Evening star., 1944-09-13
American Battalion
Takes 'Eben Emae|'
Stronghold Easily
From Yesterdays Last Edition,
By MARK s. WATSON.

I (Fron, Yesterdays Last Edition.
BY MARK s. WATSON.
Baltimore sunpapers Military Correspond
ent) distributed BY the Associated Press)
) WITH GEN. HODGES 1ST
/. UNITED STATES ARMY AT FORT
i EBEN EMAEL, Sept. IA single
4 battalion of American infantry last
night made q cautious approach to
4 this great fort, quarried in solid
/ rock, and prepared for the first
stage Of hard struggle. To their
4 amazement there was no resistance
I whatever and without firing a gun
or throwing grenade they marched
f into the stronghold.
Z The Americans, led by 1t. Col
Paul McCollum, North Carolinian
{ were largely men from North and
4 South Carolina who have seen a
good deal of earlier fighting N
Normandy.
Nothing surprised them more,
said 1t. Edward McArdle Of Hollis,
Long Island, than the fact that all
the special equipment they carried
with them for reduction of the fort
was not necessary. The Germans
had simply pulled out and crossed
the canal and Meuse River into
Holland on their way back toward
the Siegfried Line.
Few Remain on Ridge.
A few of them remained on the
lofty ridge just across the canal
and during the day were firing rifles
into groups of Americans or Bel
gians who exposed themselves. On
the far side of the Meuse River Ger
man artillery continued to fire at
intervals and to receive heavy Amer
lean fire in return.
The taking of Eben Emael was
one of the notable opening disas-
ters OF the war. 1t had been regard
ed as genuinely impregnable, and
when the Germans overran it in a
matter of one day the Allied mill
tary world was shocked and Ger
many jubilant. A great deal of dis
cussion at the time dealt with the
magic by which Germany achieved
the startling military victory which
laid all Belgium open to the Ger
mans.
The common understanding was
that the Germans had achieved it
by profound skill in planning for the
assault. They had built duplicate
of Eben Emael and had trained
parachutists and engineer assault
troops for weeks in exact techniques
Of making an entry at several criti-
cal points.
Capture Was Simpler.
Today, from a Belgian who was
here in 1910, I heard a story which
makes the capture sound somewhat
simpler. He says it was achieved
by treachery. Against supposed
ly treasonable Belgian officer he
makes charges so grave that they
are now being investigated. Accord
ing to this story, an officer in a.
responsible position at Eben Emael
had been named for that post short
ly before the assault. He was named
on the recommendation of Leon
Degrelle, Rexist leader. who had
been chief of the Belgian Nal COL
laborators.
This unidentified officer Cancelled
the normal orders whereby 600 in
fantrymen were kept on guard at
the forts outer ramparts and thus
left all approaches unguarded. He
also is supposed to have severed
communications between the fort
and its artillery observers in distant
lookout points and thereby rendered
the forts great cannon wholly use
less.
Even the inner approaches of the
fort itself were undermined. Those |
few Belgians who stood there were
moved down by wave of the in
vading Germans.
Fort Shows Few Scars.
Certainly the fort shows few scars
OF heavy fighting. The main ap-
proach over which appears "Eben
Amael, 1932-1935" is somewhat
SCARED by artillery fire, but not
wrecked at all and the principal
port by which my guide tells me the
enemy entered has no scars what
ever which meet the eye. 1t is con-
structed within one enormous nat