Why was Holland + others invaded?

[john2]

In ww1 only Belgium was invaded to get to France but ww2 Luxembourg and Holland were invaded too. Can anyone tell me the military reasons for this? And Denmark was invaded to help with Norway. Correct?

[KingsOfPortugal]

The reason i can think of now is because of their ports, the allies would use Netherlands as an harbour where they could unload everything, near germany without casualties fighting for the coast. I think.

[steverodgers801]

Holland was critical for airbases and Hitler did not want to leave such a Aryan country out side of his soon to be happy family.

[ChrisDR68]

Invading the low countries was exactly what General Gamelin expected the Germans to do which was why he sent his strategic reserves there before the German attack on 10th May 1940.

That was the reason the French had no cover once the German offensive in the Ardennes had broken through the centre of the French front. Without an attack on the Netherlands the German invasion of the west could only have been made through Belgium or against the Maginot line.

Both options would have left the French with a narrow and solid defensive front which would have been difficult for the Germans to break through against so the diversionary attack on Holland played a vital role in the German victory of June 1940.

[BDV]

In ww1 only Belgium was invaded to get to France but ww2 Luxembourg and Holland were invaded too. Can anyone tell me the military reasons for this? And Denmark was invaded to help with Norway. Correct?

Luxembourg was also invaded in WWI. Also, in WWI Holland had allowed the 2nd Reich to use the key transport hub of Maastricht to support their troops in Belgium. Also at the beginning of to WWII there was the Venlo Incident, which may have also pushed Adolf into choosing the brutal but simple solution of invasion.

Historically I think it turned out mostly a fiasco. Dutch put up much stronger resistance than germans had planned for, and also bloodied the Fallschirmjager troops and the airtransport arm. OTOH without invasion of Holland, the atack in Belgium would have been just as successful.

For Weserubung, Denmark was needed as a jump-off.

[steverodgers801]

It was costly, but it was quite successful so fiasco is not correct. Gamelin put his one reserve army the 7th on the left wing to enable a link up with Dutch forces. Therefore with out a threat to Holland the French would have had a force ready to deal with the Sedan attack. Study your history better

[Mr.No one]

Regarding Denmark: The German invasion on 9. April 1940 envisaged using the Danish airport of Aalborg as a forward airbase for support of the invasion of Norway. That's what I at least have heard. Also the Germans later imported dairy products from Denmark, but I doubt that was one of the main reasons. Actually, I think I just come up with the main strategic reason: Denmark, in conjunction with Norway, can seal off the entrance to the Baltic Sea and that was something the German Navy needed, as they were about to use the Baltic as a training place for different vessels, including Die U-Boote.

Cheers,
Sean

[BDV]

It was costly, but it was quite successful so fiasco is not correct.

So did the german right flank arrive in time to collapse the Dunkirk pocket from the back and destroy the encircled forces? No?! So what would constitute a failure in your esteemed opinion?

What featured of french battle plan and battleplan execution lead you to assume that the 7th would be used exactly at the right place and time, and that it would be given the correct tasks, and that it could actually complete the job it was entrusted with?

[steverodgers801]

The Germans could have collapsed the pocket if Rundstedt did not worry about the Pz's. Im not saying the 7th army would have prevented disaster, we don't know. But having a first class unit available to react could have caused a stop much sooner. Hitler was paranoid about the flanks and having a full army instead of reserve units probably would have forced Guderian to react instead of driving forward. The key part is Gamelin left himself with no reserve force.

[BDV]

The Germans could have collapsed the pocket if Rundstedt did not worry about the Pz's.

(the rolling one I'd want)

Coulda shoulda woulda.

But we were talking Holland. What military benefits against the AngloFrench did Germany derive from invading a friendly neutral? So why is not a failure? For illumination, compare and contrast with breaching the Belgian neutrality.

(Actually Runstedt and GROFAz were right on that one.)

[steverodgers801]

But he gave up his once chance of influencing the invent instead of watching helplessly. Think what might have happened if even a division had struck the flank instead of a battalion. The benefit of Holland was primarily in its capacity for airbases.

[Carl Schwamberger]

Holland was critical for airbases and Hitler did not want to leave such a Aryan country out side of his soon to be happy family.

