19401776 Club
German gliders land on a fortress roof before dawn; Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands are invaded
Hollow charges crack the gun turrets at Fort Eben-Emael by 4 a.m., as Wehrmacht ground forces cross three frontiers simultaneously under Case Yellow.
Before dawn on May 10, 1940, Belgian military headquarters in Brussels received the alarm at 12:10 a.m. By 4:00 a.m., German aircraft were striking airfields and communication centers across the country. Wehrmacht ground forces crossed the frontier under operational plan Fall Gelb — Case Yellow — simultaneously invading Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The opening blow fell on Fort Eben-Emael, a fortress guarding the Albert Canal, where German glider troops landed directly on its flat rooftop using hollow-charge explosives to crack the gun turrets. The Belgian Army, 600,000 strong, had eighteen days to fight…
