgetary limits with which the conservative Dutch governments in vain tried to fight the Great Depression, which hit Dutch society particularly hard. Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... The Great Depression was an economic downturn which started in 1929 and lasted through most of the 1930s. ...

After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the following outbreak of the Second World War, the Netherlands hoped to remain neutral just like they had done 25 years previously. To ensure this neutrality the Dutch army was mobilised and entrenched. Large sums (more than a billion guilders) were at last made available to re-equip the forces, but it proved very difficult to obtain the necessary materiel in wartime (especially as the Dutch ordered much of their new equipment from Germany). Combatants Poland Germany Soviet Union Slovakia Commanders Edward Rydz-Śmigły Fedor von Bock (Army Group North) Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group South) Mikhail Kovalov (Belorussian Front) Semyon Timoshenko (Ukrainian Front) Ferdinand Čatloš (Field Army Bernolak) Strength Poland: 39 divisions 16 brigades 4,300 guns 880 tanks 400 aircraft Total... Guilder is the English name for the Dutch Gulden. ...

The strategic position of the Low Countries, located between France and Germany on the uncovered flanks of their fortification lines, made them the logical route for an offensive by either side. The Entente tried to convince them not to wait for the inevitable German attack but join them first. Both the Belgians and Dutch refused however, even when the German attack plans fell into Belgian hands after a German aircraft crash in January 1940.

The French considered violating their neutrality if they had not taken the allied side before the planned large allied offensive in the summer of 1941. After the German invasion of Norway and Denmark (both without a declaration of war) it became clear to the Dutch military that staying out of the conflict might prove impossible and they started to fully prepare for war, both mentally and physically, by taking counter-measures against a possible airborne assault. Most civilians however still cherished the illusion their country might be spared. To many people the attitude of the Dutch people and their leaders at this time might seem incredibly naive, but they hoped the restrained policy of the Entente and Central Powers during World War I might be repeated and tried to keep a low profile and to stay out of a war at all cost, a point of view that, with the figure of human life lost during the First World War, may well be understood. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan on December 8, 1941, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Triple Alliance. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

The Dutch forces

Dutch mobile anti-aircraft gun. This AA unit was actually a German AA truck which the Dutch bought from the Allies who captured it in late 1918 from the defeated German army.

In the Netherlands nearly all the material conditions were present for a successful defence: a dense population, wealthy, young, disciplined and well-educated; a geography favouring the defender and a strong technological and industrial basis including a not-inconsiderable armaments industry. However, these had not been exploited: while the German army at the time still had many shortcomings in equipment and training, compared to the Dutch army, one could say that it was David and Goliath. The myth of the German equipment advantage over the opposing armies in the Battle of France was in fact a reality in the case of the battle of the Netherlands. On the one hand there was the, in comparison, hypermodern German army, with tanks, dive bombers (such as the Stuka) and submachine guns and on the other hand the Dutch army, with as armoured forces only one tank (an inoperational French Renault FT-17), 39 armoured cars and five tankettes; an airforce consisting of mostly biplanes and infantry armed with Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 bolt-action rifles made before the Great War. The Dutch government's attitude towards war was reflected in the state of the country's armed forces, which had not been properly rearmed since 1904. Image File history File links BATTLENETHERLANDS2. ... Image File history File links BATTLENETHERLANDS2. ... American troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft warfare, or air defense, is any method of engaging military aircraft in combat from the ground. ... Look up ally in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Army The German Army (German: Heer  ) is the land component of the Bundeswehr (Federal Defence Forces) of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... David faces Goliath in single combat. ... // For the Derek Sherinian album, see Mythology (Derek Sherinian album). ... Combatants France United Kingdom Canada Czechoslovakia Poland Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand (French) Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) H.G. Winkelman (Dutch) Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di... A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy. ... Junkers Ju 87 Dive-Bombers The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was the most famous Sturzkampfflugzeug (German dive bomber) in World War II, instantly recognisable by its inverted gull-wings and fixed undercarriage. ... An MP5A4 (fixed stock and 3-round burst trigger group), a popular modern submachine gun A submachine gun is a firearm that combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol, and is usually between the two in weight and size. ... The Renault FT-17 (Automitrailleuse à chenilles Renault FT modèle 1917) was a French light tank; it is among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. ... Military armored cars A French VBL reconnaissance vehicle. ... Polish TK-3 A tankette was a type of small armoured fighting vehicle resembling a tank, intended for infantry support or reconnaissance. ... A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings of similar spans, normally one mounted above, and the other level with, the underside of the fuselage. ... 8x50R Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 Long Rifle The Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 rifle is an early bolt-action rifle, employed by the Austro-Hungarian army throughout World War I, and post-war by both Austrian and Hungarian armies. ... Half opened bolt on a Winchester Model 70. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

The Dutch defence

The Dutch equipment shortages were so bad they actually limited the number of large units: there was just enough artillery to allow the formation of only eight infantry divisions (combined in four Army Corps) and one Light (i.e. motorised) Division. Apart from two independent brigades (Brigade A and Brigade B) all other troops were raised as light infantry "border battalions" that were in fact dispersed all over the territory to delay enemy movement. They made use of many lines of pillboxes without any depth. Real modern fortresses like the Belgian stronghold of Eben Emael were non-existent. In comparison Belgium despite a smaller manpower base fielded 23 divisions. After September 1939 desperate efforts were made to improve the situation, but with very little result. Germany, for obvious reasons, delayed its deliveries; France was hesitant to equip an army that would not unequivocally take its side and the one abundant source of readily available weaponry, the Soviet Union, was inaccessible as the Dutch exceptionally didn't recognise the communist regime. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1120x1304, 393 KB) Description Overview of military defensive lines in the Netherlands in may 1940. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1120x1304, 393 KB) Description Overview of military defensive lines in the Netherlands in may 1940. ... ...

