Five Brothers and a War

May 10, 1940

Ockenburgh airfield lay to the southwest of Den Haag, near the village Loosduinen, which is now an annexed part of Den Haag. Like much of the city, it was very close to the sea, less than 500 meters from the beach. The “airfield” had only recently been constructed, in that hangar and support buildings were added. The grass was already there, as it was simply a collection of football pitches that had to be interconnected. The field was envisioned to only serve in an auxiliary capacity, in particular for taking possession of and testing new aircraft. New Douglas 8Ns were parked on one edge, as were two Fokker G 1s. The airfield had no significant infantry occupation. The small contingent that was present hadn't arrived until the 8th of May. That day a depot company [22nd Depot Company under Captain Boot] had arrived to relieve two platoons of Grenadiers . The company was under-strength. It only comprised 130 men and five officers. The men had been enlisted since the previous February and had only finished the first phase of basic training. This contingent had no more than four light machine guns at its disposal. One platoon including one machinegun group, was sent to a communications center nearby in the morning of the 9th. This left 96 men and three machineguns on the airfield when the Germans attacked. Besides the depot company, a small contingent of air force ground crew was available, but hardly equipped for adequate self-defense. The only defense of significance in the total surroundings of the base was an anti-aircraft artillery battery two kilometers to the northeast. Much closer to the base, near the Airfield location Ockenburgh—at the end of Laan van Meerdervoort , just past the Meer en Bos park. The defenses of the airfield are shown in this drawing.

the war

Five Brothers and a War

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