Battle of Eben Emael 10 - 11 May 1940 - introduction

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On 10 May, 1940 Nazi Germany launched its offensive in the west. This would entail the neutralisation of a number of defensive positions,the strongest of which was Fort Eben Emael, whose artillery pieces covered each of the three bridges over the Albert Canal.

Eben Emael was equipped with six 120mm artillery pieces with a range of up to 16km two of which could traverse 360 degrees; sixteen 75mm artillery pieces; twelve 60mm high-velocity anti-tank guns; twenty-five twin-mounted machine-guns; and a number of anti-aircraft guns. One side of the fort faced the canal, whilst the other three faced land and were defended by minefields; deep ditches; a six metre high wall; concrete pillboxes fitted with machine-guns; fifteen searchlights emplaced on top of the Fort; and 60mm anti-tank guns.Tunnels ran beneath the Fort, connecting individual turrets to the command centre of the fort and the ammunition stores. The fort also possessed its own hospital and a number of living quarters for the garrison, as well as a power station that provided electricity to power the guns, provide internal and external illumination, and to power the wireless network and air-purifying system used by the garrison.

Belgian plans did not call for the garrison of the fort and the attached defending forces to fight a sustained battle against an attacking force; it was assumed that sufficient warning of an attack would be given so that the detachment on the eastern side of the canal could be withdrawn, the bridges destroyed and the garrison ready to fight a delaying action. The defending force would then retire to the main defensive positions along the River Dyle, where they would link up with other Allied forces.

The force tasked with assaulting the Fort and capturing the three bridges was named Sturmabteilung Koch after the leader of the force, Hauptmann Walter Koch. The first landings were to be made by glider. Adolf Hitler, who had taken a personal interest in the arrangements for the assault force, had ordered that gliders be used after being told by his personal pilot, Hanna Reitsch, that gliders in flight were nearly silent; it was believed that, since Belgian anti-aircraft defences used sound-location arrays and not radar, it would be possible to tow gliders near to the Dutch border and then release them/ Fifty DFS 230 transport gliders were supplied for use by the assault force, and then a period of intensive training began.

Hauptmann Koch divided his force into four assault groups. Group Granite, under Oberleutnant Rudolf Witzig, composed of eighty-five men in eleven gliders whose task would be to assault and capture Fort Eben Emael; Group Steel, commanded by Oberleutnant Gustav Altmann, and formed of ninety-two men and nine gliders, would capture the Veldwezelt bridge; Group Concrete, commanded by Leutnant Gerhard Schächt and composed of ninety-six men in eleven gliders, would capture the Vroenhoven bridge; and Group Iron, under Leutnant Martin Schächter, composed of ninety men in ten gliders, who would capture the Cannes bridge. The crucial element for the assault force, and particularly Group Granite, was time. It was believed that the combination of a noiseless approach by the gliders used by the assault force, and the lack of a declaration of war by the German government, would give the attackers the element of surprise. However, German estimates believed that this would last, at the most, for sixty minutes, after which the superior numbers of the Belgian forces defending the Fort and the bridges, as well as any reinforcements sent to the area, would begin to come to bear against the relatively small number of lightly-armed airborne troops] The German plan, therefore, was to eliminate within those sixty minutes as many anti-aircraft positions and individual cupolas and casemates as was possible, and at all costs to put out of action the long-range artillery pieces which covered the three bridges.[ The destruction of these guns was expected to be completed within ten minutes; within this time the airborne troops would have to break out of their gliders, cover the distance to the guns, fix the explosive charges to the barrels of the guns and detonate them, all while under enemy fire.

(continued on next video on playlist)

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Visé
• Wezet
• Meuse
• Maas
• Eben
• Emael
• Belgium
• Belgie
• Belgique

[HoustonGD]

Easy 5/5 STARS!

[conrad4ever]

my word! they must have been hammered! what with all the problems and mistakes they might as well have waved nazi flags and let the germans walk in!

[alanheath]

I have got film of the Albert Canal (see the playlist I prepared) as well as over the Maas - Meuse. There is a lot of water here!

[alanheath]

I absolutely agree that no-one knew of the force of the new explosives. It is also true that the roof of the fort (which can be seen in another video I placed here) did not have anti glider or plane traps. But I think the machine guns would have been adequate if they had been manned and regularly serviced. Only around 500 rounds were fired before the guns jammed. The machine guns on the roof were captured WW1 German models, adapted for use by Belgian ammunition.

[haller136]

And on the same time, there was also another disaster, the bridges of the albertcanal are not destroyed. Same paraattacks there. And the fort could not destroyed anymore. And the britisch and french attacks on the bridges were also a disaster. Big lost of planes and pilots witthout succes. I don't know you saw the bridges like they are now, but when you has, you could see that it was not easy to cross the canal.

[haller136]

You have right, but i really don't know it was helping so much, the top of the fort was really not enough defended with machineguns in pillboxes. And i think more important was that the germans use new explosives, and their first target was to destroy the cupola(to each price) of the biggest guns of the fort. So when they are destroyed, it doesn't matter of the fort is falling or not.

[alanheath]

Very few of the troops actually slept in the fort - and the failure to warn them was due to the CO using his gunners who had to fire warning shots with blank shells to remove his filing cabinets.

I appreciate that perhaps no-one had thought of a para attack but had the defences been ready then the fort would not have fallen so quickly.

[haller136]

I think that you find the same reason by the french forces, the commanding officers seems to think that since 1914 nothing was changed. The Belgians are already nine months in a alertsituation in the fort, and it's sure they don't exercice really much on paraattacks. A part of the soldiers don't sleep in the fort, and there are not much and not good anti aircraft guns. The english , french , belgian and dutch troops has not learned much about sept. 1939.

[alanheath]

I can't get over the stupidity of the commander. However I think the situation was worse than I mention here - there are some documentaries on you tube which describe it better than I do!