On 10 May the most obvious deficiency of the Dutch Army lay in its shortage of armour. Whereas the other major participants had all a considerable armoured force, the Netherlands had not been able to obtain the minimum of 140 modern tanks they found necessary. The single Renault tank, for which just a driver had been trained and which had the sole task of testing antitank-obstacles, remained the only example of its kind. There were two squadrons of armoured cars, each with a dozen Landsverk vehicles; another dozen DAF M39 cars were in the process of being fitted with armament. A single platoon of five Carden-Loyd Mark VI tankettes used by the Artillery completed the list of Dutch armour. May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... For other uses, see Armour (disambiguation). ... Landsverk (AB Landsverk) was founded in 1872 as Firman Petterson & Ohlsen. ... DAF is a Dutch automobile company, with its main offices in Eindhoven. ... Platoon is a term from military science. ... The Carden-Loyd Mark VI was a British pre-war tankette. ...

The Dutch Artillery had available a total of 676 howitzers and field guns: 310 Krupp 75 mm field guns, partly produced in licence; 52 105 mm Bofors howitzers, the only really modern pieces; 144 obsolete Krupp 125 mm guns; 40 150 mm sFH13's; 72 Krupp 150 mm L/24 howitzers and 28 Vickers 152 mm L/15 howitzers. Many of these could only fire black powder shells, that could not really detonate. As antitank-guns 386 Böhler 47 mm L/39's were available; another 300 antiquated 6 Staal and 8 Staal field guns performed the same role for the covering forces. None of the 220 modern pieces ordered in Germany had been delivered at the time of the invasion. Loading a WW1 British 15 in (381 mm) howitzer A howitzer or hauwitzer is a type of field artillery. ... A field gun is an artillery piece. ... For the U.S. town, see Krupp, Washington. ... Bofors is an iron works, cannon maker, and defence industry located in Karlskoga, Sweden. ... Vickers Armstrong (Aircraft) company logo Vickers, founded as the Vickers Company in 1828, was a British manufacturer, primarily of military equipment, traditionally based in Barrow-in-Furness. ... Black powder for sporting can be freely bought in Switzerland. ... A weapons cache is detonated at the East River Range on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan Detonation is a process of supersonic combustion that involves a shock wave and a reaction zone behind it. ... Böhler, was an Austrian steel producer. ... An invasion is a military action consisting of armed forces of one geopolitical entity entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of conquering territory, or altering the established government. ...

The Dutch Infantry used about two thousand 6.5 mm Schwarzlose M.08 machine guns, partly licence produced, and 800 Vickers machine guns. Because many of these had to be fitted in the pillboxes, each battalion had a heavy machine gun company of twelve for its only automatic weapons, the Dutch infantry squads were not equipped with an organic light machine gun, whereas the German divisions had 559 LMG's allocated to their squads. Also there were but six 80 mm mortars for each battalion. This lack of firepower at the lowest level was the main cause of the often poor fighting performance of the Dutch infantry. The Maschinengewehr Patent Schwarzlose M.07/12 is a Austria-Hungarian heavy machine gun, standard machine gun of the Austro-Hungarian Army throughout World War I. Similar looking to the Maxim gun derived machine guns such as the Vickers, it was a simpler design using a single spring compared to... The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled . ... US soldier loading a M224 60-mm mortar. ... Firepower is a measure of the ability of weapons, specifically weapons which involve fire or explosion, to inflict harm, damage, or kill. ...

The Dutch airforce on 10 May operated a fleet of 155 aircraft: 28 Fokker G.1 twin-engined destroyers; 31 Fokker D.XXI and seven Fokker D.XVII fighters; ten twin-engined Fokker T.V, fifteen Fokker C.X and 35 Fokker C.V light bombers, twelve Douglas DB-8 divebombers and seventeen Koolhoven FK-51 reconnaissance aircraft — thus 74 of the 155 aircraft were biplanes. Of these aircraft 121 were both operational and part of organic strength. Of the remainder the airforce school used three Fokker D.XXI, six Fokker D.XVII, a single Fokker G.I, a single Fokker T-V and seven Fokker C.V, along with several training airplanes. Another forty aircraft served with the marine air service. In 1936 head engineers at Fokker Beeling and Schatzki designed and build the G-1 in a record time of just 7 months. ... Fokker D.XXI Fokker D XXI planes in the Finnish air force during WWII. The Fokker D.XXI fighter was designed in 1935 for use by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) air service. ... Fokker D.XVII, was a Dutch aircraft created by Fokker. ... The Fokker C.X was a biplane scout and light bomber designed in 1933. ... [[LinBold textItalic text Headline text k title]]Bold textItalic textLink titlelink title Headline text Media:Example. ... Koolhoven Aircraft was an aircraft manufacturer in the Netherlands. ...

Not only was the Dutch Army poorly equipped; it was also poorly trained. Before the war only a minority of eligible young men had actually been conscripted — and often the least fit as it was easy to be exempted unless you were unemployed. Those enlisted only served for 24 weeks, just enough to receive basic infantry training. After the mobilisation readiness only slowly improved: most time was spent constructing defences. By its own standards the Dutch Army in May 1940 was unfit for battle. It simply could not stage a major offensive, let alone execute manoeuvre warfare.

German generals and tacticians (and Hitler himself) had an equally low opinion of the Dutch forces and thought that even the core region of Holland proper would be conquered in less than a day; when the actual battle developed, however, it transpired that the German army was to be pinned down after three days by an army that, although undermanned and without proper arms, offered stiff resistance. Being informed of this situation Hitler got into one of his infamous furies and demanded that the Dutch cities should be bombed into ashes to force a capitulation. Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... Holland is a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands. ...

