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43-526: The Grebbe Line was first established in 1745 as a line of defense to protect the Netherlands from invading armies. If an invasion was imminent, parts of the area between Spakenburg and the Grebbeberg were to be flooded. Until World War II, it was never actually used for that purpose; an attempt was made in 1794 to establish a defensive line against the invading French army under General Jean-Charles Pichegru , but

86-458: A German attack on the Netherlands, but due to cost issues reinforcements never reached an acceptable level. In the extensive 1939-defence plans, in which the Grebbeline would be provided with more extensive and much denser concrete reinforcements, the line would fulfill its ancient task as a forward line of defensive. These plans would however never be executed, surpassed as they were by the events of

129-408: A costly German defeat followed. Overnight the most forward pinned down German attackers managed to crawl back into their own lines. The 227th had lost 70 KIA during this effort, of which most of the 412th Regiment. Overnight Dutch artillery unleashed a heavy barrage on the suspected German positions, gradually bringing down the density of fire, which finally ceased shortly before dawn. The German command

172-710: A period of weeks the Coalition Forces were driven back step by step in bitter fighting. The intervention of the Army of the Moselle under Hoche at the Battle of Froeschwiller in late December finally caused Wurmser to abandon Alsace . For the Second Battle of Wissembourg , Pichegru was placed under the command of Hoche, who proved to be a difficult superior. Nevertheless, the French again won

215-536: A poor selection of battlefield by the German division commander. The defences made a funny curve at this point, creating a right-angled shape with a steep corner in it. It was exactly at this point that two German infantry regiments had decided to assault the defences. By doing so they positioned themselves such that they got exposed to defensive fire from fixed and trench defences as well as artillery along two-thirds of their front and flank side. A basic offensive failure, hence

258-675: Is a municipality and a town in the Dutch province of Gelderland . As of 2021, it has a population of 10,128, with approximately 6,000 adults. The community of Scherpenzeel also contains a part of the hamlet of Moorst. [REDACTED] Dutch topographic map of the municipality of Scherpenzeel, June 2015 Centuries ago, what is now the Netherlands was still a collection of small states, ruled by bishops , earls , dukes , and lords . These rulers were constantly at war over territory, causing fortifications and defenses to be built in border areas. This

301-552: Is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe , on Column 3. Pichegru was born in a peasant family at Arbois (or, according to Charles Nodier , at Les Planches-près-Arbois , near Lons-le-Saulnier ), in the then Franche-Comté (now in the Jura department of France ). The friars of Arbois were entrusted with his education, and sent him to the military school of Brienne-le-Château . There, he taught mathematics, and among his pupils

344-753: The Council of Five Hundred in May 1797 as a leader of the Royalists . Pichegru planned a coup d'état but was arrested during the anti-royalist Coup of 18 Fructidor and with fourteen others was deported to Cayenne , French Guiana , in 1797. He and seven others escaped and fled to Paramaribo . The gouverneur De Friderici allowed them to get on board a ship to the United States . Shortly thereafter, he went to London , where he joined other French émigrés . There, he served on General Aleksandr Rimsky-Korsakov 's staff in

387-862: The Meuse on 18 October, and, after taking Nijmegen , drove the Austrians beyond the Rhine. The Anglo-Hanoverian army withdrew behind the Waal . Then, while Pichegru's troops prepared to go into winter quarters, the Convention ordered the Army of the North to mount a winter campaign. On 27 December two brigades crossed the Meuse on the ice, and stormed the Bommelerwaard . On 10 January Pichegru's army crossed

430-694: The Netherlands before fighting on the Rhine front. His royalist positions led to his loss of power and imprisonment in Cayenne , French Guiana during the Coup of 18 Fructidor in 1797. After escaping into exile in London and joining the staff of Alexander Korsakov , he returned to France and planned the Pichegru Conspiracy to remove Napoleon from power, which led to his arrest and death. Despite his defection, his surname

