Online Pass - The Fall of Eben Emael
Dawn on Friday 10 May 1940 and hundreds of thousands of British, French, and Belgian soldiers in Northern Europe had no reason to suspect that this day would be any different from any other since Sunday 3 September 1939. They were in for a terrible shock.
Join Tony Bray online to hear about the catastrophic defeat of the fortress of Eben Emael. This huge fortress, with numerous heavy guns and machine guns, had a garrison of 1,000 Belgian soldiers, secure in an underground barracks, some 65 metres below the upper surface.
It had taken 2,500 workers three years to construct – yet 70 German engineers neutralised it in less than 30 minutes, using two new secret weapons.
Find out how the attack unfolded, and how quickly the fortress was disabled. The gliders were the first secret weapon deployed that day, but then the second was then used with devastating effects, combat engineers were put into the fortress to disable the huge, thick concrete cupolas.
Within 30 minutes the battle was effectively over. The fortress was unable to fire on the German forces attacking over the Albert Canal and so the allied defence line was overwhelmed.
Soon the British Expeditionary Force would be pushed back to Dunkirk and evacuated to Britain. France would quickly fall and mainland Europe would be under Nazi rule until June 1944.
The raid on Eben Emael motivated the allies to develop assault gliders of their own.
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Dawn on Friday 10 May 1940 and hundreds of thousands of British, French, and Belgian soldiers in Northern Europe had no reason to suspect that this day would be any different from any other since Sunday 3 September 1939. They were in for a terrible shock.
Join Tony Bray online to hear about the catastrophic defeat of the fortress of Eben Emael. This huge fortress, with numerous heavy guns and machine guns, had a garrison of 1,000 Belgian soldiers, secure in an underground barracks, some 65 metres below the upper surface.
It had taken 2,500 workers three years to construct – yet 70 German engineers neutralised it in less than 30 minutes, using two new secret weapons.
Find out how the attack unfolded, and how quickly the fortress was disabled. The gliders were the first secret weapon deployed that day, but then the second was then used with devastating effects, combat engineers were put into the fortress to disable the huge, thick concrete cupolas.
Within 30 minutes the battle was effectively over. The fortress was unable to fire on the German forces attacking over the Albert Canal and so the allied defence line was overwhelmed.
Soon the British Expeditionary Force would be pushed back to Dunkirk and evacuated to Britain. France would quickly fall and mainland Europe would be under Nazi rule until June 1944.
The raid on Eben Emael motivated the allies to develop assault gliders of their own.
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