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WWII-Battles
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The involvement of the Netherlands in World War II began with its invasion by Nazi Germany on 10 May 1940. The Netherlands had originally proclaimed neutrality when war broke out in 1939, but Germany invaded anyway.On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam , the Dutch forces surrendered.The Dutch government and the royal family escaped and went into exile in Britain.Following the defeat, the Netherlands was placed under German occupation, which endured in some areas until the German surrender in May 1945. Active resistance was carried out by a small minority which grew in the course of the occupation.
German invasion
Despite its policy of neutrality, the Netherlands was invaded on the morning of 10 May 1940, without a formal declaration of war, by German forces moving simultaneously into Belgium and Luxembourg .The Germans intended to draw Allied forces away from the Ardennes and to lure British and French forces deeper into Belgium and pre-empt a possible British invasion in North Holland. The Luftwaffe was also reliant on seizing Dutch airfields on the Dutch coast to launch raids against the United Kingdom.
The Dutch military, with insufficient and outdated weapons and equipment, was caught largely unprepar-ed.Much of its weaponry had not changed since the First World War.The Germans succeeded in crossing the Maas river in the Netherlands on the first day, allowing the German army to outflank the nearby Belgian Fort Eben-Emael and forcing the Belgian army to withdraw from the German border.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_in_World_War_II
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