The Dutch army was not considered adequate even at the end of World War I, and it did not improve much during the interwar years. The government in the Netherlands, however, did not take them seriously, as the offensive was postponed several times, even though Oster did eventually offer the correct date of May 10, 1940.ĭutch Mannlicher carbine from the pre–World War II period Oster warned Sas about German plans for an offensive against the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and Sas passed the warnings on. The Dutch military attaché there, Major Bert Sas, had established good relations with Colonel Hans Oster, who occupied a high position in the Abwehr. More direct were worrying signals from Berlin received by the government beginning in the first months of 1940. Among them were some incidents, most notably the Venlo incident in which members of the German Abwehr operating in the Netherlands abducted two members of the British SIS and killed one Dutch intelligence officer. Warning signs to the contrary went unheeded. The Royal Netherlands Army did immediately mobilize in 1939, but was not in full strength until April 1940. The months of " Phoney War" following the German invasion of Poland seemed to justify this attitude. When World War II erupted in September 1939, most in the Netherlands believed that the country could remain neutral, as it had in World War I. Operation Market Garden, which started in 1944, liberated the southern and eastern parts of the country, but full liberation did not come until the surrender of Germany on May 5, 1945. On December 7, 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Netherlands government in exile also declared war on Japan. The Netherlands entered World War II on May 10, 1940, when invading German forces quickly overran the country.
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