Download or read book Eben Emael and the Defence of Fortress Belgium 1940 written by Clayton Donnell and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2021-12-30 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early morning of 10 May 1940, the sky literally fell on the heads of the defenders of Fort Eben-Emael, considered to be Belgium's most powerful fortress. This huge structure, with its powerful artillery and infantry weapons, was the key to the Meuse and Albert Canal defences. In the darkness of the pre-dawn, German DFS 230 gliders drifted silently over the southern Netherlands, landing one by one on top of Eben-Emael. Within minutes German Special Forces troops destroyed most of the fort’s weapons and observation capabilities. The following day, the garrison surrendered, and the door to Belgium and France was open. But, as Clayton Donnell relates in this perceptive and meticulously researched study, Eben-Emael was only one of the nineteen forts of the fortified positions of Liège and Namur attacked in May 1940. Three new and sixteen refurbished forts held out for several days, and fought to the death. The story he tells contradicts the common assumption that these static defences were rolled over or bypassed –powerless to resist the overwhelming force of the German combat engineer’s assaults, Stuka bombs and heavy artillery shells. In vivid detail he demonstrates that their importance in the 1940 campaign has been seriously under reported, and he gives clarity to some of the legends that have grown up around the capture of Eben-Emael itself.
Download or read book The Fall of Eben Emael written by Chris McNab and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-02-20 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In early May 1940, the fortress of Eben Emael was a potent sentinel over the Belgian–Dutch borderlands. The fortress covered 75 hectares on the surface, had 5km of tunnels underground and was studded with bunkers, gun turrets and casemates. Add a garrison of 1,200 men and the natural protection of 60m-high canal walls, and Eben Emael gave the impression of near-impregnability. Yet on 10 May just 78 elite airborne soldiers managed to defeat this fortress in an operation of unprecedented tactical skill. Deployed by glider onto the very top of the fortifications, they utilized elite training, fast movement and specialist explosives to destroy many of the gun positions and trap much of the garrison within the fortress. Simultaneously, three other assault detachments conducted high-risk glider operations to capture critical bridges over the Albert Canal. By the end of 11 May, following the arrival of German infantry reinforcements, Eben Emael was in German hands. This Eben Emael RAID title tells the complete, fascinating story of this unique action.
Download or read book The Fall of Eben Emael written by Chris McNab and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-02-20 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In early May 1940, the fortress of Eben Emael was a potent sentinel over the Belgian–Dutch borderlands. The fortress covered 75 hectares on the surface, had 5km of tunnels underground and was studded with bunkers, gun turrets and casemates. Add a garrison of 1,200 men and the natural protection of 60m-high canal walls, and Eben Emael gave the impression of near-impregnability. Yet on 10 May just 78 elite airborne soldiers managed to defeat this fortress in an operation of unprecedented tactical skill. Deployed by glider onto the very top of the fortifications, they utilized elite training, fast movement and specialist explosives to destroy many of the gun positions and trap much of the garrison within the fortress. Simultaneously, three other assault detachments conducted high-risk glider operations to capture critical bridges over the Albert Canal. By the end of 11 May, following the arrival of German infantry reinforcements, Eben Emael was in German hands. This Eben Emael RAID title tells the complete, fascinating story of this unique action.
Download or read book The Fall of Eben Emael written by James E. Mrazek and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed to delay a German invasion long enough for Belgium and France to mobilize their defending forces, Eben Emael was the linch-pin upon which rested the vaunted Maginot Line. The fortress fell to a seventy-seven-man force of glider-borne German paratroops in barely more than a day (twenty-eight hours). The daring aerial assault on Eben Emael is one of the most spectacularly successful special operations in history. Book jacket.
Download or read book Eben Emael the Defence of Fortress Belgium 1940 written by Clayton Donnell and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2021-11-24 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early morning of 10 May 1940, the sky literally fell on the heads of the defenders of Fort Eben-Emael, considered to be Belgium's most powerful fortress. This huge structure, with its powerful artillery and infantry weapons, was the key to the Meuse and Albert Canal defences. In the darkness of the pre-dawn, German DFS 230 gliders drifted silently over the southern Netherlands, landing one by one on top of Eben-Emael. Within minutes German Special Forces troops destroyed most of the fort’s weapons and observation capabilities. The following day, the garrison surrendered, and the door to Belgium and France was open. But, as Clayton Donnell relates in this perceptive and meticulously researched study, Eben-Emael was only one of the nineteen forts of the fortified positions of Liège and Namur attacked in May 1940. Three new and sixteen refurbished forts held out for several days, and fought to the death. The story he tells contradicts the common assumption that these static defences were rolled over or bypassed –powerless to resist the overwhelming force of the German combat engineer’s assaults, Stuka bombs and heavy artillery shells. In vivid detail he demonstrates that their importance in the 1940 campaign has been seriously under reported, and he gives clarity to some of the legends that have grown up around the capture of Eben-Emael itself.
