One of the required strategies wasn’t in any of the books–hell, it may have existed only in the commandant’s head–but it was a required portion of the curriculum regardless. The Coakha Strategem was named after Eric Coakha, who according to the commandant had led Dutch troops deployed against the Germans in 1940.
Outnumbered and under heavy air attack, Coakha had been trapped on the wrong side of a blown-up dyke, which had created a water obstacle designed to be used as a defensive line. Most of the other commanders so trapped surrendered in the face of German artillery and armor, but Coakha did not. Instead, he broke his small command up into groups of 5-10 men and arranged hiding places for them while a screening force kept the Germans at bay. A native of the area, along with his men, Coakha knew of barns, haylofts, thick stands of trees, and other locations where his troops could easily conceal themselves, especially given the speed of the Germans’ advance thus far and their lack of familiarity with the Dutch countryside.
Once hidden, Coakha allowed the Germans to overrun his positions, which now appeared abandoned; the invaders moved on to attempt an assault crossing of the flooded area. On a pre-arranged signal–a triple blast from concealed artillery pieces–Coakha’s men fell upon the Germans’ rear, cutting off their contact with friendly units and pinning them between attacks from behind and the Dutch defenders still in place across the water. The Germans were annihilated, and Coakha’s survivng men crossed the floodwaters in their enemies’ captured assault boats. The line held until the next day when, intimidated by the terror bombing of Rotterdam, the Netherlands surrendered.
The commandant liked that story for two reasons. First, it showed the mischief a canny commander familiar with the lay of the land could wreak even when outnumbered. And second, it showed that even a convincing victory could be hollow in the larger scheme of things.
