The Allied “Help” during the German Invasion of the Netherlands
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- čas přidán 23. 12. 2022
- During the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940 Allied troops did arrive in the Netherlands to fight against the Germans. British troops embarked in the port of Hoek van Holland and French troops came in via Noord-Brabant and Zeeland. On 15 May 1940 the Dutch surrendered. What was the role of Allied troops during the Battle of the Netherlands? Were they able to make a difference or was the Dutch defeat inevitable?
History Hustle presents: The Allied “Help” during the German Invasion of the Netherlands.
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SOURCES
- Mei 1940. De strijd op Nederlands grondgebied (Herman Amersfoort, Piet Kamphuis).
- De Slag om de Residentie (E.H. Brongers).
- Grebbelinie 1940 (E.H. Brongers).
- www.zuidfront-holland1940.nl/i... (21-11-2022).
IMAGES
Images from commons.wikimedia.org.
VIDEO
Video material from:
• Beeld van Nederland - ...
Beeld van Nederland - De oorlogsjaren 1940 - 1945
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NEDERLAND WAAKT
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NEDERLAND WAAKT, EEN TOCHT LANGS ONZE VERDEDIGINGSWERKEN
• WWII--The Invasion of ...
WWII--The Invasion of Holland
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World War II - The French Army 1939-1940 (HD Color)
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Ypenburg 1940: czcams.com/video/hmmNEMcn6FI/video.html
Rotterdam 1940: czcams.com/video/l4sfzTdbTII/video.html
Grebbeberg 1940: czcams.com/video/WJqfCVoiqbQ/video.html
@Jebus Hypocristos Many thanks for your reply.
@Jebus Hypocristos thanks for replying.
Yet another excellent and overlooked , by us in the states anyway , look at the conflict that shaped the present . Thanks to our prolific professor . Your efforts are real wealth . Best of the season to you Sir !
About the situation around Breda, it should be noted that the city was largely evacuated on the orders/suggestion of the French on may 12th to avoid civilian casualties in case heavy fighting broke out. Thousands of people fled and some of them ended up all the way in France. There were quitew a few casualties along the way, unfortunately. It is known as the Vlucht van Breda.
Thanks for sharing.
Merry Christmas Stefan, hope its better than christmas of 1940
😂😂🤣😅😅
Thanks. I am sure it is!
Merry Christmas Stefan! Wishing you all the best. Watching now 😀
You too a great Christmas and many thanks for your support 🎅👍
Great content again. Thanks for MY historical entertainment for the last two years...never missed a video and have learned soooo much. Looking forward to 2023's editions of "History Hustle". Thanks again Stefan! Happy New Year...
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I see your subtle use of the inverted commas for the help😉. I wish you and your family a restful holiday season. Thanks for another year of superb videos, looking forward to seeing you travel agian next year🎄🎄🎄
Many thanks 🎅👍
Have good holidays also. Best wishes for 2023.
Belgian troops also moved into the Netherlands. On the 17th - 19th of May the Belgian motorised 1st Cavalry Division deployed in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. They took up positions near the Canal Gent-Terneuzen. The Allies at the time were digging in behind the Schelde river. The Canal Gent-Terneuzen extended this line to the Westerschelde.
This whole Breda operation to me seems like a bad plan from the start. The Dutch tried to defend too much ground with too few troops. The plan was to abandon the Peel-Raam line after the start of the invasion and move to Holland. But most of the Dutch divisions were horse-drawn units. These were not fast enough to win this race against the 9th Panzer Division and the motorised SS.
Sending the French 7th Army to the Netherlands was also a waste. This army was originally intended as a reserve in the Arras region. With 1st DLM , 2 motorised infantry division and 3 regular ID's, this was a fairly strong and mobile unit. Near Arras they would have been perfectly positioned to intercept the Panzers breaking through the Ardennes. Because of Breda, they were initially unavailable and had to return in a rush after already taking casualties.
The Belgian-French-Dutch united front was also a fantasy from the start. The Dutch didn't have enough forces to do make this link up. The main Belgian line was behind the Albertcanal and the fortresses of Antwerpen. Only the weak Belgian 18th Infantry Division was east of the canal. This was a 2nd reserve division with very few heavy weapons. So the French would be sitting around Breda with weak exposed flanks to the north and south. Also the Dutch lines of retreat and communication went north to Holland and for the French south. So in case of an attack they would have to fall back to opposite sides anyway to avoid getting their supply lines cut..