Download or read book Fort Eben Emael written by Simon Dunstan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-11-20 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the outbreak of World War II, Fort Eben Emael in Belgium was the strongest fortress in the world, and it lay exactly across the German invasion route of Belgium and France. The fort's elimination was essential for the success of Hitler's invasion of the West. Deemed impregnable to conventional attack, Hitler himself suggested the means for its capture with the first glider-borne assault in military history. On 10 May 1940, ten gliders carrying just 77 paratroopers landed on top of the fort. Using top-secret hollow-charge weapons for the first time in warfare, the assault pioneers of Sturmgruppe Granit subdued Fort Eben Emael within just 30 minutes, and the fortress surrendered within 30 hours. It remains one of the greatest raids in the annals of Special Forces.
Download or read book Belgium s Dilemma written by Jonathan A. Epstein and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-03-27 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Belgium’s Dilemma: The Formation of Belgian Defense Policy, 1932-1940, Jonathan Andrew Epstein presents, for the first time in English, a detailed examination of the formation of Belgian defense policy in the eight years leading up to the crucial World War II Blitzkrieg campaign in Western Europe. Belgium’s decision to renounce military ties with France in 1936 has been widely criticized as a fatal mistake but it was in fact a reasonable response to Belgium’s situation and was not a significant factor in the Allied defeat. Drawing on Belgian documents, Jonathan Andrew Epstein looks at the leaders and issues that shaped the Belgian army of 1940 and demonstrates that while mistakes were made, most of the decisions were sound.
Download or read book Fort Eben Emael 1940 written by Tim Saunders and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2005-10-19 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This WWII battlefield guide offers a detailed history of the Siege of Fort Eben Emael during the Nazi invasion of Belgium—with maps and photos throughout. On May 10th, 1940, German forces launched an attack on Fort Eben Emael on the Belgian-Dutch border. The seizure of the fortress stronghold by German Airborne and Special Forces was the dramatic opening shot in the Nazis' devastating Belgian Campaign. Codenamed Operation GRANITE, it involved glider forces in a daring "coup de main" operation achieving total surprise and success. This comprehensive guide to the Fort Eben Emael battleground offers extensive background information on the fort itself and the significance of the Nazi offensive. A detailed account of the two-day battle is supported by numerous photographs and maps. The simultaneous assaults on key bridges on the Albert Canal are also covered in graphic detail.
Download or read book Spec Ops written by William H. McRaven and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2009-02-04 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vice Adm. William H. McRaven helped to devise the strategy for how to bring down Osama bin Laden, and commanded the courageous U.S. military unit that carried it out on May 1, 2011, ending one of the greatest manhunts in history. In Spec Ops, a well-organized and deeply researched study, McRaven analyzes eight classic special operations. Six are from WWII: the German commando raid on the Belgian fort Eben Emael (1940); the Italian torpedo attack on the Alexandria harbor (1941); the British commando raid on Nazaire, France (1942); the German glider rescue of Benito Mussolini (1943); the British midget-submarine attack on the Tirpitz (1943); and the U.S. Ranger rescue mission at the Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines (1945). The two post-WWII examples are the U.S. Army raid on the Son Tay POW camp in North Vietnam (1970) and the Israeli rescue of the skyjacked hostages in Entebbe, Uganda (1976). McRaven—who commands a U.S. Navy SEAL team—pinpoints six essential principles of “spec ops” success: simplicity, security, repetition, surprise, speed and purpose. For each of the case studies, he provides political and military context, a meticulous reconstruction of the mission itself and an analysis of the operation in relation to his six principles. McRaven deems the Son Tay raid “the best modern example of a successful spec op [which] should be considered textbook material for future missions.” His own book is an instructive textbook that will be closely studied by students of the military arts. Maps, photos.
Download or read book Toward Combined Arms Warfare written by Jonathan Mallory House and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1985 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Beneath the Killing Fields written by Matthew Leonard and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-02-19 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beneath the Killing Fields of the Western Front still lies a hidden landscape of industrialised conflict virtually untouched since 1918. This subterranean world is an ambiguous environment filled with material culture that that objectifies the scope and depth of human interaction with the diverse conflict landscapes of modern war. Covering the military reasoning for taking the war underground, as well as exploring the way that human beings interacted with these extraordinary alien environments, this book provides a more all-encompassing overview of the Western Front. The underground war was intrinsic to trench warfare and involved far more than simply trying to destroy the enemys trenches from below. It also served as a home to thousands of men, protecting them from the metallic landscapes of the surface. With the aid of cutting edge fieldwork conducted by the author in these subterranean locales, this book combines military history, archaeology and anthropology together with primary data and unique imagery of British, French, German and American underground defences in order to explore the realities of subterranean warfare on the Western Front, and the effects on the human body and mind that living and fighting underground inevitably entailed.
