First moves

On the issuing of the secret codeword "Danzig" on 9 May 1940, soon after midnight, units of the Leibstandarte, followed by the SS-VT Division, were heading northwards from their garrisons in the Ruhr region. Ahead of them thousands of airborne troops were being dropped throughout Holland. On schedule at 05:30 hours, the first Leibstandarte troops captured a key bridge at De Poppe to open the way for the 227th Infantry Division to push west towards Amsterdam. The first day's advance was rapid, with the Leibstandarte driving more then 217km (135 miles) - most of the Dutch defenders were taken by surprise by the speed of the German move. Leibstandarte troops found most of the explosive charges placed under Dutch bridges had not been detonated. In the few cases where bridges were blown, the SS men built improvised bridges from commandeered building materials to allow the advance to continue. On 11 May, the 227th Infantry ordered a full-scale assault on the Ijssel defence line, which was now heavily defended by Dutch troops. The Leibstandarte led the main assault over the river, and by nightfall had penetrated 40km (25 miles) behind Dutch lines.

Breaking the Grebbe Line

The main body of the SS-VT attacked to the north of the Leibstandarte advance, towards the so-called Grebbe Line that blocked the direct route to Amsterdam from the east. The Der Führer Regiment was in the vanguard of this advance, and was soon finding that the Dutch were putting up determined resistance to protect the region they dubbed their "national redoubt", which bristled with machine-gun nests, tank traps and an interlocking network of canals and other water obstacles.

German paratroops in The Hague and Rotterdam were now locked in bitter fighting as Dutch troops battled frantically to stop them capturing a series of strategic bridges over the Rhine and Maas rivers. On the morning of 13 May, the 9th Panzer Division backed by the Leibstandarte was ordered to swing south, seize the Moerdijk bridge and then punch a corridor through to the trapped airborne troops. The SS-VT division was to follow up and reinforce the advance once it had extracted itself from the fighting along the Grebbe Line.

The panzer column made good progress. By the evening it was on the outskirts of Rotterdam. The Germans, becoming desperate to break the back of Dutch resistance, issued an ultimatum to the Dutch commander in the city threatening to level Rotterdam with air raids and artillery barrages unless he surrendered. The Dutch Army agreed to the terms, but the negotiations dragged during the afternoon of 14 May. In the confusion, recall orders to the Luftwaffe bombers failed to get through in time. Some 980 people died in the resulting carnage and 78,000 were made homeless. The Dutch Army command now announced the surrender of all the troops defending the national redoubt.

The Leibstandarte's reconnaissance battalion pushed into the city in the confusion to link up with Student's men. Some Dutch troops had not yet received the surrender orders and fighting continued during the night. In one incident, the SS men mistook a group of German paratroopers for Dutch soldiers and opened fire. Student was among the group and was wounded in the head by the SS fire. The 9th Panzer Division and the Leibstandarte now moved to complete the disarming of the Dutch defenders of Rotterdam.

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