Isolated pockets of German troops, led by Hans von Sponeck, retreated to the nearby dunes, where they were continually pursued and harassed for five days, when Henri Winkelman, the Dutch commander-in-chief, was forced to surrender by major setbacks on other fronts.

That was to be followed by approaching the country from the direction of the North Sea; attacking the airfields at Ypenburg, Ockenburg and Valkenburg to weaken potential Dutch defenses; and taking The Hague.

Captured plans, the so-called "Sponeck papers", contained details and a map for the German paratroopers that had landed at the Ockenburg airstrip.

[5] As planned, the Luftwaffe flew over the Netherlands in the early morning hours of 10 May, but rather than deceiving the people of The Hague, their passage alarmed them.

Immediately thereafter, transport planes began dropping paratroopers in several waves onto the field and its surroundings, but Dutch machine gun fire inflicted casualties and scattered their landings.

Although subsequent waves of paratroopers also sustained heavy casualties, the defenders were unable to prevent the airstrip from falling into the hands of the German invaders.

After several ground skirmishes, German troops occupied the village of Valkenburg and some of the bridges and buildings at Katwijk, along the Old Rhine.

Although the German troops had managed to capture the three airfields, they failed in their primary objectives of taking the city of The Hague and of forcing the Dutch to surrender.

[6] Outnumbered and relying on captured ammunition, the Dutch Grenadier Guards fought their way into a position suitable enough to launch artillery attacks against the airstrip and heavily damaged it.

On his way to Rotterdam, Von Sponeck's isolated group twice avoided Dutch traps but still 1,600 troops under his command were captured, with 1,200 being shipped to the UK as prisoners-of-war.

He was eventually forced to dig in with as many as 1,100 men and himself managed to avoid capture only because of the strategic bombing of Rotterdam on 14 May, which some speculate was because Hermann Göring had insisted on preventing Von Sponeck's humiliation in face of certain defeat.

A pocket of German paratroops managed to ward off enemy attacks at the village of Valkenburg until the Dutch surrender.