Battle of the Grebbeberg

One day after the invasion of the Netherlands, part of the German army reached the Grebbe Line, about 60 kilometres from the German border. This defence line consisted of a hill with steep slopes. At the foot of the hill, there were reinforcements, and the land in front of it was inundated.

The attack was launched on 11 May and one day later, the Germans had all but taken the Grebbeberg hill. The Dutch defence had been caught off guard. The next morning the Dutch army launched a counterattack but failed. By the end of the afternoon the Dutch gave up and the troops retreated to a new line of defence in the West.

It was not until several hours later that the Germans noticed that the Grebbe Line had been abandoned. The German troops set off in pursuit, but they only managed to engage Dutch troops in combat in a few places.

By then, it was the 14th of May. The German troops arrived at Utrecht and their commander soon threatened to bomb the city. General Winkelman, the commander-in-chief of the Dutch army, decided to capitulate: Rotterdam had been heavily bombed in the days before, and Utrecht was not to suffer the same fate.

In the Battle of the Grebbeberg, 420 Dutch and about 250 German soldiers were killed.