Five Brothers and a War

May 14, 1945—Dutch Capitulation

Carpet bombing of Rotterdam, May 14, 1940. Piet van Pelt, and his then-girlfriend, Hennie Bender, went to the dunes of Den Haag and watched the bombing of Rotterdam, where they witnessed a massive plume of smoke covering the entire city. The German Blitzkrieg was in force in the May 14 attack on Rotterdam. Having completely taken out the Dutch “Air Force”, such as it was, on May 10, the Germans had air supremacy, and bombed its targets almost at will. When the Germans demanded the Dutch surrender or see the destruction of Rotterdam, they expected an immediate answer, which was not forthcoming. So the Luftwaffe launched its bombers. In the meantime, the Dutch surrendered, but the bomber recall message never made it to the pilots, who continued on their bombing runs. Rotterdam was decimated after it had surrendered. The full attack on civilian targets, resulting in thousands of deaths of non-combatants, would be paid back by the Allies in attacks on German cities, which resulted in further attacks by the Germans on English cities, and so on.

the war

Five Brothers and a War

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