The best plan for the defense of the Netherlands would have been IMHO for the Dutch to turtle up in Holland from the start. This way all Dutch forces would have been concentrated around the important ports and airfields. Walcheren and Beveland were also worth defending to keep the Westerschelde open to Gent and Antwerpen. Defending anything more than this was not viable until significantly more British + Commonwealth help came available. Although I definately understand the political pressure to defend as much ground as possible.
Thanks for sharing this additional information.
My grandfather fought at the Afsluitdijk! They could hold them off for a long time, 5 people died there and 30 were wounded!
Thanks for sharing.
A well researched piece of work Stefan. It would be interesting to hear about Dutch colonies during the war
Those that escaped from the Japs joined the English and Aussies. The Naval unity was much more intense but the Japs won out in the end with more men and supplies plus some serious errors of judgement.
He has a very detailed video on that subject.
Thanks for another year of great videos.. BZ
Merry Christmas and the best to you and yours for the holidays.
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Amazing lesson. Thank you, would be grateful if you could do more map pointing when referring to the newer places :) thanks
Thanks for your reply.
Thanks for all the content reference the Netherlands and the Dutch perspective in WW2.
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Merry Christmas Stefan❤Thank you for your content 🎄
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Thank you for another great video as always. Love your channel and learn so much history. Hoping you and your family have a great Holiday Season and looking forward to much more great history in 2023. Stay safe Stefan.
Many thanks. Best wishes for 2023.
Thanks! Very informative. Never knew that. I wish our history high school teacher would have been you :) (but that was some decennia ago so you would haven't have been available :s).
Another great video 👍
Merry Christmas 🎄
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Merry Christmas, and thank you, Stefan!
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Thanks Stefan! Your the best! 👍🏼
Thanks for watching.
Geweldige video en gelukkig kerstfeest Stefan
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Merry Christmas Stefan . Grateful for your wonderful history lessons and insights. And again Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from a few miles away, Oxnard California
Top Stefan!
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Excellent video on an otherwise all-but-forgotten part of WWII. Thank you.
Thanks for watching Brian!
merry Christmas awesome video mate cant wait for more future videos fn 2023
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Merry Christmas Stefan!
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CHRISTMAS REGARDS for YOU from POLAND , BEST WISHES
Best wishes to you and your family from polish descendants in Texas !
@@toriidawdy8456 🎄🎆 GOD BLESS YOU ALL IN THE USA
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My understanding is that French 7th Army moved in Netherlands on the orders of French CinC Gamelin. It was not a decision made by 7th Army commander Giraud. In fact there was a major disagreement about this move in French HQ. Ultimately Gamelin prevailed and 7th Army was lost with Giraud captured. Had 7th Army stayed where it was in the Maritime Provinces, as the majority of Gamelin's staff argued it should, it would have been perfectly positioned to blunt Guderian's drive to the sea. This decision cost France the war.
True. The last sentence is an assumption. Not sure if the French (and BEF) would win…..
I agree. Having the 7th Army there in the right spot would have surely made a big difference. Whether it cost them the war is hard to say because there were a lot of issues. But this was definitely a big a part of the solution.
Merry Christmas Stefan❤🇨🇦
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Merry christmas stefan!🧑🏻🎄🧑🏻🎄🧑🏻🎄
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@@HistoryHustle and today is exactly 100 years ago the soviet union was founded
An allied promise of protection doesn’t sound very neutral to me ..
Why not? Attacking a neutral country is a breach of international laws. Every country on the planet has the right to protect such invasion. As an exemple, Austria, France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Spain and Sweden signed a treaty to protect and guarantee Swiss neutrality in 1815.
The Dutch and Belgian refusal to endanger their neutrality by allowing British and French cooperative building of defense lines in '39/40 frustrated the latter to no end. The result was a slapdash, chaotic sh*tshow that handed Germany an easy victory.
Have a great Christmas!🎄
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Fijne kerstdagen, dude.
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Nice
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Excellent historical coverage video about Bulge & Netherland invaded by Nazism armies during WW2. How was British & French troops uselessness existed in battlefields.. (History Hustle ) Channel always shares informative & accurate explaining videos about WW2..allot thanks ( Sir Stefan). I appreciate your hard work ...( Merry Christmas for you ,good luck, and best wishes)
Allied help : in fact close to nothing !
Pretty much.
Merry Christmas
God bless
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4:50 support ringing your doorbell
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Merry Christmas. Love your videos from India.🇮🇳
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Vrolijk kerstfeest 👍
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Thank you for something else I never knew, probably because all accounts tend to focus on the Fall of France and never mentioned that British and French were sent to Holland.
Boxing 🥊 day here in Australia down under !
