Battle for The Hague

Destroyed German Junkers Ju 52 aircraft at Valkenburg

Date

10 May 1940

Location

The Hague, the Netherlands, and the surrounding area

Result

Tactical Dutch victory

German operational failure
German air transport capabilities significantly damaged

Belligerents

Netherlands

Germany

Commanders and leaders

Henri Winkelman

Hans Graf von Sponeck

Units involved

Royal Netherlands Army
Dutch Airforce

22nd Luftlande-Division
Luftwaffe

Strength

11,100 soldiers (3 divisions)
2 armored car squads
4 bombers

3,000 paratroopers

Casualties and losses

515 killed
1 armored car damaged

134-400 killed (see casualties)
700 wounded
1,745 captured
125 transport aircraft lost
47 transport aircraft damaged

Notes:
1 Dutch bomber was shot down near the beach after a raid.

Tactical Dutch victory

The Battle for The Hague was one of the first opposed paratroop assaults in history. (Unopposed assaults took place on 9 April 1940 against Masnedøfortet and Aalborg airport, Denmark.) (The first opposed assaults took place on 9 April 1940 against Sola airport, Norway.) It took place on 10 May 1940 as part of the Battle of the Netherlands between the Royal Netherlands Army and Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger (paratroops). German paratroopers dropped in and around The Hague in order to capture Dutch airfields and the city. After taking the city, the plan was to force the Dutch queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands to surrender and to thus defeat the Kingdom of the Netherlands within a single day. The operation failed to capture the Queen, and the German forces failed to hold on to the airfields after Dutch counterattacks. The main body of surviving troops under Von Sponeck retreated toward the nearby dunes where they were continually pursued and harassed by Dutch troops until the Dutch supreme command, due to major setbacks on other fronts, surrendered five days later.

The Germans planned to surprise the Dutch and so catch them off guard, allowing them to isolate the head of the Dutch Army. It was their intention to fly over the Netherlands, in order to lull the Dutch into thinking that England was their target. This 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 before taking The Hague. It was expected that the queen and the commander in chief of the Dutch forces, Henri Winkelman, might agree at this point to surrender. However, if the Dutch did not surrender, the Germans planned to cut off all roads leading to The Hague in order to quell any subsequent Dutch counter-attack.

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Wikipedia