The Miracle of Empel 2023
The Battle of Empel was a World War II battle that took place in 1944 in the Netherlands. It was fought between the German forces and the Allied forces, mainly British and Canadian. The battle took place in the Empel region, near the city of Breda, and was part of the liberation campaign of the Netherlands.
The battle began on September 25, 1944, when Allied forces landed in the Empel region with the aim of liberating Breda and cutting German supply lines in the region. The Germans defended the region with a large number of fortifications and trenches, which made the battle long and difficult.
The battle continued for several days, with heavy fighting and hand-to-hand combat. The Germans resisted fiercely, but finally the Allied forces managed to break through their lines and liberate the region.
the battle of Empel
The Battle of Empel was a warfare that took place during World War II, on September 12, 1944, in the town of Empel, in the Netherlands. It was fought between the German forces and the allied forces, mainly British.
The Battle of Empel was part of a larger operation known as Operation Market Garden, an attempt by the Allies to invade Germany from the northern Netherlands. Operation Market Garden was planned to be a massive air raid, in which the Allies would land airborne troops at various key points in the Netherlands.
At Empel, the German forces consisted mainly of infantry units and Luftwaffe (German Air Force) units. Meanwhile, the Allied forces were mainly made up of British airborne troops from the 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment Parachutes.
What was the Miracle of Empel?
On December 7, 1585, the miracle of Empel took place, which allowed the Spanish troops to win the Battle of Empel against the Dutch troops . This battle, framed in the Eighty Years' War, took place between December 7 and 8 of that year.
According to the chronicles, on December 7, 1585, the Tercio of Field Master Francisco Arias de Bobadilla, made up of about five thousand men, fought on the island of Bommel, located between the Meuse and Waal rivers, completely blocked by the squadron. of Admiral Filips van Hohenlohe-Neuenstein. The situation was desperate for the Spanish Tercios, because, in addition to the tightening of the fence, it was necessary to add the shortage of food and dry clothes.
The enemy chief then proposed an honorable surrender but the Spanish response was clear: « The Spanish infantrymen prefer death to dishonor. We will talk about capitulation after death ». Faced with such a response, Hohenlohe-Neuenstein resorted to a method widely used in that conflict: opening the river dams to flood the enemy camp. Soon there was no more solid ground left than the hillock of Empel, where the soldiers of the Tercio took refuge.
At that critical moment, a Tercio soldier digging a trench tripped over a wooden object buried there. It was a flamenco table with the image of the Virgin Mary.
After the discovery was announced, they placed the image on an improvised altar and Master Bobadilla, considering the fact as a sign of divine protection, urged his soldiers to fight, entrusting themselves to the Immaculate Virgin:
This rich treasure that they discovered under the earth was a divine nuncio of good, which through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, awaited her blessed day .
That night a completely unusual and intensely cold wind blew up, freezing the waters of the Meuse River. The Spaniards, marching on the ice, attacked the enemy squadron by surprise at dawn on December 8 and obtained such a complete victory that Admiral Hohenlohe-Neuenstein even said: « It seems that God is Spanish in working such a great miracle ».
That same day, amid cheers and acclamations, the Immaculate Conception is proclaimed patron saint of the Tercios of Flanders and Italy.
However, this patronage would be consolidated three hundred years later, after the bull Ineffabilis Deus of December 8, 1854 proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin as a dogma of Catholic faith. On November 12, 1892, at the request of the Inspector of the Infantry Weapons of the Spanish Army, by Royal Order of the Regent Queen María Cristina de Habsburgo, the following was established:
Declares Patron of the Infantry Weapon to Our Lady the Immaculate and Immaculate Conception"