Merry Christmas Stephan . You keep warm while I take an ice bath 🛀
🦜🦘🐨🌞☀️⛱️🏄♀️🏄♂️🏌🏊♀️🏊🏊♂️
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hope you do vanguard battle of Dunkirk
One day!
Heel interessant! Dat wist ik helemaal niet! Maar ik ben Engels, dus no surprise 😆 Woonde in Dordrecht voor 7 jaar in the 80s
Thanks for your reply.
Lekker Defence!
Liep niet helemaal lekker nee.
De postbode staat voor de deur
Ok.
I heard the bell at 4:51, you practical joker! Anyway, now I see where the Italians got their WWII military doctrine - from the British and French in The Nederlands. Take it easy
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Holland just has a bad luck in wars.
British help was even more disasters concerning SOE Holland actions.
Battle of Java Sea was not good also, although Navies of Holland, GB and US were combined.
Hope to cover more in that in the future.
Poor leadership, poor troops, no preparation, no cooperation, no coordination, a government that didn't do its job, I mean what could go wrong?
True.
On the other hand, if the Netherlands had put up a tough defence they might have held up the Germans for a bit longer, but Germany would still have won. And then the country would lay in ruins and many more people would have died. Does that sound like a better outcome?
@@dalstein3708 I’ve been to the Netherlands three times and I glad the entire country wasn’t leveled. But Rotterdam was leveled after the surrender. It depends on your country I suppose. If you can live with yourself after doing little to stop a bunch of maniacs from conquering your loved ones then I guess go for it. I wouldn’t want to live in a country like that.
Hopefully Netherlands have learned their lesson about "neutrality" when it comes to wars in europe.
I hope so.
Stefan, Churchill made a tour of Belgium, Holland, Denmark etc., and announced in the House of Commons concerning yours and the other governments. ". . . They are like men in the crocodile's den, each feeds the crocodile the most in the hope that it eats him last"
I have a question. Why didn't Japan invade Russia during WW2.
And the Brits recovered the Netherland's stupid colonies for them at the end of the War. But the Dutch were too incompetent and cacque-handed to hold onto them - despite even resorting to near-genocide to do so!
What happened to the Dutch troops that retreated with the French? Did they join the French Army? Was there a separate Dutch regiment? Thanks....Stephan
There is a photo in Cambrai where you see Dutch troops (I may be incorrect about the place). Eventually some of them were evacuated and others captured.
@@HistoryHustle Thanks, Stefan. I feel that one cannot help but feeling sympathetic to the Dutch soldiers and the Dutch people in general fighting against such overwhelming odds.
When"Allies" help you,you don"t need enemies!😅
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@@HistoryHustle It is true!
Allies who you arnt even allied with then suddenly call for help when it suddenly suits you and hedging your bets on the nazis to leave you be while they persecute europes races doesnt work out. I wouldnt have wasted a single belgian pensioner crossing that border
is er eigenlijk informatie over Baarle-Hertog in WO1 ?
was dit overgenomen door de duitsers?
Nee. De Duitsers stuurden wel spionnen waarvan een deel werd opgepakt.
I love your videos. In this case, there is some information missing. Even if we had ordered weapons, we would not have given them. It was never in the interest of the so called allies, to defend Holland. This empire needed to be destroyed. Weapon deliveries to the Indies, ordered indeed, did not or barely arrived from the Americans. So Holland was the first empire to be destroyed. Second, I think, the Belgium and Dutch governments and armies never could agree to a joined defense operations. That might have changed the French ideas. They were only there to slow down the German advance to protect their own country. We never had allies, until the moment the Germans did take all Europe.
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the issue with countries like Holland and Belgium was they would not allow Entente forces in until they'd been invaded. even though it was 100% clear Germany would attack in the West and Belgium knew for certain they would be steam-rollered as in 1914.. what time did the Britons and French have in sending forces, with support in order to aid the "neutral countries" ..? Giving the Irish Guards commander discretion would have seemed a good idea to stop Dutch using his men as shock troops or to bear brunt of German assault. seems though the commander was loath to risk his men for a lost cause, as he saw it. Troops who went into Belgium found the Belgian army had done almost nothing to prepare defences and no sooner had British units arrived and tried to improve defences than they saw the Belgian army retreating. In fairness noone was going to stop the Germans in 1940, they had been building their forces since 1933 and were much stronger and better organised. they attacked in overwhelming force with tanks and aircraft. soldiers did the best they could with what they had.
Merry Christmas Stefan and thanks for this excellent video. Having studied many books on Blitzgreig now I'm convinced it was not because the Germans were so great then. Their success was mainly due to the appalling tragic conduct of the French & British. It made them look so invincable. The Brits were only slightly better than the French but both were a tragic comedy show of incompetence. Their Generals were a horrible joke.