Dutch defensive strategy

Grebbe Line with the inundations in dark blue

From the seventeenth century on, the Netherlands relied on an effective defensive system called the Water Line, which protected all of the major cities in the west of the country by flooding part of the countryside. In the late 19th century this line was modernised with fortresses and shifted somewhat to the east, beyond Utrecht. This new position was called the New Water Line. As the fortifications were outdated in 1940, it was reinforced with new pillboxes. The line was located at the extreme eastern edge of the area lying below sea level. This allowed the grounds before the fortifications to be easily inundated with a few feet of water, too shallow for boats, but deep enough to turn the soil into an impassable quagmire. The area west of the New Water Line was called Vesting Holland ('Fortress Holland'), the eastern flank of which was also covered by Lake IJssel and the southern flank protected by three broad parallel rivers: two effluents of the Rhine and the Meuse. It functioned as a National Redoubt. Before the war it was intended to fall back to this position almost immediately, inspired by the hope that Germany would only transgress the southern provinces on its way to Belgium and leave Holland proper untouched. In 1939 it was understood such an attitude basically posed an invitation to invade and made it impossible to negotiate with the Entente about a common defence. A more easterly Main Defence Line was constructed. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (750x750, 129 KB) Description Grebbelinie (military defensive line) in the Netherlands. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (750x750, 129 KB) Description Grebbelinie (military defensive line) in the Netherlands. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... the New Waterline The Dutch Water Line was a series of waterbased defences conceived by Maurice of Nassau and realised by his half brother Fredrick Henry. ... Utrecht ( (help· info)) is a municipality and the capital city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. ... Traditional boat on the IJsselmeer Landsat photo The IJsselmeer (or Lake IJssel, alternative international spelling: Lake Yssel) is a shallow lake of some 1250 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. ... Loreley At 1,320 kilometres (820 miles) and an average discharge of more than 2,000 cubic meters per second, the Rhine (Dutch Rijn, French Rhin, German Rhein, Italian: Reno, Romansch: Rein, ) is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe. ... Meuse is a département in northeast France, named after the Meuse River. ... A 1945 U.S. Army map showing the possible extent of the National Redoubt The National Redoubt was the English term used to describe the possibility that Adolf Hitler and armed forces of Nazi Germany would make a last stand in the alpine areas of Austria, Bavaria and northern Italy...

This second main defensive position was formed by the Grebbelinie (Grebbe Line), located at the foothills of an Ice Age moraine between Lake IJssel and the Lower Rhine, and the Peel-Raamstelling (Peel-Raam Position), located between the river Maas and the Belgian border along the Peel Marshes and the Raam rivulet. Fourth and Second Army Corps were positioned at the Grebbe Line; Third Army Corps at the Peel-Raam Position with the Light Division behind as a mobile reserve; Brigade A and B connected between the Lower Rhine and the Maas and First Army Corps was a strategic reserve in the Fortress Holland. All these lines were reinforced by pillboxes. Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ... Moraine at Mono Lake, California, United States Moraines clearly seen on a side glacier of the Gorner Glacier, Zermatt, Switzerland. ...

The defensive value of the Grebbe Line was limited at best. Apart from the pillboxes, it consisted mostly of trenches, protected by inundations. Also, the government had refused permission to clear the forest directly in front of the line, even though it offered ample cover for an attacking force. A bunker is a defensive warfare fortification to protect oneself. ... A trench is a long narrow ditch. ...

The Light Division was the only partly motorised force in the Dutch Army; besides trucks it also employed large numbers of bicycles as a military means of transportation. This mountain bicycle features oversized tires, a sturdy frame, front shock absorbers, and handlebars oriented perpendicular to the bikes axis Bicycle may also refer to Bicycle Playing Cards. ...

The Peel-Raam Position

In front of this main defence line (MDL) was a covering line along the rivers IJssel and Maas, the IJsel-Maaslinie connected by positions in the Betuwe, again with pillboxes and lightly occupied by a screen of fourteen "border battalions". Late 1939 the Dutch Commander in Chief, General Izaak H. Reijnders, proposed to make use of the excellent defensive opportunities these rivers offered and shift to a more mobile strategy by first fighting a delaying battle with the Army Corps at the plausible crossing sites near Arnhem and Gennep to force the German divisions to spend much of their offensive power before they had reached the MDL. This was deemed too risky by the Dutch government; when Reijnders was also denied full military authority in the defence zones he offered his resignation and was replaced by General Henry G. Winkelman. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (800x1132, 200 KB) Description Peel-Raamstelling (military defensive line) in the Netherlands. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (800x1132, 200 KB) Description Peel-Raamstelling (military defensive line) in the Netherlands. ... Satellite image of the IJssel basin River IJssel, sometimes called Gelderse IJssel (Gelderland IJssel) to avoid confusion with its Holland counterpart, is a 120 km long branch of the Rhine in the Dutch provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel. ... The Meuse(Maas) at Maastricht Length 925 km Elevation of the source 409 m Average discharge 230 m³/s Area watershed 36 000 km² Origin France Mouth Hollands Diep Basin countries France - Belgium - Netherlands The Meuse (Dutch Maas) is a large European river rising in France, flowing through Belgium and... Satellite image of the upper part of the Rhine-Meuse delta showing the Betuwe region (5). ... Izaak H. Reijnders was the the man in charge of the Dutch millitary high command just prior to during world war II when he was replaced by Henri Winkelman. ... Arnhem is a municipality and a city in the east of the Netherlands, located on the Lower Rhine, and the capital of the Gelderland province. ... Gennep is a municipality and a city in the southeastern Netherlands. ... Henri Gerard Winkelman (August 17, 1876 - December 27, 1952) was born in Maastricht, Netherlands. ...

