he had served the Marine Corps for 6 years. It was his first combat experience and also his last. Thx for your compassion, but there was/is no sadness over his death, just proudness.

Seeing the conditions under which the dutch marines held Rotterdam until the capitulation of the state, it was a formidable achievement. rifles from just after ww1, 2 machineguns for the whole rotterdam area, 1 armored car at the waalhaven airport, and 1 battery of light artillery hidden in the central park in Kralingen.
Troops : conscripts of the army with specialties such as cooks, administrators and drivers, about 200 marines of which majority was still in training. Orders were issued to obtain as much german weapons as possible during the fights. raids were made on german posts with the sole purpose of getting their hands on ammo and mg 34 machineguns and mortars.

Do not forget that the invasion of Holland was the first and last big operation of the Fallschirm jaeger(except Crete). over 300 Ju52's were shot down/destroyed during landings on blocked highways and many paras killed and captured when they tried to drop into fortress Holland.



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*** We shall not retreat, nor shall we surrender. If we cannot stay here alive, we shall stay here dead***