The Brits betrayed Netherlands, Belguim, Norway, Greece and most of Asia with their pathetic half-hearted attempts. Petain was a criminal traiter and Churchill was a Rambo fool. It was not until the ANZACs showed the Brits how to fight Nazi's in Nth Africa that they had any success at all. Then, of course, the Russians changed everything :)
DONT YOU MEAN THAT THE BELGIUM KING SURRENDERED HIS COUNTRY .
I think non of them really took interest in the Netherlands as an important location for any purposes to defend. Maybe just as shore defence. Not doing so made the Germans get a easy walk over.
Pretty much.
can i ask for your opinion please, what if Hitler did not invade russia, do you think Russia would have invaded Germany and when do you think they would have? I have read many times Russia was preparing for invading germany. Could Russia have won?
That's a flat lie, spread by Neo-Nazis and Neo-Fascists, to give a very late excuse for the treacherous Nazi attack!
The Soviet armies were very badly weakend by Stalin purges (Helped by a folder the Germans sold to him for 3 million golden Rubles, containing detailed information about a possible coup d'etat contemplated by the furthest army of Moscow, situated in the face of Pcific Ocean...).
@@tttyuhbbb9823 thanks for sharing you're opinion.
I'd be really surprised if Stalin had any serious plans to invade Germany. He knew the build-up of German military power, and he had seen that the Red Army even had trouble battling tiny Finland in the Winter War of 1940.
Welk leger was sterker? Het Nederlandse leger dat het moederland moest verdedigen of de KNIL met Molukkers?
Goed vraag. Meer over het KNIL in de toekomst.
I will never understand why the Netherlands wasn't defended as a strategic point of interest. The Dutch government at the time was ineffective at its duty to protect their nation. It was obvious at that point that Germany was invading indiscriminately and that they wouldn't respect our sovereignty nor our neutrality. As the reasons for invasion were becoming increasingly ideological. We had shit for defense and Rotterdam harbour was a major strategic point of interest. By the time the government was getting serious about defense, we were already surrounded at sea. Many of the ordered weapons didn't arrive because the Germans sank the ships.
My thoughts are that the government at the time had become comfortable with the idea that our neutrality would be respected because we stayed out of the conflict of The Great War. When in reality we survived that war because we were a well defended and powerful nation at the time. After the depression, we were not. We should have bunkerd down years in advance like Switzerland did. We should have littered the nation with anti-aircraft weapons, tank traps and anti-tank weapons. And trained every able-bodied man how to fight.
The Netherlands managed to stay out of the Great War not because of its good defense, but because it was of little interest. To the Germans, France and the UK were the main enemy. France was the battleground, and Belgium was part of the route. The Netherlands were a sidenote, not worth spending resources on.
After the Great War, warfare had changed. Instead of cannons and trenches, war was being fought with tanks and planes. In such a war a smal, flat, densely populated country like the Netherlands is very hard to defend.
Mountainous Switzerland is no comparison. Also, it was of little strategic importance, as it had few resources and was already surrounded by Axis powers. The Dutch coast had some strategic value because for Hitler the UK was the main enemy in the West.
@@dalstein3708 Switzerland is another story. Their neutrality was imposed and guarantied by Austria, France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Spain and Sweden in 1815 (Treaty of Paris). So France and Germany (inheriting Prussia) had the "duty" to protect Switzerland.
@@BangFarang1 True, but by mid 1940 none of those parties were able to effectively protect Switzerland. Except for Germany, but Hitler was not known for keeping promises.
The Swiss were useful for storing the gold that the Nazis stole, though
i think that is to easy to call them comfortable with the idea of neutrality, the reality was that in the run up to the war there was an arms race and for small neutral countries that had no significant weapons industry like the big powers it was very hard to obtain (heavy) weapons and the Dutch economy had little to spend.
The in the Netherlands produced Hembrug rifle was not bad but just like the german mauser 98k a concept from the previous century that was about to be outdated by clip loaded semi automatics rilfes that had no bolt action and the germans had far more superior machine pistols like the mp40 and more modern and portable machine guns like the MG34 .
In case of artillery guns and machine guns most producing nations had an export ban or large export restrictions so they were very hard to get if you had no production capability yourself. Same counts for tanks armored vehicles and planes. Even the indiginous produced fokker D21 fighter planes could not be build with the desired engines as the UK did not export them, so they had to be build with a larger and older less capable engine which forced fokker to adjust its earodynamic design to fit those older engines and reduced the plane it's capabilities.