During the Phoney War the Netherlands officially adhered to a policy of strict neutrality. In secret however they negotiated with both Belgium and France to coordinate a common defence in case of a German invasion. This failed because of insurmountable differences of opinion about the question which strategy to follow. The Dutch wanted the Belgians to connect their defences to the Peel-Raam Position. The Belgians however wanted to fight along the Albert Canal. This created a dangerous gap. The French were invited to fill it. Now the French Commander in Chief General Maurice Gamelin was more than interested in including the Dutch in his continuous front as, like Bernard Montgomery four years later, he eventually hoped to circle around the Westwall when the Entente would launch its 1941 offensive. But he did not dare to stretch his supply lines that far unless the Belgians and Dutch would take the allied side before the German attack. When both nations refused, Gamelin stated that he would occupy a connecting position near Breda. The Dutch however didn't fortify this "Orange Position": in secret they decided to abandon the Peel-Raam Position immediately at the onset of a German attack and withdraw Third Army Corps to the Linge to cover the southern flank of the Grebbe Line, leaving only a covering force behind. The Phony War, or in Winston Churchills words the Twilight War, was the phase of World War II marked by no military operations in Continental Europe, that followed the collapse of Poland. ... The Albert Canal is a canal located in northeastern Belgium. ... Maurice Gamelin (left) with General Edward Rydz-Śmigły, future Marshal of Poland; Warsaw, August 1936. ... Bernard Law Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (November 17, 1887 - March 24, 1976) was a British military officer during World War II often referred to as Monty. ... Bunker on the Siegfried line The original Siegfried line was a line of defensive forts and tank defences built by Germany along their border with France in 1916-1917 during World War I. However, in English, Siegfried line more commonly refers to the similar World War II defensive line, built... Grote Kerk (main church) or Onze Lieve Vrouwe Kerk (Church of Our Lady) Breda ( (help· info)) is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. ... Linge is a river in the Betuwe that is over 100 km long, which makes it the longest river in the Netherlands. ...

After the German attack on Denmark and Norway in April 1940, when the Germans used large numbers of Fallschirmjäger or paratroopers, the Dutch command became worried about the possibility they too could become the victim of such a strategic assault. To repulse an attack, troops were positioned at the The Hague airfield of Ypenburg and the Rotterdam airfield of Waalhaven. These were reinforced by all tankettes and six of the 24 operational armoured cars. These specially directed measures were accompanied by more general ones: the Dutch had posted no less than 32 hospital ships throughout the country and fifteen trains to help make troop movements easier. An American Paratrooper using a T-10C series parachute Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and formed into an airborne force. ... Arms of The Hague Flag of The city of The Hague. ... Leidschenveen-Ypenburg is a stadsdeel (town part) of The Hague, in the southeast. ... Waalhaven, was a Dutch military airfield during the second world war located near Rotterdam. ... USNS Comfort takes on supplies at Mayport, FL enroute to Gulf Coast. ...

German strategy and forces

During the many changes in the operational plans for Fall Gelb it was at times considered to leave Fortress Holland alone, just as the Dutch hoped for. However Hermann Goering insisted on a full conquest as he needed the Dutch airfields against Britain satisfying Hitler in the process as he was afraid the Entente might after a partial defeat reinforce fortress Holland and use the airfields to bomb German cities and troops. A third reason for the complete conquest was that as the fall of France itself could hardly be taken for granted, it was for political reasons seen as desirable to obtain a Dutch capitulation, because yet another debacle for the policy of the Entente might well bring less hostile governments to power in Britain and France. Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also spelled Hermann Goering in English) (January 12, 1893–October 15, 1946) was a prominent and early member of the Nazi party, founder of the Gestapo, and one of the main architects of Nazi Germany. ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ...

Though it was thus decided to conquer the whole of the Netherlands, few units could be made available for this task. The main effort of Fall Gelb would be made in the centre, between Namur and Sedan. The attack at central Belgium was only a feint; and the attack at Fortress Holland only a side show of this feint. Although of Army Group B 6th and 18th Army were deployed at the Dutch border, the first, much larger, force would move south of Venlo to Belgium, leaving just 18th Army under General Georg K.F.W von Küchler to defeat the Dutch main force. Of all German armies to take part in the operation this was by far the weakest. It contained only four regular infantry divisions (207th, 227th, 254th and 256th ID), assisted by three reserve divisions (208th, 225th, and 526th ID) that would not take part in the fighting. Six of these divisions were "Third Wave" units only raised in August 1939 from territorial Landwehr troops. They had few professional officers and were without any fighting experience apart from those among the 42% men over forty that were WWI-veterans. Like the Dutch Army most soldiers (88%) were insufficiently trained. The seventh was 526th ID, a pure security unit without any serious combat training. Even when accounting for the fact that the German divisions, with a nominal strength of 17,807 men, were half as large as their Dutch counterparts and possessed three times their effective firepower, the necessary numerical superiority for a successful offensive was simply lacking. Namur, the Meuse, the Walloon parliament and the citadel. ... A Toyota Camry, a recognizable sedan The Ford Five Hundred, a medium-sized sedan A sedan car, American English terminology (saloon in British English), is one of the most common body styles of the modern automobile. ... Venlo ( (help· info)) is a municipality and a city in the southeastern Netherlands. ... The German Eighteenth Army (German: ) was a World War II field army. ... Field Marshal Georg von Küchler Georg Karl Friedrich Wilhelm von Küchler (May 30, 1881 - May 25, 1968) was a German field marshal during World War II. Born in Philippsruhe castle near Hanau, Küchler led the German German Eighteenth Army in 1940 in the invasion of neutral Holland... 207th Infantry Division 207th Security Division The German 207th Infantry Division was established in August 1939, and took part in the invasion of Poland as part of the Fourth Army under Army Group North. ... The German 208th Infantry Division, or 208. ...

