German-Dutch border
12:00
Day 1 of the Dutch war
Alongside the dutch border, the same thing happened over and over again. Suddenly, German travellers drew weapons and stormed switch points. At the same time, dutch train wardens awaited the usual 12:00 train that passed from Germany into the netherlands, such as the train stations at Tep Axel, Bellingwolde, Enschede Hinterswjik, Uilenpol. And sure enough, soon the High speed train was approaching. However, as it got nearer, the wardens soon recognized that these were no ordinary trains. Instead, they were armored trains and were not carrying passengers, but Sturmtruppen. Within minutes, the completely surprised dutch were surrounded by german soldiers. After another ten minutes, another armored train ran past the station. And another. And another.
The German invasion had begun.
Ground assault
All over Belgium and the Netherlands, the dutch appeared to be taken completely by surprise, which was further compounded by their extremely bad disposition of forces, having all of them concentrated in massive garrisons, with the biggest ones being the three 45-brigade armies at Brussels, Zwolle and Luxembourg. There were almost no garrison forces and all support to and from the netherlands had to go through three main railroads to the south.
Above the River Waal
There were three main railroads running from Brabant into Holland. One was the route from Hertogenbosch to Nijmegen, the second one the bridge over the River Waal and the third one from Dordrecht to Breda. The first was to be left intact, with the other two being the target of a concentrated air attack. of the 200 Gotha G-XI available to the airforce, 160 were assigned to the task of destroying them, protected by over 300 fighters.
Sadly, the relative inexperience of the pilots soon showed to be a problem. For of the 60 bombers assigned to the task, over 40 dropped their payload too early or missed. The remaining 20 aircraft released their bombs, but due to the high altitude at which they were flying they did little damage. For while they succeded with the attack - if hitting the bridge could actually be called succeeding - their bombs did little damage to the structural integrity of it. Only some tracks were torn up. If the dutch could react quickly, the bridge could be repaired in no time.
Extremely frustrated, the first wave turned back towards home, while the second wave - 100 bombers and 180 fighters - continued on towards the other bridge.
Dutch coast
The Hochseeflotte (or rather two-thirds of it, for that had been deemed sufficient against the outdated and weak Dutch Navy) started their distant blockade. Seaplanes and 2 recon zeppelins kept a constant watch for any sign of the dutch trying to break out, but other than those units no german ship was to approach the coast near enough to be attacked by torpedoes. Over 40 fighters stood ready at Emden to provide air support should the dutch try an air attack, while the over 40 seaplanes of the fleet had the same role.
Ground assault
The armored trains had made great headway, no small thanks to the Brandenburger special units capturing many of the switch stations. Soon, however, their usefulness was limited. Before all could reach their targets, all but one had fallen victim to dutch wardens switching them to other railroads beside the main roads. In the case of one armored train, this proved disastrous when it rammed the bollard, broke through it and landed into a marsch, causing great loss of life. However, the trains, which had the shortest and straightest route towards their destination, reached it - the city of Nijmegen, which was taken by surprise when four armored trains disgorged over 3000 German soldiers.
With the main railroads secure, the German army initiated its attack.
North
Tasked with capturing the North of Holland was Army Group 1.
Group 1, North
1st Korps + 2nd Korps + other Korps
Total:
1 armored Brigade
1 mot. Infantry Brigade
2 heavy artillery brigade
4 artillery brigades
6 cavalry brigades
6 Pioneer brigades
3 Sturmtruppen brigades
16 infantry brigades
Group 1 had crossed over into the Netherlands at Emden, Georgsdorf and Bellingwolde. Finding no opposition, the cavalry had a field day, charging ahead. Most of the towns and villages in their way were quicly captured. Only at Groningen was there meaningful resistance, for although the city had no active troops assigned to it, police and reservist formations had been in the process of assembling. However, the confused reservists, many of whom who did not understand what was going on, were no match for German Sturmtruppen.
At the end of the day, Groningen had fallen and throughout the night, German trains were bringing in more and more troops, while those already deployed continued their advance. The main objective now was to take as much ground as possible to prevent the Dutch from mobilizing.
