Battle of Fort Eben Emael
The Battle of Fort Eben Emael was a World War II battle fought between the Belgian Army and the German forces from May 10 to May 11, 1940. It took place during Operation Fall Gelb, the German invasion of the Low Countries and France. Fort Eben-Emael was a Belgian fortress on the Albert Canal, near the city of Masstricht, Belgium. The fort artillery pieces dominated several important bridges over the Albert Canal. German paratroopers were assigned the job of assaulting and capturing this fortification which stood in the way of the German advance towards France.
Fort Eben Emael had been built during the 1930s by blasting the required space out of granite. It measured 200 by 400 yards and had walls and roofs that were composed of 5 feet thick reinforced concrete, as well as four casemates and sixty-four strongpoints. The fortification was fitted out with six 120mm artillery pieces that had a range of ten miles, sixteen 75mm artillery pieces, twenty-five twin-mounted machine-guns, twelve 60mm high-velocity anti-tank guns, and a number of anti-aircraft guns. One side of the fort faced the canal. The other three sides faced land and were defended by minefields, deep ditches, a 20feet-high wall, and concrete pillboxes equipped with machine-guns.
Airborne troops and engineer units of the German 7th Air Division and the 22nd Airlanding Division were ordered to storm the Fort and capture the three bridges. This elite force was called Assault Detachment Koch after the leader of the force, Hauptmann Walter Koch. To achieve a surprise attack, Adolf Hitler ordered the first landings be made by gliders, because they are silent. Hauptmann Koch divided his force into four assault groups. Group Granite, under Oberleutnant Rudolf Witzig, composed of eighty-five men whose task would be to assault and capture Fort Eben Emael; Group Steel, which was made up of ninety-two men commanded by Oberleutnant Gustav Altmann, would capture the Veldwezelt bridge; Group Concrete, which consisted of ninety-six men commanded by Leutnant Gerhard Schächt, would capture the Vroenhoven bridge; and Group Iron, under Leutnant Martin Schächter, would capture the Cannes bridge.
At 04:30 of May 10, 1940, forty-two gliders carrying the 493 airborne troops that made up the assault force were towed off aloft from two airfields in Cologne. Then the gliders and transport aircraft turned south towards their objectives. Nine gliders transporting the airborne troops assigned to Group Granite successfully landed on the roof of Fort Eben-Emael. The Fallschirmjägger 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 three captured bridges. In the southern part of the Fort three 75mm artillery pieces were permanently destroyed with a heavy demolition charge. The casemates observation dome and part of the roof of the Fort itself collapsed.
A traversing turret holding two more artillery pieces was also destroyed by airborne troops, who then moved to a turret holding another three 75mm weapons, which was destroyed after two attempts. Another pair of 75mm guns in a cupola were disabled, as was a barracks known to house Belgian troops after a fierce fight. Twin turrets, with heavy-caliber guns mounted on a rotating cupola, were too large for airborne troops from a single glider to destroy on their own, so other airborne troops were called. They climbed the turrets and smash the gun barrels with heavy demolition charge.
While this group of German Fallschirmjäggers (paratroopers) attacked and destroyed the Belgian stronghold, disabling the garrison and the artillery pieces inside it, the other three groups of German storm troops captured the three bridges over the Canal. Having successfully accomplished their mission, the paratroopers were then ordered to protect the bridges from Belgian counter-attacks until the arrival of the German 18th Army.
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[...] of the Fallschirmjäger’s great deeds of heroism were the airborne seizure of Fort Eben-Emael, which allowed the early capture of Belgium, as well as successful operations in Holland; the [...]