Download or read book Chosen Soldier written by Dick Couch and published by Crown. This book was released on 2008-03-25 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unprecedented view of Green Beret training, drawn from the year Dick Couch spent at Special Forces training facilities with the Army’s most elite soldiers. In combating terror, America can no longer depend on its conventional military superiority and the use of sophisticated technology. More than ever, we need men like those of the Army Special Forces–the legendary Green Berets. Following the experiences of one class of soldiers as they endure this physically and mentally exhausting ordeal, Couch spells out in fascinating detail the demanding selection process and grueling field exercises, the high-level technical training and intensive language courses, and the simulated battle problems that test everything from how well SF candidates gather operational intelligence to their skills at negotiating with volatile, often hostile, local leaders. Chosen Soldier paints a vivid portrait of an elite group, and a process that forges America’s smartest, most versatile, and most valuable fighting force.
Download or read book The Siegfried Line Campaign written by Charles Brown MacDonald and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 710 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Fall Of Fort Eben Emael The Effects Of Emerging Technologies On The Successful Completion Of Military Objectives written by Major Thomas B. Gukeisen and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study details the events of 10 May 1940 at Fort Eben Emael, Belgium, and the elements which led to the successful seizure of the fort by the German military. The central focus of this thesis is the following question: Was the use of emerging technologies the key to victory at Fort Eben Emael? First, the study focuses on the technologies themselves. Secondly, this study examines the leadership and training of the German unit assigned the mission at Fort Eben Emael. Lastly, this study examines administration and personnel issues that existed for the Belgians stationed at Fort Eben Emael. This study determined that the glider did afford troops the advantage of surprise; however, the hollow charge failed to live up to its reputation as it was most effective when used in such a way that it was no different than a conventional charge. Further, the German unit’s training and leadership was exemplary and contributed more to the mission’s success than the technologies the unit employed. Additionally, Fort Eben Emael was faced with serious internal issues that prevented a successful defence of the fort. Therefore, this thesis concludes that emerging technologies were not the most crucial component contributing to mission success.
Download or read book May 1940 written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-04-27 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on new research, this book provides the first comprehensive English-language account of the German assault on the Netherlands in May 1940. It presents fresh and incisive analyses of German and Dutch actions at tactical, operational and strategic levels.
Download or read book The Battle for the Maginot Line 1940 written by Clayton Donnell and published by Pen & Sword Military. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What was it like as a French soldier to defend the Maginot Line when the Germans invaded in 1940, and was the line really a strategic and tactical disaster a massive waste of resources? Clayton Donnell's expert, finely detailed and graphic account of the role of the Maginot Line in the defence of France gives the reader an inside view of life in the bunkers, casemates and forts the sights, the sounds and the terror of the German attacks. And it questions common assumptions about the effectiveness of the resistance offered by the defenders and the impact the line had on the German assault. The layout of the line from Dunkirk to Switzerland, along the Alpine passes to the Riviera, and on the island of Corsica is described in expert detail, as is its history, construction and development. But the narrative concentrates on its performance in combat and the experience of the soldiers who manned it as the German offensive broke over them."--Publisher description.
Download or read book The Fall of Fort Eben Emael The Effects of Emerging Technologies on the Successful Completion of Military Objectives written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study details the events of 10 May 1940 at Fort Eben Emael, Belgium, and the elements that led to the successful seizure of the fort by the German military. The central focus of the thesis is the following question: Was the use of emerging technologies the key to the German victory at Fort Eben Emael? First, the author examines the technologies themselves. Second, he examines the leadership and training of the German unit that was assigned to seize Fort Eben Emael. Third, he reviews administrative and personnel issues that existed for the Belgians stationed at Fort Eben Emael. The author's investigation revealed that use of a glider did afford German troops the advantage of surprise, however, the hollow charge failed to live up to its reputation as it was most effective when used in a way that was no different than a conventional charge. Further, the German unit's training and leadership was exemplary and contributed more to the mission's success than the technologies the unit employed. Additionally, Fort Eben Emael was faced with serious internal issues that prevented a successful defense of the Fort. The author concludes that emerging technologies were not the most crucial component contributing to the German's mission success. (1 table, 9 figures, 38 refs.).