473-760: The Thermidorian Reaction , and, after having received the title of Sauveur de la Patrie ("Saviour of the Fatherland") from the National Convention , subdued the sans-culottes of Paris when they rose in insurrection against the Convention on 12 Germinal (1 April). Pichegru then took command of the armies of the North, the Sambre-and-Meuse, and the Rhine, and, crossing the Rhine in force, took Mannheim in May 1795. Defunct Defunct Although he

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516-487: The battle of Tourcoing in May 1794. After a lull, during which Pichegru feigned a siege of Ypres , he again attacked Clerfayt, and defeated him at Roeselare and Hooglede , while Jourdan, commanding the newly named Army of Sambre-et-Meuse , withstood Austrian attacks in the battle of Fleurus (27 June 1794), which eventually led to Allied evacuation of the Low Countries . Pichegru began his second campaign by crossing

559-510: The campaign of 1799 . Pichegru went to Paris in August 1803 with Georges Cadoudal to head a royalist uprising against the First Consul , Napoleon Bonaparte . Betrayed by a friend, Pichegru was arrested on 28 February 1804, and was later found strangled in prison on the morning of April 6. The government reported that he had committed suicide, but Napoleon has often been blamed for orchestrating

602-493: The 227th division would need more time, meeting more Dutch resistance on the way. The 207th division was supported by five artillery battalions and spearheaded by the fanatic SS Der Führer regiment. The latter had first raided the Arnhem fortifications near Westervoort and subsequently massed in the city of Wageningen opposing the Grebbeline. On the second day the SS regiment managed to take

645-515: The Dutch counterattack and the local defences period. The 207th division assaults over the Grebbeberg itself had been successful too, although severe losses were absorbed. By the end of the day the German infantry stood in the village of Rhenen. Around night fall the Germans realized that the Dutch defences had moved back. A quick reaction force from SS motorized units was formed, but would not manage to overtake

688-401: The Dutch forces, that had also left one or two blocking parties behind to slow potential enemies down. The battle of the Grebbeberg had demanded 420 Dutch and around 250 German KIA. The number of WIA was about quadruple those numbers. The Dutch had lost thousands of POWs too as well as a great deal of material and artillery pieces. The second major battle during the German invasion was seen near

731-642: The French Revolutionary Wars ). Carnot discovered Jean-Baptiste Jourdan , and Saint-Just discovered Louis Lazare Hoche and Pichegru. At first, Pichegru was appointed général de division and commander of the Division of the Upper Rhine . Appointed commander-in-chief of the Army of the Rhine , Pichegru attacked the Coalition army of Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser in the Battle of Haguenau in 1793. Over

774-407: The German invasion in May 1940. The Grebbeline by that time had been largely constructed behind vast inundations, after which a front line lay that was composed of classic trench works mixed with ferro and ferro-concrete bunkers of light and medium grade. The front-line trenches had hardly any depth and contained only half a battalion of infantry per single km of stretched line. Behind this front-line

817-526: The Grebbe Line. Dutch waterlines Other 52°04′43″N 5°27′50″E  /  52.07861°N 5.46389°E  / 52.07861; 5.46389 Jean-Charles Pichegru Jean-Charles Pichegru ( French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ ʃaʁl(ə) piʃˈɡʁy] ; 16 February 1761 – 5 April 1804) was a French general of the Revolutionary Wars . Under his command, French troops overran Belgium and

860-414: The Grebbeberg. The SS Regiment had by then suffered severe losses, its third battalion was out of action entirely. Overnight the Dutch planned a major counterattack by four infantry battalions, which operation was poorly executed and moreover collided with an SS assault along the northern perimeter of the Grebbeberg defences mid-day on the fourth day of the invasion. German dive bombers sealed the fate of both

903-574: The May War in 1940, as well as a few of later (wartime) date. The Grebbe line was permanently decommissioned by the Dutch Government in 1951. During the war, the Germans made use of the Grebbe Line to create their own defence line, the Pantherstellung. On 26 October 1944 General Walter Model initiated the building of the Pantherstellung. At the time, it was clear that the enemy would come from not

