Dutch major Sas, attached to our foreign services in Berlin, warned for the upcoming attack: "Tomorrow morning, before dawn, good luck!" He got his information from a German colonel who was opposed to Hitler. However, since the Germans had postponed their assault quite a number of times, the warning lost much of his power. Nonetheless, most Dutch border patrols in the east were put on alert. The First Dutch Corps, however, responsible for guarding the Western part of The Netherlands, including the airfields around The Hague, remained unwarned.

Airfield: Ypenburg

A battalion of Royal Dutch marines with the support of six armored cars defended Ypenburg when the bombing started in the early morning. With the bombs falling, air units based at the airfield took off to fight the enemy. The bombardment wrecked 2 of the 6 armored cars and left a lasting impression on the inexperienced soldiers. However, most of them remained at their posts. Key assets like heavy machineguns were still operational. It was something the Germans soon would learn.

In the meantime, in the fields around the airfield, numerous paratroopers landed. Their orders were to clear the airfield so that the units air landing could do so without any resistance. Although they took out one anti-aircraft position, they couldn't charge to the airfield right away. Dutch resistance was too fierce. When they finally reached the airfield-using Dutch prisoners as shields-it was on fire.

As it happened, the first transport planes full of paratroopers landed immediately after the bombardment stopped. The moment their wheels touched down on the field, the planes were hit by immense machinegun fire from armored cars and heavy machineguns. All planes that landed were immediately destroyed, killing all paratroopers still buckled up.

The second group that landed met the same faith. Bullets tore open the bodies of theJunkers 52 and all paratroopers were killed instantly. The whole place was littered with burning wrecks thathad been shot to pieces. In the midst of that inferno, the 3rd wave tried to land. Again, they were without any luck. In all, only three German soldiers were able to escape the blazing fire, only to be captured by Dutch soldiers.

The remainder of the aircraft circled in the skies over the airfield, waiting for their turn to land. They were easy prey for anti-aircraft units. Many were shot down fully loaded. In the end the pilots tried to land at motorways or alternative airfields in the vicinity. Quite a few went all the way back to Germany.

The paratroopers succeeded, however, in capturing 90% of the airfield. A small part of it was still in the hands of determined defenders. In all, at least 1400 paratroopers made it to the ground in one piece around Ypenburg. The Germans now started to get organized in order to head for their objectives in The Hague.

In the meantime, the Dutch immediately launched a counterattack from The Hague towards the airfield. In between was a German line that defended a small park, between the towns of Rijswijk and Voorburg. A huge villa that the Germans used as stronghold guarded the park. Fierce fighting brought the Dutch inside the premises of the villa. With the support of an anti-tank, gun they succeeded in overwhelming the Germans. Now the park lay open and Dutch troops poured in. In all they took over 75 prisoners and captured a lot of modern weapons.

With German lines between Voorburg and Rijswijk collapsed, the road to the heavily defended airfield was open. Immediately the troops went into action. Both the airfield and a nearby farmhouse had been fortified. While the Dutch troops pressed forward, the Germans noticed them. A rain of bullets came down on those men, causing a great number of casualties. However, they came within 250 meters of the airfield. Fire was too intense to advance further. Luftwaffe fighters strafed the assaulting units, inflicting more casualties.

Suddenly the Dutch artillery found its mark. Shells rained down on the airfield, forcing the Germans to take cover. A quick reaction by the Dutch troops forced the Germans to surrender. In all they took over 200 prisoners and liberated the airfield.

Then they went on to the nearby farm. The Germans had heavily fortified this one. Numerous assaults were beaten back. Not until a Dutch artillery piece fired over 20 shells in the farm did the Germans surrendered. Immediately the Dutch pushed on towards the town of Delft. Without any great difficulties they reached the German strongholds. Only a couple of direct assaults were needed in order to force the German to surrender. At least 100 Germans were taken prisoner.

In the evening of the 10th of May 1940, all German paratroopers landed at Ypenburg had been captured, killed or forced to flee. Numerous smoking wrecks of Ju-52s littered the battlefield.

Airfield: Ockenburg

The Ockenburg airfield was defended by a group of depot troops that had been under arms for only three months. They numbered 96 men with rifles and three machineguns. While the troops were witnessing the air-to-air combat over their heads, suddenly a number of fighter planes strafed the airstrip. Soon thereafter, the first transport planes landed.