Center
Army Group center was tasked with directly engaging the dutch army at Zwolle. To further this aim, the 3rd and 4th Korps had been assigned to it, being the German specialists for siege work.
Group 2:
3rd Korps + 4th Korps + other Korps
Total:
5 heavy artillery brigade
6 artillery brigades
10 Pioneer brigades
4 cavalry brigades
9 Sturmtruppen brigades
37 infantry brigade
For this end, the vast majority of heavy railroad guns had been transferred to them.
Breaking through at Enschede and Gramsbergen, they too met with little opposition. At the end of the day, the heavy artillery was within range of Zwolle and started shelling it.
South
The South was assigned to Army Group 3. As this was the most critical region to German success, the attack here was made by nothing other than the Pride of the German Army, the Gardekorps.
Group 3:
Gardekorps (general overview, for complete breakdown see OOB) + other verbände
Total:
4 Armored brigades
14 motorized infantry brigades
10 cavalry brigades
8 motorized artillery brigades
1 artillery brigade
4 armored recon bataillons
4 infantry brigades (specialized)
3 heavy artillery brigades
3 Pionier brigades
8 Sturmtruppen brigades
35 general infantry brigades
With Nijmegen having been taken, the Garde had a field day.
The Gardekavallerie raced forward, leaving most of the non-garde infantry behind. However, as the Garde was fully motorized, the armored and infantry brigades as well as the artillery brigades had no problem following them.
When Nightfall came, the Garde had taken Tiel, Ede, Grave and was ready to push onwards. The un-motorized units would press onwards to Hertogenosch, where the German army expected to face the first active dutch units - if the dutch would relocate units to the north.
The motorized units were pressing onwards towards the bridge of the Waal River, trying to take it - but even they had to deal with more and more dutch reservists, who, while not fully mobilized and very much unprepared for an attack, still had to be dealt with. When nightfall came, they were still a good 20km away from the bridge.
The third brigde however was not a concern for the German army anymore.
The skies above the Hollandsches Diep
The enemy airforce, having only a total of 120 fighters, had been completely surprised by the German attack. having well learned the lesson of the first atttack from only a few hours ago, the 100 Gotha bomber this time decreased their altitude, leading to the following picture to be taken by a dutch journalist:
Image taken from here
This time, being well protected by over 180 fighters and encountering no meaningful flak, the bombers took their time, attacking one by one. After the last Bomber had released its bombs, the bridge was utterly useless - whole sections had tumbled into the water and the ones that survived had their tracks torn up. It would take at least several weeks before trains could once again pass over it.
Münster
While the army pressed on, other trains were busy relocating the reserve closer to the front. At the same time, the army of the Rhine was moved "upwards" into the german areas bordering Belgium and Luxemburg. Attacks had been made there as well, but they were more of a cautious advance. On the Italian and Balkan border, more troops were piling into trains to be relocated to the north. All in all, the General Staff was very satisfied over the events of the first day of fighting.
Berbera
15:00
SMS Baden, Flag
Admiral Sauchon noticed the clock reaching 12:00. No reply had come from the Dutch, though seaplane spotters had noticed a flurry of activity on their decks as ships were apparently made combat ready with great haste. "Very well. Train batteries, prepare to open fire."
The massive eight 16-inch guns of the SMS
Baden trended to port. Behind the
Baden, the ten 15-inch guns of the SMS Markgraf and the 24 12-inch guns of the
Ostfriesland and
Thüringen were doing the same.
Not joining the battleline, but always prowling and ready to attack should the dutch destroyers sortie, were the heavy cruisers SMS
Blücher and SMS
Dohna, with the light cruisers SMS Pola, SMS Novaro, SMS Stettin and SMS Wilhelmshaven providing escort. Their job as well as the job of the twelve destroyers assigned to the task (2 Tatra, 6 Z22, 4 V-112) was to prevent any sort of torpedo attack.
Not that there was much to worry about that. The German fleet outranged the dutch ships, which consisted of 15 destroyers and 5 De Zeven Provincien class Pantserships.
