Battle of Fort Ében-Émael 1940
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 10 May 1940 – 11 May 1940 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1940 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Belgium | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | German invasion of Belgium | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 50.7972, 5.6808 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Fort Ében-Émael was a battle between Belgian and German forces that took place between 10 May and 11 May 1940, and was part of the Battle of Belgium and Fall Gelb, the German invasion of the Low Countries and France. An assault force of German paratroopers, Fallschirmjäger, was tasked with assaulting and capturing Fort Ében-Émael, a Belgian fortress whose strategic position and strong artillery emplacements dominated several important bridges over the Albert Canal. These carried roads which led into the Belgian heartland and were what the Wehrmacht intended to use to advance. As some of the German airborne forces assaulted the fortress and disabled the garrison and the artillery pieces inside it, others simultaneously captured two bridges over the canal.
Having disabled the fortress, the airborne troops were then ordered to protect the bridges against Belgian counter-attacks until they linked up with ground forces from the German 18th Army.
The battle was a strategic victory for the Wehrmacht, with the airborne troops landing on top of the fortress with gliders and using explosives and flamethrowers to disable the outer defences of the fortress.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Fort Ében-Émael (revision 1370440995), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the German invasion of Belgium
Browse more: battles in Belgium · Europe · World War II era battles