To remedy this, assorted odds and ends were used to reinforce 18th Army. The first of these was the only German cavalry division, aptly named 1st Kavalleriedivision. The mounted troops of this unit, accompanied by some infantry, were to occupy the weakly defended provinces east of the river IJssel and then try to cross the Afsluitdijk (enclosure dike) and simultaneously attempt a landing in Holland using barges to be captured in the small port of Stavoren. As both efforts were unlikely to succeed, the mass of regular divisions was reinforced by the SS-Verfügungsdivision (including SS-Standarten Der Führer, Deutschland and Germania) and Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, which would serve as assault infantry to breach the Dutch fortified positions. Still this added only four regiments to the equation. To ensure a victory the Germans resorted to more unconventional means. Afsluitdijk The Afsluitdijk (Closure-dike) is a major dam in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and 1933 and running from Den Oever on Wieringen in North Holland province, to the village of Zurich (mun. ... Nijefurd is a municipality in the northern Netherlands, in the province of Friesland. ... The SS-Verfügungstruppe (combat support force) (short: SS-VT) was created in 1934 from the merger of various Nazi and right-wing paramilitary formations. ... The Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler started life in the early days of the NSDAP as Adolf Hitlers personal elite bodyguard. ...

The Germans had trained two airborne assault divisions. The first of these, 7th Fliegerdivision, consisted of paratroopers; the second, 22nd Luftlande-Infanteriedivision, of airborne infantry. First, when the main German effort was still to take place in Flanders, it was considered to use these for a crossing attempt over the river Scheldt near Ghent. This operation was consequently cancelled and it was now decided to use them to obtain an easy victory in the Netherlands. The airborne troops would on the first day secure the airfields around the Dutch seat of government, The Hague, and then capture that government, together with the Dutch High Command and the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina. German officers actually took lessons on how to address royalty on such occasions. Just in case this would not bring forth the desired immediate collapse, the bridges at Rotterdam, Dordrecht and Moerdijk would simultaneously be secured to allow a mechanised force to relieve the airborne troops from the south. This force was to be 9th Panzerdivision, with 141 tanks, the weakest of all German armoured divisions, that was to exploit a breach in the Dutch MDL created by 254th and 256th ID on the Gennep - 's-Hertogenbosch axis. At the same time a binding offensive would be staged against the Grebbe Line in the east by 207th and 227th ID. The German 1st Parachute Division was a German military parachute-landing Division that fought during World War II. A division of paratroopers was termed a Fallschirmjäger Division. ... 22. ... Flanders (Dutch: ) has several main meanings: the social, cultural and linguistical, scientific and educational, economical and political community of the Flemings; some prefer to call this the Flemish community (others refer to this as the Flemish nation) which is, with over 6 million inhabitants, the majority of all Belgians; a... The Scheldt (Dutch: Schelde, French Escaut) is a 350 km[1] long river in northern France, western Belgium and the southwestern part of the Netherlands. ... Ghent municipality and district in the province East Flanders Ghent (IPA: ; Gent in Dutch; Gand in French, formerly Gaunt in English) is a city and a municipality located in Flanders, Belgium. ... Wilhelmina is the name of: Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands The Wilhelmina modeling agency This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Rotterdam Location Coat of arms The coat of arms reads Sterker door strijd, i. ... This is about the Dutch city of Dordrecht. ... Moerdijk is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant. ... German 9th Panzer Division, sometimes simply called as 9th Panzer Division came into existence after 4th Light Division was reorganized in January 1940. ... s-Hertogenbosch (literally The Dukes Forest in Dutch; translated in French as Bois-le-Duc), unofficially also called Den Bosch, is a municipality in the Netherlands, the capital of the province of North Brabant. ...

Of all operations of Fall Gelb this one most purely embodied the concept of a Blitzkrieg as the term was then understood: a Strategischer Überfall or strategic assault. And like Fall Gelb as a whole it was a gigantic gamble. The gamble would fail, but the Dutch would pay the price. The defining characteristic of what is commonly known as Blitzkrieg is that it is a highly mobile form of mechanized warfare. ...

The Oster affair

The German population generally disliked the idea of attacking their Dutch neighbours: the Dutch hadn't fought in the First World War, had even provided asylum for the German Emperor Wilhelm II and were indifferent against the German Nazi regime. The German propaganda therefore justified the invasion with the deliberate lie that it was merely a reaction to an Entente attempt to occupy the Low Countries. Many German officers had an aversion against the Nazi regime and shared the uneasiness about the invasion. One of them, Colonel Hans Oster, an Abwehr (German intelligence) officer, informed his friend, the Dutch military attaché in Berlin Major Gijsbertus J. Sas, of the date of the attack. The Dutch government in turn informed the Allies. However, as the date would be changed many times, because it was postponed to wait for favourable weather conditions, the other nations became insensitive to the series of false alarms. When in the evening of May 9 Oster again phoned his friend saying just "Tomorrow, at dawn", only the Dutch troops were put on alert. An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One Propaganda is a type of message aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of people. ... Hans Oster (August 9, 1887 – April 9, 1945) was a career officer in the Wehrmacht and a dedicated opponent of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. ... The Abwehr was a German intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944. ... This article is about the capital of Germany. ... Bert Sas (1 August 1892 - 20 October 1948) was the Netherlands military attaché in Berlin at the time of the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940. ... Look up ally in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). ...

The battle

10 May

The geography of the landing areas; at the coast is The Hague; Rotterdam is at n, Waalhaven at 9 and Dordrecht at 7:h indicates the Hollands Diep

On the morning of May 10, 1940 the Dutch awoke to the sound of aircraft engines roaring in the sky. Nazi Germany had commenced operation Fall Gelb and attacked the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Luxembourg: in the case of the Low Countries without a declaration of war given before hostilities. North part of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta in the Netherlands, focusing on the Rhine and Meuse-influenced bit. ... North part of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta in the Netherlands, focusing on the Rhine and Meuse-influenced bit. ... May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

In the night the Luftwaffe violated Dutch airspace, traversed it and then disappeared to the west, giving the Dutch the illusion that the operation was directed to England. But above the North Sea the enemy squadrons turned to the east again to stage a surprise attack on the Dutch airfields. Many aircraft were destroyed on the ground. The few Dutch planes that were able to take off shot down thirteen German aircraft, but most were lost during the fighting. The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. ...

