The Maastricht to Hasselt highway was occupied on both sides by Belgians. On 5 May, 6.Comp/2.Regt de Carabiniers under Captain Jammaers occupied the trench positions. This Company was supported by 4.Bat/12.Art.Regt stationed north of Veldwezelt. 2.Regt monitored the area between Gellik, Briegden and Veldwezelt. Veldwezelt would become the cemetery of 6.Company. The majority of its men were attacked immediately and quickly killed off, wounded or captured. The death toll in this Company was so high that it amounted to almost half the dead in the entire regiment.

The Germans had the enormous advantage of surprise, outstanding training and knowledge of the terrain (during the training in Germany, a model of the bridge and its surrounds had been made). A further advantage to favour the paratroopers was the intensive espionage undertaken by the German Abwehr. The Belgians had no suspicion that the Germans knew all about their dispositions. From the end of 1939, the Abwehr had made intensive efforts to find out “everything” about the Belgian defences, and thus the Belgians were extremely vulnerable. On 12 November, shortly after SA Koch was formed, Hauptmann Koch arrived in Münster with Obstlt Schmidt of the Abwehr and Gruppenführer Heckel in order to coordinate the search for information in Belgium. If there was something amazing in the German effort it was without doubt the recruitment of Belgian deserters into SA Koch. The reason for their disaffection was as follows. The Belgian region of Eupen and Malmedy which bordered Germany had been part of Germany until 1925 when it was gifted to Belgium under Article 34 of the Treaty of Versailles. One can see that it might be difficult for people born and bred German to awake one morning to find they now owed allegiance to King Leopold of Belgium. Four former Belgian soldiers³ originating from Eupen/Malmedy joined the German paratroop arm on 14 March 1940. They had all served in the Belgian Army and on the Albert Canal bridges. Their knowledge would prove very useful for SA Koch.