This was the core of it. At several points during the development of 'Plan Yellow' the Netherlands were excluded. The air force leaders argued for inclusion as they wanted the airbases badly. From thos they expected to be able to dominate the North Sea, and the eastern half of the UK. Goering and his staff had little confidence that the Sickle Cut concept would work so they would have airbases near the Channel. Capturing the Dutch airfields hedged their bets by guaranteeing secure air base in reasonable range of the UK cities.

The reason i can think of now is because of their ports, the allies would use Netherlands as an harbour where they could unload everything, near germany without casualties fighting for the coast. I think.

Nuetral Dutch ports would be unavailable to supply Allied armies. However Antwerp would be. By overrunning the Netherlands it was possible to close the Scheldt estuary and cut off Antwerp. This was a fairly secondary reason, but it seems it raised as a point in the planning confrences.

Holland was critical for airbases and Hitler did not want to leave such a Aryan country out side of his soon to be happy family.

There was a active facist party in the Netherlands. Maybe that colored German thinking?

[phylo_roadking]

What military benefits against the AngloFrench did Germany derive from invading a friendly neutral?

IIRC neither the British nor the French were anything less than public (until the start of the war anyway) about their intentions to honour their Locarno Pact obligations and come to the support of Belgium...NOR were the French any less loquacious about their plans and military conventions agreed with the Dutch to in effect dash their best-equiped and most mobile field army into the north of Belgium to link up with the Dutch if Belgium was invaded and it opened the way...

Nor were they any more secure about their intentions to send their almost as well-equiped second-best field army into central Belgium under Rene Prieux, the force that nearly held the Germans at Gembloux Gap within days of the balloon going up on May 10th

There's a thread somewhere on AHF where I and others spend a considerable amount of time and detail discussing the economic events of WWI and the Economic Blockade...and Denmark AND HOLLAND were both vital to Germany surviving as long as it did. From Holland the Germans had imported a HUGE amount of meat on the hoof or in carcass, fats, and animal fodder for their OWN farm animals...as well other agricultural products...none of which was restricted by the Quota System because it wasn't produced using external, internationally-sourced materialsresources - exept perhaps fertilisers.

The thing is - if properly done, Hitler's Germany could hope to get ALL this and more out of a conquered and Occupied Demark and Holland. Yes they were "friendly neutrals"...but the Germans weren't going to actually lose very much at all if they invaded them. ONLY technically the internationally-sourced materials coming into Holland and Denmark first then possibly being sold on to Germany...but this was swings and roundabouts - as the WWII-era Quota System never really got off the ground because the losses of Holland, Denmark and Norway pulled the major planks/players out from under the British economic blockade plans. You couldn't pay European and Scandanavian Neutrals not to through-export materiel to Germany - if they were ALREADY conquered and Occupied and out of the game! Or rather - were already in the other camp.

[AJFFM]

In ww1 only Belgium was invaded to get to France but ww2 Luxembourg and Holland were invaded too. Can anyone tell me the military reasons for this? And Denmark was invaded to help with Norway. Correct?

Luxembourg was invaded in WWI as others pointed out, it was basically impossible to invade France without it.

As for Holland, after Mechelen the Germans had no choice but to invade. They originally conceived the idea of Fall Gelb based on the Schlieffen plan which had similar ideas about how to approach the Netherlands. In 1914 as others said the Dutch will willing to cooperate but in 1940 with a larger Dutch army, an expansionist fascist regime in Germany and a Japan that was in a not so secret hostility with the Dutch who had good relations with the British as a counterbalance, depending on the good will of the Dutch not to intervene and attack the Germans from behind as they marched into Belgium was rather idiotic. It would have resulted in a swift German defeat.

[phylo_roadking]

However - Holland was both a declared Neutral AND had a very large peace movement; the thought of its forces "attacking" anyone was ludicrous...to the Dutch. It had long opted for the "weak"side of Neutrality, like the Norwegians...and unlike the Belgians, who had the largest reserve forces per head of population of any european nation on the outbreak of war.

Was its army really larger? Its colonial forces certainly were - but its forces in Holland? The army had tanks...in the colonies, not in europe, etc.. IIRC it was the same for the navy and the air force - their strengths were in the colonies, not at home... where the Dutch relied on them not being seen as a threat to any major combatant for their greatest defence...