The Battle West of the Bridge: The Trenches of Sgt. Ballet’s Unit

The commander, Jammaers, was near the bridge checking the defences when the German attack surprised him. His intention was to return to his command post, but the paratroopers who had landed near the Bilzerbaan opened fire, blocking his route. This shooting also killed several civilians who were running in all directions. Jammaers realized that he would have to make for Sgt. Ballet’s platoon west of the bridge. Two German gliders, those of Fritz Pohlmann and Lt. Altmann, had landed nearby, but neither Jammaers nor his men could see them. From a distance Ballet observed the Germans attacking with “black automatic handguns”, jumping into the forward trenches.

Ballet had command of the platoon in the absence of Lt. Lejeune, who was away on leave. The platoon had been reinforced by a squad of machine-gunners from 8.Company commanded by Sergeant-Major Burgun. Ballet also had a 47-mm cannon. Hemmed in by the paratroopers and under attack by fighter aircraft, this platoon was unable to take part in the defence of the bridge.

Burgun crawled to Jammaers’s command post with Ballet’s report and requested permission to withdraw the survivors on his right flank, from the road to the Kip van Hees, to his left flank on the north side of the road. Jammaers refused bcause he needed these men in case he had to ward off a frontal attack by the Germans, and in this he was not far wrong. In order to thwart it, Burgun and his men received support from 10.Comp/8.Regt. on the Kip. Jammaers promised Burgun he would reduce the pressure on the right flank by means of a counter-attack. This was not forthcoming. Burgun’s trenches were totally overrun by Pohlmann’s 6^th Squad. Their glider had landed between Ballet’s trenches and Heserstraat, about a kilometre west of the Canal. Although this was far from where it had been planned they should land, Pohlmann’s paratroopers launched a heavy attack on Burgun’s positions which contributed to a breach of Ballet’s right flank.

In the light of these events, at 1100 hrs Ballet was ordered to withdraw his survivors to a new position behind the Lanaken road. During the fighting and later retreat Ballet was seriously wounded and so Burgun, squad leader of the machine-gunners, took over command until he too was wounded. From their new positions they watched with rage and horror at how the Germans used their Belgian prisoners as “human shields”.

In trenches farther back which formed a strongpoint astride the Maastricht road, and about 500 metres behind Bossaert’s men, was the Bautil troop. This was made up of four groups straddling the road. There were not only soldiers in these trenches but also civilians from the village who had fled there before the fighting began, amongst them many children.

When they heard from Jammaers – after he had reached Ballet’s trenches – that he had “come from the bridge and had had not seen a single German”²¹, Bautil’s men began to feel more optimistic. This sentiment did not last very long however, for the German “flying artillery” bombed them and caused great devastation²².

At this point it will be appropriate to look at the role played by VIII Fliegerkorps in supporting the capture of the bridge at Veldwezelt, the other two bridges and Fort Eben Emael. Liaison with the Luftwaffe was so important that of the two officers who took part in the attack on the fort, one of them – Lt Egon Delica²³ – was not a paratrooper but a liaison officer with responsibility for “directing” the aircraft in the bombing of the Belgian trenches. The action by SA Koch and its paratroopers was obviously of the greatest significance, but the subsequent bombarding of the Belgian positions by Luftwaffe bombers and fighters made an important contribution. The “flying artillery”, as it was called at the time, proved a major factor for the success of the Blitzkrieg in Belgium. The skilful air attacks, carried out by Stukas and Do 17s, (which bombed the approaches to the bridge, the crossroads where the Bilzerbaan and the road to Lanaken-Grotebaan met, and the Belgian trenches) and the German field artillery batteries behind Maastricht dealt the Belgians a heavy blow. The howitzers began shelling to within a few metres of Ballet’s trenches, spreading panic and terror amongst the already reduced Belgian forces.