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As part of the large April (spring)offensive, Luddendorf thought it was nesecary to secure the North flank of the German lines.
While the first attackes were ongoiing at the Western front and showed significant succes. Other German troops invade the, up till then neutral Nehterlands.
The Dutch army, by 1914 standards, reasonable up to date, was now laging behind in all .
There was a serous shortage of munition, machnie guns, and artillery and due to the shortage of raw materials and manufacturing capacity this could not be produced localy.
Despite this weakness and the lack of expereinc, after the initial shock, the troops did ther utmost best in numerous fights in Brabant and in the Northern Provinces while retreating behind the rivers Ijssel and Waal.
The plan, was to retreat behind the water line, just befor the city Utrecht, how ever the crossing of the river Ijssel, by the German troops turned to be more a challange. It was not only the, relative small river which was an obstacle but more the combination of a river crossing, flat land to the West and high grounds further West of the river which were covred with woods, ideal for the samll number of field artilery and machine gun post.
Since the German troops did not manage to break this make shift line and the fact that more and more troops and material was concentrated by the Dutch, this turned in to a fixed front line almost simmilar as on the West front in a matter of days.
In the mean time, other offensives at the West front slowed down as well for the Germans. In August the large Allied offensive started and pusshed the Germans back.
Allied support for the Dutch how ever was limited to only the delivery of munition and arms. Since the Dutch army use a differned siz of munution a program started to replace the rifles, increase the number of MG's and the artlitery pieces.
No major offensives were made since the initial fase and when the Allies took the initiative the Germans even started to retreat, at the end even followed by a counter offensive which ended on German soil. Since the major offensives took place in the South, and the opponent of the Dutch forces were already on the retreat, thh Allied press irronicly called it real ''Dutch corrage''.
When the armisitice was signed, Dutch army units were the only one who phisicly occumpied German teritory.
During the negotiations in Versailles the Dutch gouvernment demanded compensation in what ever form.

sorry for the typo errors :-(
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