Those 10.000 ton ships were armed with 2 11 inch guns, meaning that any single battleship of the German fleet outranged and outshot their entire flotfillia. And Sauchon exploited this 8-1 advantage in firepower fully. All in all, it was almost a gunnery exercise for the Navy.
After a total of 240 16", 450 15" and 720 12" shots had been fired, the Dutch commander capitulated. None of his ships ever managed to weigh anchor. Of the five Pantserships, one had exploded when the magazines were detonated by a 15" shell, three had been reduced to burning hulks and the last two had all turrets out of action. Of the destroyers, 5 had been sank at anchor, with three more having been sunk when their desperate counterattack had been intercepted by the german light cruisers and destroyers. The remaining ships capitulated.
Soon, German troops were launched from the five Barbarossa class liners and 14 support ships that had accompanied the ships. At the end of the day, the two marine and 2 pioneer brigades were in full control of Berbera - and subsequently Dutch Somaliland.
SMS
Thüringen and 4 destroyers were detailed to guard the newly conquered territory and to lend naval gunfire support if necessary. However, apparently the dutch had not had any active military units in the territories beside their fleet and soon, all strategic points of the territories had been conquered (which mainly was Berbera and a few fishing villages). The German fleet then turned back towards Dar-es-Salaam, the battleships having expended about one third of their ammunition and the destroyers/light/heavy cruisers about half of theirs.
Of the coast of Mombasa, Kenya
The two long-range submarines dived, having been joined by three Mittel-UII boote. Their task was to torpedo any dutch warship that would try to break out of Kenya.
Ten hours later
SMS Kaiserin
Near Bali
Konteradmiral Erich Raeder looked at his assembled force in the sunrise. When the Ultimatum had been issued, it had already been 8 pm in this part of the ocean, making an attack impossible. So he did have to wait until dawn had approached.
His force, being composed of the battlecruisers SMS
Goeben,
Moltke and the battleship SMS
Kaiserin, to which he had transferred his command when it and the aircraft carrier
Graf Zeppelin had joined the fleet as well as the heavy cruisers
Lacy,
Pappenheim, the light cruisers
Tsingtao,
Mailand,
Dresden and a total of eight destroyers escorting three Barbarossa class liners, 11 cargo and four auxillary ships was headed for Bali.
The dutch fleet had been spotted early by seaplanes. Apparently it had headed for sea in full battle readiness. It was composed of 5 Pantserships and 15 Wolf-class destroyers. Raeder did not view them a serious threat, for each of his heavy units outgunned them all. They were however good in shooting down aircraft, as the air arm had found out when it had started an air attack. They had managed to sink one destroyers, but had been unable to land a single hit on any of the Pantserships. Even worse, the attack had cost them Four torpedo-bombers and 3 fighters - almost 30% of their entire fleet strength. Raeder had consequently ordered to stop all air attacks and to launch spotter planes only.
But now, the dutch fleet was going to face the fury of the German Navy. With a deafening thunder, the 10 12"/50cal guns of the Kaiserin opened fire, joined by the 20 11"/50 of the battlecruisers. Soon, seaplane spotters noted the shell-splashes around the Dutch ships. The dutch commander must have noticed that he was massively outgunned and outranged, for the Dutch formation changed course, back to Bali.
However, as the top speed of the pantserships was only 16 knots, the German fleet found it more than easy to catch up with them. Soon, the last destroyer in line was hit and blew up spectacularly. In response, the dutch destroyers increased their speed and made smoke. The five Pantserships turned and faced the German fleet.
Raeder recognized what the enemy commander was doing - sacrificing himself so that his light forces could escape. He quickly weighed his options - the destroyers were not much of a threat, having only a range of 270nm at top speed and a range of 2700 at 8 knots - which was the speed of merchants in the time of war. However, if they could reach a dutch port, they might cause some trouble.
Soon, the signal was passed to
Goeben and
Moltke to try to destroy as many destroyers as possible and the two battlecruisers increased their speed, making a magnificent sight as they thundered past the flagship.
Magnificent as the sight was, it proved to be a mistake. For while their shells did indeed manage to sink another destroyer, they had come within the range of the pantserships. The C-turret on Moltke received a hit of an enemy 11inch shell and was put out of action, killing five men and wounding 3 more. Not wanting to risk his ships so far away from a Naval Yard, Raeder called for his battlecruisers to fall back.