Immediately afterwards paratroopers were landed. Dutch AA batteries shot down numerous transport planes; the official numbers were later lost but an estimated 275 of these Ju-52 transport planes were destroyed in total during the Dutch campaign. A cargo aircraft is an airplane primarily designed and used for the carriage of goods, rather than passengers. ... The Junkers Ju 52 nicknamed Tante Ju (Auntie Ju) and Iron Annie was a civilian airliner and military transport aircraft and bomber manufactured between 1932 and 1945 by Junkers. ...

The attack on The Hague ended in utter failure. The paratroopers were unable to capture the main airfield, Ypenburg, in time for the airborne infantry to land safely in their Junkers. Though one armoured car had been damaged by a bomb, the other five Landsverks destroyed the first two waves of Junkers, killing most occupants. When the airstrip was blocked by wrecks the remaining waves aborted the landing and tried to find alternatives, often putting down their teams in meadows or on the beach, thus dispersing the troops. The auxiliary airfield of Ockenburg proved to be still under construction and unmetalled: those planes landing there sank away in the soft soil. In the end the paratroopers occupied Ypenburg but they were attacked immediately. An entire infantry regiment was stationed near the airfield. It deployed and with artillery support scattered the German defenders within hours; the airfield of Valkenburg was likewise reconquered, the remnant airborne troops taking refuge in the nearby village. Leidschenveen-Ypenburg is a stadsdeel (town part) of The Hague, in the southeast. ... During May 10th to May 15th, 1940, Ockenburg, a small Dutch emergency airfield near The Hague, was the scene of bitter fighting between Nazi airborne invaders and Dutch defenders during World War II. External links http://www. ... Valkenburg (population: 3,813 in 2004) is a village in the municipality Katwijk in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. ...

The attack on Rotterdam was much more successful. First 12 seaplanes, crowded with 120 men, landed in the heart of the city and unloaded assault teams that conquered the former Willems Bridge to occupy bridgeheads over the Nieuwe Maas. Then the military airfield of Waalhaven, positioned south of the city on the island of IJsselmonde, was attacked by airborne forces. Here an infantry battalion was stationed, but so close to the airfield that the paratroopers landed in the midst of its positions. A confused fight followed. The first wave of Junkers was partly destroyed but this time the transports continued to land irrespective of losses. In the end the Dutch defenders and tankettes were overwhelmed. The German troops, steadily growing in numbers, began to move to the east to make contact with the paratroopers that had to occupy the two other vital bridges. At the Island of Dordrecht the Dordrecht bridge was captured but in the city itself the garrison held out. The long Moerdijk bridges over the broad Hollands Diep estuary connecting the island to North Brabant province were captured and bridgeheads fortified on both sides. In the village of Moerdijk a clear German war crime was committed when six captured officers were shot when their troops refused to surrender. A DeHavilland Single Otter floatplane in Harbour Air livery. ... The Willemsbrug is a bridge next to the Erasmusbrug in the centre of Rotterdam, spanning the Nieuwe Maas. ... Satellite image of the northwest part of the Rhine-Meuse delta showing river Nieuwe Maas (n). ... Satellite image of the Rhine-Meuse delta, showing the island of IJsselmonde (9) IJsselmonde is an island between the Nieuwe Maas, Noord and Oude Maas rivers in the province of Zuid Holland in the Netherlands. ... This is about the Dutch city of Dordrecht. ... Hollands Diep is a wide river in the Netherlands and an estuary of the Rhine and Meuse river. ... North Brabant (Dutch: Noord-Brabant) is a province of the Netherlands, located in the south of the country, bordered by Belgium in the south, the Meuse River (Maas) in the north, Limburg in the east and Zeeland in the west. ...

The Germans tried to capture the IJssel and Maas bridges intact, using commando teams of Brandenburgers that began to infiltrate over the Dutch border on 8 May. In the night of May 10 they approached the bridges: a few men of each team were dressed as Dutch military police and pretended to bring in a group of German prisoners, so to fool the Dutch detonation teams. Some of these "military policemen" were real Dutchmen, members of the Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging, the Dutch nazi party. Most of these attempts failed and the bridges were blown, on two occasions with Brandenburgers and all. The main exception was the Gennep railway bridge. Immediately an armoured train crossed it, drove right through the Peel-Raam Position at Mill and unloaded an infantry battalion behind the defence line. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Brandenburger Regiment. ... May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... The Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (NSB, National Socialist Movement) was a Nazi political party in the Netherlands during the 1930s and during the German occupation in World War II, when it was the only allowed political party. ... Gennep is a municipality and a city in the southeastern Netherlands. ... An armoured train is a train protected with armour. ...

The Dutch released the reports of German soldiers in disguise to the international news agencies. This caused a fifth column scare, especially in Belgium and France. However, unlike the situation later on in those two countries, in the Netherlands there was no mass exodus of civilian refugees, clogging the roads. Generally German soldiers behaved correctly towards the Dutch population, forming neat queues at the shops to buy goods rationed in Germany, such as chocolate. A fifth column is a group of people which clandestinely undermines a larger group to which it is expected to be loyal, such as a nation. ... Chocolate most commonly comes in dark, milk, and white varieties, with cocoa solids contributing to the brown coloration. ...

After the generally failed assaults on the bridges, the German divisions began crossing attempts over the rivers IJssel and Maas. The first waves typically were destroyed, due to insufficient preparatory fire on the pillboxes. A secondary bombardment at most places destroyed the pillboxes and the infantry divisions crossed the river after building pontoon bridges; but at some, as Venlo, the attempt was aborted.

