As the Germans were using the Ockenburg airstrip to strengthen their numbers, the Dutch bombed it to prevent it from being used any further. The defenders were unable to prevent the Germans from taking the airfield but delayed them long enough to secure the arrival of additional Dutch infantry units, which prevented the Germans from advancing into The Hague. Īround the same time, German troops were dropped at the airstrip in Ockenburg. However, the Dutch managed to prevent the Germans from advancing beyond Ypenburg to enter The Hague. German troops attacked and occupied the airfield's main building and raised the German flag to signal victory. Many planes were forced to land either damaged or destroyed by the defenders, which blocked further arrivals. Immediately thereafter, transport planes began dropping paratroopers in several waves onto the field and its surroundings, but Dutch machine gun fire inflicted casualties and scattered their landings. The other German air group circled back from the sea and bombed the airfield at Ypenburg at approximately 04:15. A different group of German airplanes flew directly to The Hague and at 04:00 bombed the New Alexander Army Barracks and the adjacent Waalsdorp Army Camp, and 66 and 58 men were killed respectively.
One of their main but unattained goals was the capture of Queen Wilhelmina.Īs planned, the Luftwaffe flew over the Netherlands in the early morning hours of 10 May, but rather than deceiving the people of The Hague, their passage alarmed them. Battle German invasion īombardments on army barracks and air drops of German paratroopers at the three airports near The Hague. However, the troops were unable to penetrate the defence of The Hague and so the plan failed. Captured plans, the so-called " Sponeck papers", contained details and a map for the German paratroopers that had landed at the Ockenburg airstrip. One of the Germand main goals was the capture of the Dutch Queen and government. However, German plans were otherwise to cut off all roads leading to The Hague to quell any subsequent Dutch counter-attack. It was expected that Queen Wilhelmina and Henri Winkelman, the commander-in-chief of the Dutch Army, might then agree to surrender. That was to be followed by approaching the country from the direction of the North Sea attacking the airfields at Ypenburg, Ockenburg and Valkenburg to weaken potential Dutch defenses and taking The Hague. Their intention was to fly over the Netherlands to lull the Dutch into thinking that the United Kingdom was their target. The Germans planned, under the codename Fall Festung, to catch the Dutch off guard and then to isolate the head of the Dutch Army. Isolated pockets of German troops, led by Hans von Sponeck, retreated to the nearby dunes, where they were continually pursued and harassed for five days, when Henri Winkelman, the Dutch commander-in-chief, was forced to surrender by major setbacks on other fronts. That is because the Dutch regrouped and then launched effective counter-attacks.
The Germans, however, failed to achieve that objective since their forces had been unable to hold onto their initial gains. German Fallschirmjäger units were dropped in and around The Hague to capture Dutch airfields and the city itself.Īfter securing a bridgehead, Nazi Germany had expected the Netherlands to surrender that day. The Battle for The Hague ( Dutch: Slag om Den Haag) was a battle fought on during the Battle of the Netherlands.
0 kommentar(er)