For two hours the raw recruits defended against an overwhelming enemy, destroying quite a number of transport planes. However, the pressure was too much for them, and they had to fall back. With nearly 40% casualties they retreated into the woods in the hope of making it to the nearby village of Loosduinen. German reports say that the airfield was taken under heavy fire, while sustaining severe casualties.

Soon thereafter, the Germans were reinforced by troops that had landed on the beach. These reinforcements included General Graff von Sponeck and his staff.

However, in the two hours that the depot troops held out, army troops had occupied the park between the airfield and the town of The Hague. They prevented German paratroopers from launching a direct assault on the city.

Neighboring villages were also on full alert because of the noise at the airfield. In the nearby village of Loosduinen lay quite a number of support troops. These troops included 4 antitank guns, some mortars and even a battery of obsolete artillery guns. The commanding officer immediately realized how serious the situation was. He started to organize things and everyone that could carry a rifle got one and was sent to the airfield. Despite the quick reaction, they came too late. For the time being the airfield was lost and there was little they could do about it. Slowly the patrols all fell back to the town of

Loosduinen

Since the direct road to The Hague was blocked, the Germans attacking the city had to go around it. However, Looscluinen blocked that road.

The Germans launched a three-way assault on the village that was defended by mortars and obsolete artillery. Four antitank guns bolstered the defenses. Despite these heavy defenses, the German units succeeded in entering the village and breaking through the first line of defense. Under heavy fire they advanced towards the guns. The arrival of a machinegun unit prevented the Germans from reaching their goals. Effective fire eventually forced them back.

Another assault brought the Germans back in the streets. This time they came to within 100 meters of the command post. The arrival of a couple of platoons Royal Grenadiers made all the difference. They immediately executed a successful counterattack against the Germans, who retreated to the airfield.

While an extra battalion of depot troops reinforced the village, other Grenadiers had reached the park between The Hague and the Ockenburg airstrip. Their objective: retake the airstrip and destroy German presence. The grenadiers immediately attacked a group of German paras that had taken up position in a fortified farm between the park and the airstrip. Under heavy fire, the first assault came to a stop. An aerial bombardment forced the grenadiers back to the park. The second assault cleared the farm. Both the Dutch and the Germans sustained heavy casualties.

In the meantime, the Dutch artillery had been able to put a scout up in a water tower near the airfield. The few radio installations the army had now proved their value. In no time exploding artillery shells covered the airfield, destroying at least a dozen Ju-52 transport planes.

Despite the German air supremacy, the Dutch air force was able to make a bombing. attack on Ockenburg airfield. Three bombers hit the airfield, adding more fire to the chaos and destroying even more planes.

During the artillery barrage, 2 companies of grenadiers attacked the airfield. After a fierce clash they overcame the outer defenses. Within a short time, the airfield was surrounded and the Germans capitulated. Over 160 paras were taken prisoner. Even more lay dead between the wrecks of the transport planes. General Graff von Sponeck had managed to get away with some 400 troops. They withdrew to the woods to the east of the airfield.

In the meantime another Dutch unit Uagers) attacked the Germans in the woods and cleared some tactical high ground. When darkness came on the first day of the war, it was clear that the Germans around Ockenburg never even came close to reaching their objective.

Airfield: Valkenburg

When war broke out, this airfield was still inoperative due to muddy ground. However, just to be on the safe side, a detachment of 85 troops, including a heavy machinegun section, took up defensive positions there.

When at 4:00 in the morning the first bombs dropped, several platoons were just assembling in order to man the defenses. The bombing raid caused terror and casualties among them. Moreover, facilities were badly damaged and communications went dead. Right after the bombing, paratroopers appeared in the sky. Immediately the defenders opened fire and caused heavy casualties among the Germans. They were never able to reach the airfield.

However, the first wave of transport planes already touched down. Despite heavy fire, the Germans managed to land in pretty good order. Taking cover between their planes, hundreds of German elite soldiers immediately went in action. At the same time, numerous of German fighter planes strafed the defenders' positions.

Within 2 hours the whole airfield was in German hands. However, 56 German tranport planes had sunk into the muddy ground, making the field useless for future operations. Since the second wave of planes was unable to land at Valkenburg, they had to look for alternative landing grounds. They found these on the beaches between the towns of Katwijk and Scheveningen, called: Wassenaarse slag.

