The fortress of Eben Emael part one

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(Continued from introduction video)

The finalised plan for the assault called for between nine and eleven gliders to land on the western bank of the Albert Canal by each of the three bridges just prior to 05:30 on 10 May, the time scheduled for Fall Gelb to begin. The groups assigned to assault the three bridges would overwhelm the defending Belgian troops, remove any demolition charges and then prepare to defend the bridges against an expected counter-attack. Forty minutes later, three Ju-52 transport aircraft would fly over each position, dropping a further twenty-four airborne troops as reinforcements as well as machine-guns and ammunition. Simultaneously, the force assigned to assault Fort Eben Emael was to land on top of the Fort in eleven gliders, eliminate any defenders attempting to repel them, cripple what artillery they could with explosive charges, and then prevent the garrison from dislodging them. Having achieved their initial objectives of seizing the bridges and eliminate the long-range artillery pieces possessed by the Fort, the airborne troops would then defend their positions until the arrival of ground forces.

At 04:30, forty-two gliders carrying the 493 airborne troops that formed the assault force were lifted off from two airfields in Cologne, the armada of gliders and transport aircraft turning south towards their objectives. The aircraft maintained strict radio silence, forcing the pilots to rely on a chain of signal fires that pointed towards Belgium; the radio silence also ensured that senior commanders of the assault force could not be informed that the tow-ropes on one of the gliders had snapped, forcing the glider to land inside Germany. Another pilot of a second glider released his tow-rope prematurely, and was unable to land near its objective. Both gliders were carrying troops assigned to Group Granite and were destined to assault Fort Eben Emael, thereby leaving the Group understrength; it also left it under the command of Oberleutnant Witzig's second-in-command, as Witzing was in one of the gliders forced to land. As the Ju-52's turned away after releasing the gliders, Belgian anti-aircraft artillery positions detected them and opened fire, alerting the defences in the area to the presence of the gliders as well as they came in to land at their designated objectives.

Two of the bridges over the Albert Canal were captured but the bridge at Canne was blown up.

Group Granite successfully landed on the roof of Fort Eben-Emael and the airborne troops rapidly emerged from the gliders and began attaching explosive charges to those emplacements on the top of the Fort which housed the artillery pieces that could target the captured bridges. A number of cupulas were knocked out using the hollow charge explosives. Unable to dislodge the Germans from the roof of the fort and under attack from Stukas and German reinforcements, the garrison surrendered at 12:30 on the following day, having suffered sixty men killed and forty wounded; more than a thousand Belgian soldiers were taken into captivity. Group Granite had suffered six killed and nineteen wounded

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Eben
• Emael
• Canne
• Stuka
• glider
• Belgium
• WW2
• 1940
• Nazi
• Germany
• Wehrmacht
• special
• forces

[JunkersFEE]

As a guide at fort Eben-Emael this is nice to see. Unfortionatly there are a LOT of inaccuracies / mistakes in the narration... I could mention them all, but to give proper explaination this comment box is way too small... if you want I can Youtube mail it to you.

[alanheath]

@JunkersFEE You can mail them to me if you want and I will publish it in the explanation.

Thank you very much in advance for pointing this out and I will also add text in places I have made mistakes.

As I am going off memory, without notes, mistakes are to be expected!

[bleushift]

@JunkersFEE I live in maastricht holland and went to the fortres a couple of times..

And iam thinking about doing a nice informative video about the combat in eben emeal, and different locations and missions were german paratroopers and commando s operated.

I for one would like if you can mail some of those inaccuracies

it would be well appreciated.

Greets Tobias.