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946-474: The actual threats and opportunities. Particularly the Rhenen area, close to the Rhine river, was noticed. It was the shortest away from German soil and seemed to be a weak spot in the Dutch defence line. The 207th Infantry Division chose to place its most formidable push at this point, for which it had the motorized SS Regiment Der Führer at its disposal too. The adjacent 227th Infantry Division , accompanied by

989-452: The area in front of the Grebbeberg after all. Also this counter-measure came too late in time. This left the Grebbeberg as a very vulnerable position in the entire Grebbeline. That had not gone unnoticed by the attackers to be. The Germans had extensively studied the battle grounds that they were to use in May 1940. Way ahead of the actual invasion German army staff officers managed to visit the Grebbeline in civilian outfits, carefully studying

1032-526: The battle, compelling Wurmser to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine and the Prussian army to withdraw toward Mainz . In December 1793, Hoche was arrested, probably owing to his colleague's denunciations, and Pichegru became commander-in-chief of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle . He was summoned to succeed Jourdan in the Army of the North in February 1794, subsequently fighting three major campaigns within

1075-445: The city of Amersfoort , the third one near the village Rhenen , where the elevated Grebbeberg - a 150 feet high elevation - had made inundation works impossible. These sectors had been additionally fortified. Instead of inundations it had been decided to place forward positions ahead of the main defences. In the meantime a large and bomb-proof pump house had come under construction that, once it would be operable, would be able to flood

1118-502: The city of Scherpenzeel . The 227th Infantry Division had been slowed down by continuing Dutch cavalry efforts to counter their approach. Moreover, the SS Leibstandarte had been called off on the third day and been instructed to redeploy to the south of the Netherlands, where it had to push along the 9th Panzer Division . The 227th were on their own from then on and had decided to attack the Grebbeline near Scherpenzeel. That had been

1161-405: The forward defences, albeit that it took them all day and losses mounted considerably. The third day they managed to penetrate the front line near the Grebbeberg itself, fighting the rest of the day and evening to widen the gap. The SS was blocked by the last Dutch defence line though, causing the commander of the 207th division to move in his own division and move SS Der Fuhrer away to the north of

1204-619: The ice of the Waal between Zaltbommel and Nijmegen , then, on 13 January, entered Utrecht , which surrendered on the 16th. The Anglo-Hanoverian army retreated behind the IJssel and then withdrew to Hanover and Bremen . Pichegru, who had successfully penetrated the frozen Hollandic Water Line , arrived in Amsterdam on 20 January, after the Batavian Revolution had taken place. The French occupied

1247-453: The joint British-Dutch army abandoned the line when the French troops approached. Throughout the 19th century, the Grebbe line was maintained as a defensive line. However, since no attacks appeared likely, it was deemed less necessary to maintain the costly fortifications, and in 1926, a large part of the fortifications was decommissioned. In 1939 the disused line was once again fortified against

1290-404: The motorized SS Leibstandarte 'Adolf Hitler' , had a less profound picture of the plans ahead. It chose to decide where to attack during the operation instead of before. Come May 1940, the two German divisions c/w their respective SS Regiments and additional heavy artillery regiments had little trouble overcoming the first obstacles and managed to reach the Grebbeline on the second day, although

1333-524: The murder. However, there is little evidence that Napoleon was involved. His supporters often argue that Napoleon had nothing to gain from having Pichegru murdered, especially after the execution of d'Enghien , which infuriated royalty across Europe. Pichegru was buried in the cimetière Sainte-Catherine , a Paris cemetery with its entrance in the former rue de Fer , and which was closed in 1824. Scherpenzeel, Gelderland Scherpenzeel ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈsxɛrpə(n)ˌzeːl] )

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1376-638: The rest of the Dutch Republic in the next month. This major victory was marked by unique episodes, such as the Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder by French hussars , and exceptional discipline of the French battalions in Amsterdam, who, although faced with the opportunity of plundering the richest city in Europe, showed self-restraint. Although a former associate of Saint-Just , Pichegru offered his services to

