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File Details
Location : Heumen, Netherlands (Holland) Opponents : Germany vs Netherlands Date : 10 MAY 1940 Scale : 50 yards p hex Description : THE BRIDGE AT HEUMEN, 1940** Germany vs Netherlands* Heumen, Netherlands* 0700 hrs, May 10, 1940* Turns: 12* Scenario size: small* Estimated playing time: 1 hour* SPWAW-version: 8.4** Design: Hans Boersma* 27jbat@planet.nl** PLAYER NOTES:** Recommended Netherlands human player versus German AI or H2H (switch the switches!), but taking the German side should prove interesting as well, though less challenging. Both sides have AI orders. Dutch organisation and armament have been altered to correct inaccuracies in the SPWAW Dutch OOB.** HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:** The Maas-Waal canal, just west and south of Nijmegen, connects the rivers Maas and IJssel. Behind these rivers the Dutch had set up a thin defense line, the purpose of which was to delay a German advance long enough to safeguard the main defense lines further to the west from any surprise attacks. The first priority of the troops in this line was to blow up bridges and to alert their commanders; after that they were to hold off the enemy for as long as possible before retreating.** The forces to defend these lines were weak. The normal defensive frontage for a Dutch infantry battalion was about 1 kilometre; the Maas-Waal Canal, about 13 kilometres long, was defended by only 2 battalions without artillery. Considering this, the defense of the river crossing at Heumen was somewhat elaborate: one infantry platoon, enforced with two 8cm mortars, a modern Bohler anti-tank gun and an obsolete 8-staal gun (1880) that also served in an anti-tank role. The casemates that lined the canal were more closely intersparsed here; 5 of them had a direct line of fire to the bridge.** In the early morning of May 10th the defenders of the bridge were assaulted by a special SS unit, disguised as Dutch military police escorting some 30 German "deserters". They captured the bridge before the charges could be detonated, seizing the 3 nearest casemates (nrs. 8, 9 and 10) in the process. After the initial shock and confusion the Dutch however recovered, and the assault team soon found themselves in dire straits. While they awaited reinforcements from armoured cars, AT-guns and SS-motorcyclists, the Dutch managed to improvise a small counterattack with some troops from elsewhere in the line. The Germans on their turn were further reinforced by artillery and SS troops that had failed to take the bridge at Malden, 2 kilometres north. The Dutch, finally, sent 2 platoons of Hussars (bicylce infantry, dismounted) who attacked the bridge several times. Pinned down by German artillery and machine gun fire, lacking any support of this sort themselves the Hussars eventually broke off their attacks. By then the defense around the bridge had crumbled, leaving only two casemates (nrs 7 and 11) to deny the Germans the use of the bridge untill about 5 PM, when direct hits and lack of ammunition urged their crews to surrender or retreat.** The Dutch lost 16 men dead and about 50 men wounded; German losses are unknown, but a Dutch doctor claimed to have seen some hundred German wounded in Heumen on that day. The stiff resistance put up at Heumen, Malden and Neerbosch urged the German 9th Panzer Division to follow a different and more problematic route to the west.** SOURCES:** E.H. Brongers: Grebbelinie 1940* E.H. Brongers: Opmars naar Rotterdam, Vol. 2* Bericht van de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Vol. 3* |
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