Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday) is the name in the Netherlands for Tuesday September 5 1944.
On that day a lot of emotional scenes played out all over the Netherlands following reports that the country could be freed any time soon of the German occupation. Because the Allies had in previous days rapidly gained ground on the Germans, on Sunday September 3, Brussels was liberated and on Monday September 4 Antwerp, the optimistic Dutch figured that at this pace the Allies would be in Rotterdam on September 5, on September 6 in Utrecht and Amsterdam, and the rest would follow soon.
In the southern part of the Netherlands the thundering of the guns had been heard.
Rumors were exaggerated, and soon the myth circulated that certain places in the Southern Netherlands had been liberated. In Rotterdam, it was claimed that the Allies were at Moerdijk, and in Amsterdam it was claimed that they were at Rotterdam and The Hague.
This was exaggerated by a British radio message reported that Breda indeed was liberated.
Many Dutch prepared themself to greet their liberators the next day. Flags and orange flags were brought out, and businesses run empty because all personal wanted to wait on the street for the Allies to arrive.
Among the Germans and NSB people ( Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging. A Dutch political party that collaborated with the Germans) panic broke out, administrations were quickly destroyed and many fled.
Many of the NSB stayed temporarily at the Lüneburg Heath in Germany, while Mussert (Leader of the NSB) moved to Bellinckhof in Almelo.
Germans fleeing from Rotterdam
What the Dutch people did not know was that the size of the allied forces at that time was too small to be able to liberate the Netherlands. The Allied main force was still in France and the troops that had advanced towards Antwerp only liberated a thin corridor in Belgium. The Dutch border was not even reached at all. On either side of the thin corridor the area was still occupied and the forward troops were at risk to be cut off. Therefore the Allied High Command didn't dare to go for a further blow to the north, especially since the main objective; Antwerp, had already been reached.
The false radio report about the non-existing liberation of Breda had to do with the fact that, because of the marching speed, the Allied High Command hardly knew were their own troops were.
A few days later, the Allies crossed the Dutch border with reconnaissance patrols, and on September 14, 1944 Maastricht was the first major Dutch city liberated.
Then when also Operation Market Garden failed because of the German victory at the battle for Arnhem, it was clear that at least for the Northern Netherlands liberation would not take place for a while. The Western Netherlands had, after Dolle Dinsdag, to undergo the Hongerwinter (winter famine) until they finally got liberated on May 5 1945.
The name Dolle Dinsdag is first detected in De Gil, a magazine disguised as opposition propaganda newspaper that was funded by the occupier. On September 15 the headline in the paper about the events of September 5: GENERALE REPETITIE - DURE LES VAN DOLLEN DINSDAG (General rehearsal – Mad Tuesday expensive lesson).
The alliterative lines were written by Willem van den Hout who after the war under the name Willy van der Heide would gain fame as author of the successful children's books about Bob Evers.
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Photo: Rotterdam 40 - 45