Even before the armoured train arrived, 3rd Army Corps had already been withdrawn from the Peel-Raam Position taking with it all the artillery, but each regiment left a battalion behind to serve, with fourteen "border battalions", as a covering force, called the "Peel Division". The corps joined six battalions already occupying the Waal-Linge line — and was thus brought up to strength again: but placing itself in a position in which it could have no further influence on the battle, a quarter of the field army had effectively rendered itself impotent.

The Light Division, based at Vught, was the only mobile reserve the Dutch Army possessed. It was decided to let it counterattack the German airborne landing on IJsselmonde. Its regiments thus biked over the Maas and Waal bridges and then turned left through the Alblasserwaard, to reach the Noord, the river separating this polder from IJsselmonde, in the evening. There they discovered that the only bridge, built in 1939, was left unguarded by the paratroopers, as the Germans because of outdated maps simply didn't know of its existence. It was however decided to postpone a crossing-attempt till the next day, when the artillery would be ready to support it. Not even a bridgehead was established. Coat of arms Vught is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands. ... The Alblasserwaard is a country region in The Netherlands in the south of Zuid-Holland province, east of Rotterdam. ... The Noord is a river in The Netherlands, located in the Zuid-Holland province between the Alblasserwaard and the island of IJsselmonde. ... Satellite image of Noordoostpolder, Netherlands (595. ...

Meanwhile, on the evening of the 10th, the first elements of the French 1st Mechanised Light Division had started to arrive in the Netherlands. This division was the most northern part of the French 7th Army; its mission was to ensure contact between the Vesting Holland and Antwerp. The French 1st Light Mechanized Division (1re Division Légère Mécanique) was a French Army formation during World War II. During the Battle of France in May 1940 the division contained the following units: 1 Light Mechanized Brigade 2 Light Mechanized Brigade 74 Artillery Regiment It was an... The French Army (French: Armée de Terre) is the land-based component of the French Armed Forces. ...

11 May

Dutch situation just before the bombing of Rotterdam. Legend: ██ Location of the Dutch defence lines and area within Dutch troops are present. ██ Heavy Dutch defence line against armoured vehicles. ██ Dutch defences in Zeeland. ██ Belgian defence line ██ French defences in the Netherlands ██ Position of German troops as wel as controlled area.

Units of the German army had already reached the southern part of the Grebbe Line on the evening of the 10th. This section had not been inundated and therefore it was protected by a line of outposts (voorpostenlinie), manned by a battalion of infantry. At about half past three in the morning of the 11th, German artillery started shelling the outposts, followed at dawn by an attack by the SS regiment Der Führer. The outnumbered and inadequately armed battalion resisted as well as they could, but by evening, all outposts were in German hands. A nightly counterattack by a Dutch battalion failed, because it was fired on by Dutch troops that had not been notified. Image File history File links Duitse_inval. ... Image File history File links Duitse_inval. ... The bombing of Rotterdam was a terror bombardment by German forces on 14 May 1940, in the initial phases of World War II, when they invaded the Netherlands. ... An armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is a military vehicle, equipped with protection against hostile attacks and often mounted weapons. ... Capital Middelburg Queens Commissioner drs. ...

In North Brabant, late on the 10th, the order had been given to retreat from the Peel-Raam Position to the Zuid-Willemsvaart, a canal some kilometres to the west. This meant leaving behind well-prepared positions, as well as all artillery and heavy machine guns. Moreover, the eastern bank of the canal was higher than the western bank, so that the defenders could not see the attackers. And finally, one sector of the western bank was left undefended; as this sector contained a bridge which was not demolished, the Germans were able to bypass the Zuid-Willemsvaart position with ease; by the end of the 11th, they had crossed the Zuid-Willemsvaart everywhere. The Zuid-Willemsvaart (South Williams Canal, named after King William I of the Netherlands with South added to avoid confusion with two other canals commissioned by and named after the King: the Willemsvaart near Zwolle and the Noord-Willemskanaal in the province of Groningen) is a canal in the...

The planned attack by the Light Division also came to nothing. In the nick of time the bridge over the river Noord had been prepared for defense by the German paratroopers, and it proved impossible to cross. Several attempts to cross the river by boats also failed, and in the afternoon, the Light division was ordered to proceed to the Island of Dordrecht, where it arrived in the night.

Earlier during the day, several attempts were made to cross the Oude Maas, at Dordrecht and Barendrecht. There was no artillery support and the attacks were executed only hesitantly, and consequently all attempts failed. The reconnaissance units of the French 1st Mechanised Light Division attempted an attack on the Moerdijk bridge, but they were attacked by German planes and had to retreat. Barendrecht (population: 37,257 as of 1-1-2004) is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. ...

In Rotterdam, despite important reinforcements, the Dutch did not succeed in dislodging the German paratroopers from their bridgehead on the northern bank of the Maas. Even though ordered to do so by General Student, the German commander in Rotterdam refused to evacuate this bridgehead, and despite bombardments by the two remaining Dutch bombers, the German paratroopers held fast. They also held fast around The Hague, where none of the attempts to eliminate the isolated paratroopers met with success.

The first days

Dutch optimism prevailed during the first three days of the battle, mainly because it all happened so fast that objective information was scarce. But nevertheless the people were convinced that if Germany attacked, Britain and France would come to the rescue in a matter of days and push the Germans back to Germany. The British and French did not come. The French army advanced beyond the Belgian-Dutch border but was pushed back all the way to Dunkirk several days after. Though there were small Dutch successes, the Germans pushed forward with great speed. The French Army (Armée de Terre) is the land-based component of the French Armed Forces. ... Carnival in Dunkirk. ...

