Battle of the Afsluitdijk 1940
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 12 May 1940 – 14 May 1940 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1940 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Netherlands | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | World War II | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 53.0742, 5.3369 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Afsluitdijk of 12–14 May 1940 was an unsuccessful attempt by German Wehrmacht forces to seize the Afsluitdijk during the invasion of the Netherlands. German invasion plans called for a simultaneous attack on Vesting Holland from multiple directions, expecting to capture the country's capital and most important region in a day's time.
To facilitate an attack from the north, Wehrmacht elements commanded by General Kurt Feldt first needed to cross the Afsluitdijk, a 32-kilometer-long (20 mi) causeway and dike connecting the country's northern provinces to its western province of North Holland and ultimately to Amsterdam and beyond.
Despite finding themselves outmanned and outgunned, Royal Dutch Army troops commanded by Captain Christiaan Boers, under the overall command of rear-Admiral Hoyte Jolles, managed to successfully hold back the attackers at Fort Kornwerderzand, protected by modernized heavily fortified defensive positions. The German Army was thus prevented from immediately concentrating its full strength on the country's most vital area.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Afsluitdijk (revision 1376584390), 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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