Today in Dutch WWII History: Dolle Dinsdag

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.


Thank you for reading!

Photo: Rotterdam 40 - 45

US Airborne HH + Glider Rifle Company PDF armyfile update 2

I hate to tell this but there is again a new version of the US Airborne HH + Glider Rifle Company PDF file.
This time it was a major mistake i found. The OoB didn't notice the point cost for the 2nd AT Gun platoon and left the points at 0 when you selected the platoon.

I am very sorry for all the trouble. I really hoped that the file didn't contain any mistakes.

1 September 1939

On September 1st., 1939, 1.8 million German troops invaded Poland. The beginning of World Ward II is a fact.
The German army had a substantial numerical advantage over Poland. It had some 2,400 tanks organized into six panzer divisions. The Polish army had to do it with 180 tanks. The Luftwaffe forces consisted of 1,180 fighters where the Polish had to do it with 420 fighters.

The main axes of attack led eastwards from Germany through the western Polish border. Supporting attacks came from East Prussia in the north, and a co-operative German-Slovak tertiary attack by units from German-allied Slovakia in the south.
The never seen before “Blitzkrieg” tactics and bombing of towns and refugees caught the Poles off-guard.
By September 14th. Warsaw was surrounded.
By this time the Poles reacted, holding off the Germans at Kutno and regrouping behind the Wisla (Vistula) and Bzura rivers.

Although Britain and France declared war on September 3rd. the Poles received no help it had been agreed that the Poles should fight a defensive war for only 2 weeks during which time the Allies could get their forces together and attack from the west.

Despite the fact that Poland was only just beginning to modernise her armed forces and Britain and France forced her to delay mobilisation because they claimed it might be interpreted as aggressive behaviour, only about one-third of her total potential manpower was mobilised, Polish forces ensured that the September campaign was no "walk-over".
The Wehrmacht had under-rated Polish anti-tank capabilities that they had gone into action with white "balkankreuz", or crosses, prominently displayed in eight locations. These crosses made excellent aiming points for Polish gun-sights. At that time the Polish anti-tank gun was one of the best in the world. Also the Polish light tank, the first in the world to be designed with a diesel engine, proved to be superior to German tanks of the same class inflicting serious damage to the German forces, limited only by the fact that they were not used in concentrated groups. They were absorbed by the Germans into their own Panzer divisions at the end of the campaign.

On September 17^th, in accordance with a secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet forces invaded from the east. Two weeks later Warsaw surrendered. On October 2nd the garrison on the Hel peninsula had to surrender. The Polesie Defence group surrendered on October 5th, after fighting on two fronts against both German and Soviet forces.
The Poles had held on for twice as long as had been expected and had done more damage to the Germans than the combined British and French forces managed to do in 1940. The Germans lost 50,000 men, 697 planes and 993 tanks and armoured cars.
Thousands of Polish soldiers and civilians managed to escape to France and Britain whilst many more went "underground" . A government-in-exile was formed with Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz as President and General Wladyslaw Sikorski as Prime Minister.

1 September 1939 Invasion of Poland 

Thanks for reading!

(wow 3 posts in 1 day)

Battle of Britain

This is a post that i wanted to make several weeks, or most i say months, ago. But because of some minor problems and bad news about my health, it disappeared to the background of my mind and later on i forgot about it. That was till recently.
Now i was in doubt if it is not to late. But as it happened 70 years ago and being a major part of the war i know i still had to do something with it. To remind people about it and that they won't forget it.
There is however 1 thing that i changed in the plan. Instead of  writing something about this period myself i will instead post a link which, and this is my personal opinion, is one of the best sites about the Battle of Britain.

- Battle of Britain

May all those heroes dead or alive and those who had suffered so much never be forgotten.

Thank you for reading!

US Airborne HH + Glider Rifle Company PDF armyfile update

An updated file is up for US Airborne HH + Glider Rifle Company PDF.
1stBn (know from the FoW forum and a regular reader of this blog)  was so kind to point out a minor glitch in the Glider Rifle Company file.

Sorry for the trouble.