Word: nijmegen
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...intentions seemed confirmed by reports of troop concentrations, King Leopold summoned his ministers to determine the country's atti tude. Guided by "the views and wishes" held by General van Overstraeten, they decided the following: "1) If the German forces attacked Holland but did not come south of Nijmegen and the Rhine, Belgium would not move; 2) if the German advance were directed south of Nijmegen and especially across Dutch Brabant, Belgium would order immediate general mobilization and declare that her own security was threatened." The German Ambassador in Brussels telephoned Berlin the gist of Belgium's decision...
...Dutch defense plan, like the Polish, is one of strategic delay and retreat. No attempt could be made to save the northeastern provinces. First stand would be made in a line of pillboxes and blockhouses running from Zwolle south through Nijmegen all the way to Maastricht, behind the Ijssel and Maas (Meuse) Rivers (see map). While this line held, the civilian population would be taken behind a second defense system, called the Grebbe Line, extending southeastward to Nijmegen from Eem on the Ijssel Lake (the diked, reclaimed Zuider...
...From Nijmegen down to the Belgian border extends a marshy area which can be made marshier by flood water from two big canals which enclose it on the west and south. But this sector would be the most passable for the Germans and here, in a drive for the higher ground at Hertogenbosch, Tilburg and Eindhoven, is where the first German assault could be expected. Gaining this foothold, the Germans could then press on to take Flushing and other coastal points south of the river deltas, enjoying the Dutch flood zone as protection for their right flank from any counterattack...