He got a message from Colonel Cuno Eduard Willem baron van Voorst tot Voorst, the commander of the city of Utrecht, that the Germans demanded its surrender. Messages were dropped by planes saying that only surrender would stop the city from being destroyed.
Winkelman thought the Germans would bomb any city offering any resistance, Since he was told to avoid suffering and since the Dutch military was weak, he decided to surrender.
All army units were informed at 16:50 by of his decision and ordered to destroy their weapons and surrender to the nearest German units. At 17:20 the German envoy in The Hague was informed. At around 19:00 Winkelman gave a radio speech informing the Dutch people. This was also how the German command became aware the Dutch had surrendered.
On the morning of 14 May the commander of the Royal Dutch Navy, Vice-Admiral Johannes Furstner, left the country to continue the fight. Dutch naval vessels were generally not included in the surrender. Eight ships had already departed, some smaller vessels were sunk, and nine others sailed for England in the evening of 14 May. The "Hr. Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau" was sunk by German bombers while crossing.
The commander of the main Dutch naval port of Den Helder, Rear-Admiral Hoyte Jolles, decided that his base, with 10,000 troops, its own air service, and land defences, should continue to fight. Winkelman had to convince him to obey the surrender order. Large parts of the Dutch Army did not want to accept the surrender.
At 05:00 on 15 May a German messenger reached The Hague, inviting Winkelman to Rijsoord for a meeting with von Küchler to make a written surrender. Winkelman surrendered the army, naval and air forces. The document was signed at 10:15
The province of Zealand not part of the surrender. Fighting continued alongside French troops. The Dutch forces in the province had eight full battalions of army and naval troops.
They were commanded by Rear-Admiral Hendrik Jan van der Stad. The area was under naval command because of the naval port of Flushing on the island of Walcheren. The northern islands of the province were almost undefended apart from some platoons.
The defence of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, the Dutch part of Flanders, was left to the Allies. The main Dutch army forces were in Zuid-Beveland east of Walcheren. They tried to block this route to Vlissingen.
Zuid-Beveland was connected to the coast of North Brabant. At its eastern end, Bath Position was defended by an infantry battalion. At its western end was the Zanddijk Position, occupied by three battalions.
After on 10 May three French motorised units went to North Brabant. From 11 May the area was reinforced by two French infantry divisions: the "60e Division d'Infanterie", a B-class division, and the newly formed naval "68e Division d'Infanterie". Part of their equipment was brought by ship.
Most troops remained where two of the eight Dutch battalions and two border companies were located. Only two French regiments were sent to the northern bank.
On 13 May the Dutch troops were placed under French command and "68e Division d'Infanterie" was transferred to the 7th Army.
There was poor communications, misunderstandings and disagreements between the Dutch and the French. The Dutch considered the Bath and Zanddijk Positions to be defendable because of the flooding. However, the French commander General Pierre-Servais Durand wanted his troops hidden behind obstacles.
On the evening of 13 May one regiment, the "271e" of "68e Division d'Infanterie", occupied the Canal through Zuid-Beveland. The "224e" of "60 Division d'Infanterie" stayed in the area separating the island of Walcheren from Zuid-Beveland. The Allied forces were not grouped together enough, which enabled the Germans to defeat them even though they had less men.
On 14 May the Germans had occupied almost all of North Brabant. "SS-Standarte Deutschland" reached the Bath Position. This cut off the retreat of "27e Groupe de Reconnaissance de Division d'Infanterie", which was destroyed defending Bergen-op-Zoom. The morale of the defenders of the Bath Position weakened by news that Winkelman had surrendered. Many decided that it was useless that Zealand kept fighting as the last remaining province.
An artillery bombing on the position in the evening of 14 May caused the commanding officers to leave. Then the troops left.
In the morning of 15 May "SS-Standarte Deutschland" approached the Zanddijk Position. A first attack around 08:00 on the northern sector was stopped, as the Germans had to advance over a narrow dike. However, the bombing caused the battalions in the main positions to flee, and the entire line was abandoned around 14:00.
On 16 May "SS-Standarte Deutschland" approached the Canal through Zuid-Beveland. The French "271e Régiment d’Infanterie" was partly dug in and helped by three Dutch battalions. An air bombing was done that morning. The first German crossings around 11:00 led to a complete collapse of the defence. On 16 May the island of Tholen was captured. On 17 May Schouwen-Duiveland was captured.
The commanders of the Dutch troops on South-Beveland refused commands to attack the Germans. On 17 May a night attack at 03:00 failed. The Germans now demanded the surrender of the island. When this was refused they bombed Arnemuiden and Flushing. Middelburg, the province's capital city, was shelled by artillery, its inner city partially burning down.
The heavy bombing made the French defenders lose hope. The Germans managed to capture a bridge around noon. The few Dutch troops on Walcheren, about three companies, stopped fighting.
In the evening the Germans threatened to attack the French forces in Flushing, but most troops were evacuated over the Western Scheldt.
After North-Beveland had surrendered on 18 May, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen was the last remaining unoccupied Dutch territory. On orders of the French, all Dutch troops were withdrawn on 19 May to Ostend in Belgium. On 27 May all of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen had been occupied.
Following the Dutch defeat, Queen Wilhelmina established a government-in-exile in England. The German occupation began on 17 May 1940. It would be five years before the entire country was liberated. Over 210,000 Dutch people became victims of war, including 104,000 Jews and other minorities, who were killed because of their race (genocide). Another 70,000 more Dutch people died from poor nutrition or limited medical services.
Earl Sweatshirt
Thebe Neruda Kgositsile (born February 24, 1994), better known by his stage name Earl Sweatshirt, is an American rapper and record producer from Los Angeles, California. Kgositsile was originally known by the moniker Sly Tendencies when he started rapping, but soon changed his name when Tyler, the Creator invited him to join his hip hop collective Odd Future in late 2009.
He gained recognition and critical praise for his debut mixtape, entitled "Earl", which released in March 2010 when he was just 16 years old. Shortly after its release, his mother sent him to a boarding school in Samoa for at-risk teens for a year and a half. He was unable to record music during his tenure there, but returned to Los Angeles in February 2012, just before his eighteenth birthday. Kgositsile rejoined Odd Future and started producing new music, releasing his debut studio album "Doris" in August 2013.
His second album, "" followed in March 2015, and his third, "Some Rap Songs", released in November 2018. His projects have all received widespread critical praise. He is currently signed to Columbia Records as well as his independent label Tan Cressida.
Edward Teller
Edward Teller (January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was an American theoretical physicist. He was born in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. At the time Hungary was called Austria-Hungary. He is known as "the father of the hydrogen bomb".