<P> Despite its policy of neutrality, the Netherlands was invaded on the morning of 10 May 1940, without a formal declaration of war, by German forces moving simultaneously into Belgium and Luxembourg . The attackers meant to draw Allied forces away from the Ardennes and to lure British and French forces deeper into Belgium but also to pre-empt a possible British invasion in North Holland . The Luftwaffe also needed the Dutch airfields on the Dutch coast to launch air raids against the United Kingdom . </P> <P> The Dutch military, with insufficient and outdated weapons and equipment, was caught largely unprepared . Much of its weaponry had not changed since the First World War . In particular, the army did not have comparable armoured forces, with only a limited number of armoured cars and tankettes . The air force had only 140 aircraft, mostly outdated biplanes . Sixty - five of the Dutch aircraft were destroyed on the first day of the campaign . </P> <P> The invading forces advanced rapidly but faced significant resistance . A Wehrmacht parachute assault on the first day, aimed at capturing the Dutch government in The Hague and the key airfields at Ockenburg and Ypenburg, was defeated by Dutch ground forces with heavy casualties . The Dutch actually succeeded in destroying significant numbers of transport aircraft that the Germans would need for their planned invasion of Britain . Nevertheless, the German forces succeeded in crossing the Maas river in the Netherlands on the first day, which allowed the Wehrmacht to outflank the nearby Belgian Fort Eben - Emael and force the Belgian army to withdraw from the German border . </P> <P> In the eastern Netherlands, the Germans succeeded in pushing the Dutch back from the Grebbe Line, but their advance was slowed by the Dutch fortifications on the narrow Afsluitdijk Causeway linking the north - eastern and north - western parts of the Netherlands . Nevertheless, the German forces advanced rapidly, and by the fourth day were in control of most of the east of the country, though not the major cities in the west . </P>

Where did the liberation of holland take place