Getting ammo was even worse, as all equipment we had was homeland build (except for the handful of Swedish armored cars and some oerlikon guns ) ammo could only be produced by the tiny Dutch industry and not imported from other nations while everybody was stockpilling the resources to make gunpowder and shell cases and the netherlands is a resource empty nation. Also other nations had their own specific calibre that deviates from those Dutch build guns which made import of ammo extra difficult .
So building up an army prior to the war for such a small nation was not very easy. Belgium did a little better but they already had a larger small arms industry with licences to build several foreign designed weapons and calibres, like for instance FN Browning pistols that used 9mm parabellum which was in use and production in germany and the US.
So while the Dutch army did shoot down many german planes very effectively (destroyed about 600 german planes in those 5 days of which over 380 on the first day) they had depleted their anti aircraft ammunition stocks to 50% in the first day and to 25% on the second which forced them to restrict the use of anti aircraft guns for the rest of our 5 days defense. and the Dornier bomber planes we ordered years before the war for our navy airforce eventuallly did come but with swastika's on them and they bombed Rotterdam.
Don't forget that historically german states never possed a threat to the Dutch (with one tinyy acception of Munster and Bavaria teaming up with France and Britain against us) but the French and the English had a long history with figthing the Netherlands so our position in the upcomming war in regard to the germans their point of view was not that less foggy to us than as it is now looking back on it making the choise of who to try to purchase weapons from a hard job for the 1930's governments .
Even while our country was neutral in WW1 most people at the start supported Germany during WW1 as the French and the English had a bad rep in the Netherlands as former enemies and as well as allies that kept betraying us, even as France and England had been historical enemies of each other and the Dutch historical allies of the English they teamed up against us when a war between them was about to happen and they did team up agianst us on several occassions. Furthermore we had 5 wars with England in our at that point 300 year history as a independent nation and lost Belgium a century before thanks to them and our wealthy economic role as the dominant European economy 30 years prior to loosing Belgium due to the english capturing half our merchant fleet after we loaned the US the money needed for their independence war wich is nevr payed back so that bankrupted us followed by a French occupation that drained the remaining Dutch reserves. All events of which the Netherlands had not recoverd yet economically untill the 1960's when natural gas was found in the north that boomed our economy!! My hometown for instance was a cholera infested place due to poverty in the 1920's and 1930's so military capability and spending tax on it was also not the largest concern if it comes to peoples health and safety in the first half of the 1930's, social housing programs with indoor plumbing and sewerage were top priority because they ended the mass dying from cholera in the Netherlands in the late 1930's .
yep.......British ``heroes``.............................🤣
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With friends like the the Brits and French who needs enemies?
Norway is asking that question also and Czechoslovakia too
And perhaps Greece, but do notice the Allies were welcomed by Norwegians, Dutch and Greeks.
In international politics there are no friends. Every country is protecting its own interests. There are only alliances, for as long as interests align.
In European politics of the 1930s, the large powers were Germany, the UK, France and the Soviet Union. The smaller countries could seek protection in neutrality, or by closely co-operating with one of the major powers. But they remained pawns that could be sacrificed.
@@dalstein3708 totaly agree. Greetings from Serbia.
These me、as well as women, have their very lives for the liberation of the Netherlands from a maelstrom of Nazi oppression. Please , surely a degree of some respect is due to the Allied troops and Dutch resistance fighters who gave their very lives to defeat Nazism. Some respect would surely be in order.
With all due respect. In the first days of the war, a lot went wrong between NL and the then allied. This is mainly due to the Allies, they had their own battle plan and did not want to share it with NL. Because we wanted to remain neutral and therefore did not trust us. Which we can understand. Stefan tells this clearly when he tells about Breda, there was no direct communication until then. So we can't honer the allies for this. Yet the fallen allied soldiers of this first hour are still honored in special war cemeteries. At that time there was no organized resistance, only a few companies that had bought anti-aircraft guns and made them available. But there were many Engelandvaarders who were beautifully immortalized in the movie Soldaat van Oranje. So I ask you what exactly you mean by, they gave their lives and we have no respect. I think you mean what happened later in the war. When Stefan talks about this, he does so with respect and as a Dutchman, directly and without frills. But that's not the subject here. If you want to know our respect, look up Ford Vuren, especially in the summer, allied WW2 planes fly over here and pay their respect to us and their fallen friends and Margraten the US cemetery with its countless Dutch volunteers. Merry Christmas and peace on earth, which still fails, how come?🌷
Dear Matthew, I understand. This video is about May 1940. Then the Allies didnt sent much help. Of course during the 1944-45 liberation it was a different story. Merrie Christmas 🎅