After the escape of the destroyers, the battle turned into a slaughter as methodically, the german ships destroyed one Pantsership after the other while staying out of range of their 11" guns. The aircraft carrier captain, eager to avenge his pilots, launched another sortie of torpedo bombers, which, without the destroyers present, put four torpedoes into the enemy flagship, which almost immdiately rolled over.
After the last pantsership was sunk, the German forces proceeded to Denpasar. The dutch settlers and reservists had tried to mobilize, but as the following hours showed, their forces were no match for 2 brigades of marine infantry and three colonial brigades. having secured Denpasar, the german forces proceded to start the conquest of the rest of the island. No effective resistance was experienced at any part of this operation.
The german light forces and the Heavy cruisers screened the german fleet while the battleship and the battlecruisers took their time to resupply and the liners/cargo ships were unloaded. Seaplanes were refueled and launched once more to prevent a surprise attack, while the carrier aircraft aided the troops in the conquest of the island.
All in all, Raeder was not worried about the dutch destroyers. With their range being so low, they only had two options - either reach a base on Sumatra or try a desperate attack on the german fleet, which would be spotted and intercepted by his forces easily.
The only worry now was the fleet at Darwin, but six German u-boots were lying in wait for it already.
Moltke's C turret would have to be replaced as well, but the ship could still make top speed.
Timor
The german forces in timor consisted of two Sturmtruppen, one marine, one artillery and 1 colonial brigade. Of those, the artillery and colonial brigade was guarding the German capital of East Timor, while one Sturmtruppen brigade was being ferried to the front.
Earlier on, two hastily mobilized brigades of colonial infantry reserves had been ordered to attempt a crossing of the border. However, they encountered uncharacteristically stiff resistance from equally hastily mobilized dutch reservists. In the general confusion, it did not take long for someone to lose nerves and retreat to their starting positions - which in this case were the Germans. It was therefore decided to stop the advance until the Sturmtruppen brigade had joined them.
Coast of West timor
On the coast of the main port of Dutch west Timor, a small German fleet was cruising, composed of the Blücher class cruiser SMS
Manteuffel, the light cruiser
Frankfurt, 2 destroyers and 2 Barbarossa class liners, 3 cargo and 1 auxillary ship. The plan was to launch a daring amphibious assault by one marine brigade and then land a Sturmtruppen brigade to take the island. However, while Fortuna smiled on the German war plan so far, this time she averted her face.
When the german marine force had finally landed - after a crash of two boats had put over 300 men into the water - the Marinesoldaten found out the hard way that the maps that had been obtained by german spies had been part of a succesful dutch disinformation campaign. For what was supposed to be a passable jungle stretch turned out to be a swamp - and nearly the entire vanguard was wiped out when what was supposed to be an unguarded road turned out to have been guarded by four machine gun nests. Not knowing what else laid in wait, the invasion was cancelled after naval gun fire support had been proven ineffective - for it happened to land among the second wave of marines due to the maps not only being wrong in the ground disposition, but also in the dimensions.
The german fleet returned to east timor. It looked like the campaign would have to be conducted the old-fashioned way - by slowly slugging through the jungle.
Results:
- land attack catches dutch of guard and in extremely bad position. Result: Huge german advance
- one of the three railroads that can be used to reinforce Holland is captured and used for an advance into Braban, the other is damaged (but repairable) and within a days march of the advancing forces, the third one is knocked out for several months.
- German navy attacks and takes Berbera and Somaliland, dutch fleet destroyed/surrendered
- german submarines wait to stage an ambush in Kenya
- German Navy destroys large portion of dutch fleet at Bali, only 12 short-range destroyers escape, Denpasar is taken. German troops begin conquest of the other parts of Bali. However, SMS
Moltke loses one turret.
- German assault at Timor is a huge f*ckup, resulting in the loss of over 1200 marines and 600 colonial reservists.
(OOC: that is it for the first day of war. I'll write more about the political and diplomatic stuff later on).
