Unternehmen Danzig, Sturmgruppe Granit, The Assault on Fort Eben Emael, Part 3

About this episode

This episode concludes the series on Unternehmen Danzig, detailing the assault on Fort Eben Emael by Sturmgruppe Granit.

On the morning of May 10th, 1940, sixty-two Fallschirmjäger of Sturmgruppe Granit hold the roof of the most modern fortress in Europe. Below them, around twelve hundred Belgian soldiers of Fort Eben Emael are sealed in the tunnels under steel doors and sandbags. Between them, in the stairwells and ascent shafts, a silent division of the battlefield is in place. Their commander, Oberleutnant Rudolf Witzig, is still trying to reach his fort. In this final episode of our series on Unternehmen Danzig, we close the story of Sturmgruppe Granit and the assault on Fort Eben Emael. At 08:30 a glider circles over the fort, and the long contest for the fortress begins in earnest. We follow the afternoon on the superstructure under hollow-charge attack, the air resupply by Heinkel He 111, and the Belgian counterattacks that move out from the tunnels into the woods and onto the slopes. We descend into the fort with Chaplain Meesen, Major Van der Auwera, and the wounded. We follow Feldwebel Portsteffen and the 51. Pionier-Bataillon as they fight west to the Albert Canal under fire from Casemate 17, and we wait with them on the dark bank for a chance to cross. What happens in the tunnels, on…

Topics covered

• World War II
• Fallschirmjäger
• Fort Eben Emael
• military history
• airborne operations
• Sturmgruppe Granit

Keywords

• Fallschirmjäger
• Fort Eben Emael
• Unternehmen Danzig
• military tactics
• World War II
• air resupply
• Belgian counterattacks

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sturmgruppe Granit

Places: Fort Eben Emael, Albert Canal, Belgium

More episodes of Special Forces In World War 2 Podcast

• Assault on the Merville Battery, Part 1. · June 11, 2026 · 1h 35m
• Coup de Main. The D-Day Assault on the Pegasus and Horsa Bridge. Part 2 · June 7, 2026 · 1h 5m
• Coup de Main. The Preperations for the D-Day Assault on the Pegasus and Horsa Bridge. Part 1 · June 7, 2026 · 51 min
• Landing Craft Infantry, (Large) · May 21, 2026 · 1h 37m
• Operation Archway, Special Air Service, Part 2 · May 20, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Operation Archway, Special Air Service, Part 1 · May 20, 2026 · 54 min