Coastal defenses were unable to meet with this threat. After one platoon was wiped out by German fire, and the rest fell back to the village of Wassenaar. In this village the Dutch already had been organizing their defenses. Quite a number of men, 2 mortars, 8 heavy machineguns, and 4 pieces of anti-tank artillery were readying for an assault on the airfield.

Near the village of Katwijk, Dutch artillery fielded a few guns. When they got the order to put their mark on the airfield, they immediately opened fire. Most planes caught fire. Despite German air supremacy, the Dutch air force also managed to attack the airfield twice. For this they used old Fokker biplanes.

Following these barrages, the ground assault went ahead. An outer ring of machinegun posts defended the airfield. Because of the artillery barrage, most Germans fled to the nearby village of Valkenburg. With only a little trouble, the Dutch managed to take out the machineguns one by one. Around six in the evening, the airfield was firmly in Dutch hands again. Over 30 transport planes had been destroyed, while another 14 were captured undamaged.

Town: Hoek van Holland

Because of navigational errors, a number of German transport planes landed near the village of Hoek van Holland instead of their planned landing areas. Due to the important facilities that had to be guarded (entrance to port, oil stocks, etc.) this town did have quite a number of defending troops. Among these troops were 60 marines, 8 mortars and a battalion of infantry.

The Dutch, unaware of German navigational errors, thought the Germans had planned an assault on the important facilities. They immediately undertook action. A number of battles were fought and in the end all Germans who landed there were captured, killed, or forced to escape to link up with other paratroopers who had landed further north. A corvette of the Royal Dutch Navy later destroyed most of the German transport planes that had landed in that area.

Furthermore, a detachment of 86 British marines landed to blow up the facilities in order to prevent them from falling into German hands. However, since the Germans had been fended off, the British restricted themselves to patrolling the area.

Town: The Hague

Preemptive strikes bybombers had hit facilities in the town. Depots of all sorts had been hit. At least 100 troops had been killed and many more (seriously) wounded.

The only troops available for direct action were green recruits. These under-armed, inept troops more or less acted independently while rushing to arms. Higher commanders didn't have the slightest idea of their units' locations or what the statuses. However, it was these actions that made future success possible.

The general defending the area had to bring order to this chaotic situation. First he had to find out what the Germans were up to and then he had to find out where his own troops were and what their status was. A twist of fate brought the answer to the first question. A burning Ju-52 crashed in the middle of the town. Firemen fighting the fire couldn't rescue any of the troopers in the plane. They did, however, find a briefcase containing the full operational details of the 22nd Airlanding Division. With these plans in his possession, the general drew up the plan for the counterattack. He issued orders to all troops in the vicinity of The Hague, including those in Wassenaar and Delft.

The first day definitely didn't bring the Germans a victory around The Hague. The commander of the 2nd German Air Fleet put it like this: "Airlandings have failed due to strong opposition by both enemy ground forces as well as anti-air units." It was calculated that of the 430 transport planes that took of that first day, over 280 lay wrecked in the Dutch fields by nightfall. NoLt one objective was reached by 22nd Airlanding.

Around Rotterdam, the Germans did have some success. There too, they sustained very heavy casualties. Nonetheless, they succeeded in reaching part of the objective and conquered the bridges at Moerdijk and Dordrecht. They didn't have that much success in Rotterdam.

The main body of the German army opened up along a wide front. In the south they managed to achieve a breakthrough in the Dutch lines with the use of German soldiers dressed in Dutch uniforms. The gap was exploited with success during the night of 10-11 May. The situation was potentially dangerous. If these units could link up with the paratroopers around Rotterdam, the road to fortress Holland would lie open. However, reinforcements promised by the French commander Gamelin should counter the threat.

In the center it wasn't very easy for the Germans. Despite the fact that the first line was positioned there to win time, it proved to be a serious obstacle for the Germans. Frontal assaults on bridges ended in total disaster as hundreds of Germans (Waffen SS) drowned. However, they managed to secure a bridgehead.

More May 1940: German Assault on the Hague

General Introduction
Dutch Situation and Plans
German Situation and Plans
May 10, 1940: The War Begins
May 11, 1940
May 12, 1940
May 13, 1940
May 14, 1940 and Aftermath