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SUMMARY
This work, forming part of the Netherlands staff-publication: "Hostilities on Netherlands
Territory during World War II", gives an account of hostilities and operations as took place in and
around Den Helder Fortifications at the time of the German invasion of the Netherlands in May
1940.
The town of Den Helder, from which the station derives its name, is a naval port located in the
northernmost corner of the Province of North-Holland. It formed the chief base of the Royal Nether
lands Navy and was surrounded by water on three sides.
The whole command included the defence of the head of the province of North-Holland, the
Frisian Islands, the outlets to the sea, the barrage-dike of the Ysel Lake and a position on the Frisian
mainland, barring the approach to the dike. Consequently land- and naval-forces were used for the
defence, under the command of a rear-admiral.
In the head of North-Holland there was a seafront and a landfront; the latter was not occupied
before May 11th.
The Frisian Islands had only a weak military garrison.
The outlets to the sea were closed by mine-barrages, guarded by naval units and coastal batteries.
The barrage-dike of the Ysel Lake formed an approach from Friesland to North-Holland and
was defended by two groups of highly modern pillboxes. These were situated upon the emplace
ments of the sluices at Kornwerderzand and at Den Oever, the point where the dike touches the
former island of Wieringen.
The position upon the Frisian mainland in front of the barrage-dike was called Position of Wons
after the little village of Wons.
It served to cover the retreat along the dike of the troops, stationed in the provinces of Groningen,
Friesland and Drenthe. The garrison numbered one battalion, without artillery, which was doubled
with retreating troops on May 11 th.
Upon the mainland and the island of Texel there were 3 military airfields for the training of
pilots. On one of them a fighting squadron was stationed, which was not under the command of the
Position-commander. This squadron left in the morning of May 11th.
In the polder Wieringermeer (a reclaimed part of the Ysel Lake) two auxiliary airfields were
situated. On one of them a reconnaissance squadron was stationed temporarily during the days
of war.
When, on May 10th 1940 at 0340 hours, the enemy initiated his surprise attack by parachuting
magnetic mines in the outlets, the station had already been brought in a state of alert. Airfields were
bombed; antiaircraft artillery opened fire; air combats ensued and the highest degree of alert was
thereupon declared, leading, among other things, to widespread inundations.
Meanwhile the German 1st Cavalry Division had invaded the provinces of Groningen and
Drenthe, with the aid of an armoured train, and the Netherlands troops had been forced to retreat;
later, these troops occupied the land front in the head of North-Holland and the coast near Den
Oever.
The position at Wons, which consisted of field-defences, was attacked and had to evacuate
on May 12th, mainly because of lack of air- and artillery-support. The next day the enemy
carried out an attack on the re-inforced position of Kornwerderzand, which was repulsed with
heavy enemy losses. The pill-boxes were subsequently subjected to heavy artillery shelling and
bombardments from the air, none the less their fighting strength remained unimpaired. A Nether
lands warship undertook counterbattery fire and silenced several enemy batteries on the mainland.
The late afternoon of May 14th, military events in the Netherlands had taken such a turn to the
worse that the Commander-in-Chief of Land and Naval Forces was impelled Rotterdam too had
been very heavily bombed - to lay down arms. Consequently, Den Helder Fortifications had to
surrender by order of the Supreme Command; the capitulation was signed at Sneek, in the night
of 14th-15th May 1940.
Due mention is made of the fact that subsequent to the laying down of arms, the town of Den
Helder was subjected to a long and heavy bombardment, causing many casualties among civilians
and service-men and involving heavy material damage.
