Friday, May 10th, 1940

Junkers Ju52 aircraft - used to drop the paratroopers

It was a splendid, cloudless and promising day of spring. Without warning or a declaration of war, the German attack was launched. At 3:00 am the first German armed forces crossed the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg borders. With the rising sun behind them, the German Air Force bomber squadrons, defended by fighter planes, headed west on their way to the airports and the other targets to be bombed. The bombers, as far as the Netherlands were concerned, were followed by Junker Transport planes, carrying a German parachute regiment and airborne troops, which were to land in the western part of the Netherlands. They had received orders to take and secure the many bridges spanning the big rivers, to occupy the airfields near Rotterdam and Den Haag (The Hague), to attack the Dutch army from the rear and - above all - to occupy Den Haag.

The plan failed. The Germans had expected to advance west and reach the North Sea in less than two days, but they soon realised that they had underestimated the Dutch resistance, in particular the precision of their well-directed anti-aircraft guns. The German bombers which at first, because of the element of surprise, were able to drop their bombs on many airfields unchallenged, soon met fierce resistance. By the time the transport planes arrived, to either drop their paratroopers from the air, or to land their ground forces, the opposition was even more fierce. The Germans expected that the bombing would have eliminated the defenders, or that they would be on the run and the airfields would be theirs just for the taking.

May 10th, 1940: A few of the destroyed German Junkers transport planes

The German paratroopers, as they floated down to the ground, were surprised to hear the sound of bullets whizzing past, and more than a few of them were killed. The Junker transport planes, as they came in to land, saw the exploding ack-ack shells and many were hit or brought down. Others managed to reach the runways, but whilst landing, were met by deadly machine-gun fire. Some tried to land on nearby roads, or crashed in the soft earth of the meadows and burst into flames. More than 125 Junker transport planes were destroyed.

In the Den Haag region, the paratroopers managed to occupy an airfield but, lacking reinforcements, they were soon surrounded and forced to surrender. Hundreds of German paratroopers were rounded up, disarmed and taken to the seaports were they were immediately loaded into ships setting sail for England. Within a couple of hours, the German High Command became aware of the fact that their surprise air strike on the Hague region had failed. Their losses, in men and machines, were to be a contributory factor in the cancellation of Operation Sea-Lion.

However, to the south of Rotterdam the invaders had had been more successful. German parachutists captured the bridges spanning the big rivers and in the Rotterdam area, having taken a small airfield on the south bank of the River Nieuwe Maas (New Meuse), they penetrated into the city. Their targets were the road and railway bridges spanning the river in the very heart of Rotterdam. When the German forces reached them, they met increased and unexpected Dutch resistance, just managing to get to the approaches of the bridges to be taken. The Dutch Royal Marines, a crack regiment of professional soldiers, defended the bridges. Untrained young army recruits - having reported for duty and training only a couple of days earlier - assisted them. The Germans could not get through and never took the bridges.