The last days

On May the 14th the Dutch situation seemed to have improved: although the Germans occupied most of the territory, the major cities and the bulk of the Dutch population were still under Dutch control. The German advance was halted at the Kornwerderzand (a line of pillboxes placed on the Afsluitdijk and impossible for them to breach); remaining German paratroopers were eliminated or surrounded and the German tanks seemed to have halted in the south at Rotterdam. The Dutch weren't the only ones aware of the situation. The German High Command and Hitler himself were worried. Hitler, who planned the attack on the Netherlands together with Von Manstein, was terrified the British would land on the Dutch coast and use the Dutch airfields to launch attacks on Germany. He demanded that the Dutch be defeated within days. Kornwerderzand, or the Kornwerderzandstelling were a number of heavily fortified pillboxes/bunkers located at the eastern side of the Afsluitdijk in the Dutch province of Friesland. ... Afsluitdijk The Afsluitdijk (Closure-dike) is a major dam in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and 1933 and running from Den Oever on Wieringen in North Holland province, to the village of Zurich (mun. ... Rotterdam Location Coat of arms The coat of arms reads Sterker door strijd, i. ... Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein Erich von Manstein (November 24, 1887–June 10, 1973) was a lifelong professional soldier who rose to be one of the most prominent commanders of Nazi Germanys Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) during World War II; he attained the rank of Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall), although he...

The end

An ultimatum was delivered to the Dutch defenders of Rotterdam shortly after. It said that the city had to capitulate; if this was refused, it would be bombed. When the Dutch officer returned from signing the surrender, suddenly a massive group of bombers appeared; though red flash bullets were shot to warn the planes not to bomb Rotterdam (Why the formation had not received the abort mission order sooner remains controversial), and one group returned to their base, the other larger group flew on and bombed Rotterdam. About 900 people died in the flames and the entire old city burned down. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1120x1304, 255 KB) Battle of the Netherlands in may 1940. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1120x1304, 255 KB) Battle of the Netherlands in may 1940. ... An ultimatum is a final demand, with a threat, made without intent of negotiation, for example before war, before killing hostages, etc. ... A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground targets, primarily by dropping bombs. ... The bombing of Rotterdam was a terror bombardment by German forces on 14 May 1940, in the initial phases of World War II, when they invaded the Netherlands. ...

When confronted by an ultimatum to capitulate or face the destruction of Utrecht and Amsterdam as well, the Dutch Commander in Chief General Winkelman, devastated by the news of the destruction of Rotterdam and realising by now that the British and French wouldn't come to his aid, decided that the lives of the civilian population were worth more to him than a few more days of fighting. He decided the Netherlands would surrender, with the exception of the province of Zeeland where fighting continued in order to provide the French troops with a vital few more days time to retreat. The defence lines of Bath and Zanddijk were in favour of the defending party by their geographical nature (centered around channels) and the island of Walcheren had an additional natural defence line at the Sloe straights. This allowed Dutch and French troops to slow down the German advance, but not by much. Without significant air support, the Bath and Zanddijk lines quickly fell, leaving only Walcheren and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen still in Dutch hands, allowing for swift evacuation of troops through the harbour of Flushing and over land via Belgium. Walcheren fell when the Luftwaffe commenced devastating bombardments of Middelburg, the province's capital city. Nevertheless, the battle of Zeeland can be considered a success for the Allies because it succeeded in achieving its goal: namely the evacuation of Dutch and French troops. Zeeland was already going to be lost due to its lack of defences (it not being part of 'fortress Holland') and its geographical position between the occupied rest of the Netherlands and the Belgian Kingdom which was about to fall to German forces as well. Utrecht ( (help· info)) is a municipality and the capital city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. ... Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 741,329 (1 August 2006) Demonym Amsterdammer Coordinates Website www. ... Capital Middelburg Queens Commissioner drs. ... Satellite image of the Scheldt estuary Walcheren is a former island in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. ... Binomial name Prunus spinosa L. The Blackthorn, is a large shrub or a small tree of the genus Prunus, botanically Prunus spinosa. ... Satellite image of the Scheldt estuary Walcheren is a former island in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. ... Satellite image of the Scheldt delta Zeeuws-Vlaanderen is the part of the Netherlands on the left shore of the Scheldt river (here called Westerschelde), nr. ... Flushing (Dutch Vlissingen) is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. ... Satellite image of the Scheldt estuary Walcheren is a former island in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. ... The Deutsche Luftwaffe or   (German: air force, literally Air Weapon, IPA: ) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ... This is about the city in the Netherlands. ... Motto: Dutch: Eendracht maakt macht French: Lunion fait la force German: Einigkeit macht stark (English: Strength through Unity) Anthem: La Brabançonne (The Song of Brabant) Capital Brussels Largest city Brussels, Antwerp1 Dutch, French, German Government Federal constitutional monarchy  - King Albert II  - Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt Independence from Netherlands...

Aftermath

Following the Dutch defeat, Queen Wilhelmina established a government-in-exile in England. The German occupation officially began on May 17, 1940. It would take five years in which over 250,000 Dutchmen and women died before the Dutch regained their freedom. For other uses, see Wilhelmina (disambiguation). ... A government in exile is a political group that claims to be a countrys legitimate government, but for various reasons is unable to exercise its legal power, and instead resides in a foreign country. ... May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (138th in leap years). ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ...

See also

• German declaration of war against the Netherlands (May 10 1940)
• The Netherlands in World War II
• Battle of France

At 6:00 in the morning (Amsterdam time) on May 10th 1940 the German envoy Count Zech von Burkensroda gave Dutch minister of foreign affairs Van Kleffens the following German declaration of war. ... // In World War I the Netherlands succeeded in remaining neutral, although the sympathies were clearly more on the German side than on the British. ... Combatants France United Kingdom Canada Czechoslovakia Poland Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand (French) Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) H.G. Winkelman (Dutch) Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di...

References

• C.W. Star Busmann. Partworks and Encyclopedia of world war II
• Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (Dutch institute for war documentation).
• L. de Jong. The Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Second World War, part 3: May '40