1419-622: The west but the south. The Germans wanted to protect the Holland region because of the V-2 rocket attacks on London. The Germans did not want to lose the ability to fire the rockets but wanted to prevent the Allies from reaching the IJsselmeer. The Germans had to make some changes to the design because the threat was expected from the south. From Veenendaal to Amersfoort, the defence line had the same configuration as

1462-645: The year. The forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain , the Dutch Republic and Habsburg Austria held a strong position along the Sambre to the North Sea . After attempting to break the Austrian centre, Pichegru suddenly turned their left, and defeated the Count of Clerfayt at Cassel , Menin and Courtrai , while his subordinate, Joseph Souham , defeated Prince Josias of Coburg in

1505-453: The years 1857–1858, it acquired its present Neo-Gothic form, designed by S.A. van Lunteren, who also designed the surrounding park. At the time it belonged to the Royaard family, who maintained residence there until 1956. In 1975, Scherpenzeel House was declared a national monument and entrusted to the municipality. The building was used as the town hall until 2003. In 2005, it was let to

1548-406: Was a second row of trenches which had the function of a blocking defence should the front-line be penetrated. Reserves could be thrown in from this line and behind it were battalion and regimental CP's as well as forward light artillery positions. More to the rear were the medium and heavy artillery positions as well as divisional reserves. The Grebbeline had three weak spots. The first two were near

1591-543: Was at the height of his fame as general, Pichegru allowed his colleague Jourdan to be defeated, betrayed all his plans to the enemy, and took part in organizing a conspiracy for the return and crowning of Louis XVIII as King of France . The plans were suspected, and, when he offered his resignation to the Directory in October 1795, it was promptly accepted (much to his surprise). He retired in disgrace, but secured his election to

1634-426: Was at various times claimed by either Gelderland or Utrecht, but it has now been a part of Gelderland since September 1814. The town's most notable landmark, Scherpenzeel House ( Huize Scherpenzeel in Dutch; located at 3 Burgemeester Royaardslaan) began as a 14th-century tower house . In the following centuries, it underwent several modifications. In 1652, it was expanded considerably by Lady Aleyd of Scherpenzeel. In

1677-484: Was elected lieutenant colonel . The fine condition of his regiment was noticed in the French Revolutionary Army section of the Rhine , and his organizing ability got him appointed in the headquarters, and then promoted général de brigade . In 1793, Lazare Carnot and Louis de Saint-Just were sent to find roturier (non- aristocratic ) generals who could prove successful ( see: Campaigns of 1793 in

1720-495: Was established on top of the Grebbeberg. German and Dutch victims of the battle were the first to be buried at this location, but during the war the Germans would use and extend this burial ground further as their death toll rose. After the war the Dutch reburied the German victims on the summary German field of honour in Ysselsteyn , where over 30,000 Germans were buried. The Grebbeberg war cemetery now holds around 800 Dutch victims of

1763-418: Was quite under awe by this show of presence and had anticipated heavy fighting in the morning, but much to their surprise found the Dutch trenches deserted by morning. Behind the masquerade of the barrages the entire defence had moved back overnight. Pursued came much too late to overtake any Dutch formation before it had reached the next defences. Directly after the cessation of hostilities a large war cemetery

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1806-466: Was the case in the Veluwe hills, which lay along the border of what is now Utrecht and Gelderland, where many castles and fortresses were constructed as safe havens. Hence, the name "Scherpenzeel", formerly known as "Scarpenzele", allows us to infer that there was a settlement built around a house (" zele ") with sharpened poles (" scarpen "), the prototype of an old castle . The possession of Scherpenzeel

1849-676: Was the young Napoleon Bonaparte . In 1783, he entered the 1st regiment of artillery , where he rapidly rose to the rank of adjutant - second lieutenant , and briefly served in the American Revolutionary War . When the Revolution erupted in 1789, he became leader of the Jacobin Club in Besançon , and, when a regiment of volunteers of the department of the Gard marched through the city, he

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