Hans Brand

The Hollandse Waterlinie was used to protect the western part of Netherlands from invasion by land from the late 17th century until World War II. It formed a unique defensive system based on the controlled inundation of a broad strip of land stretching from the Zuider Zee/IJsselmeer in the North to the great rivers in the South. The depth of the inundations was chosen to be shallow enough to prevent an enemy from using boats, but deep enough that any troops attempting to wade across would become entangled in unseen underwater obstacles -- not least the many deep drainage ditches that criss-cross Dutch fields. Where the flooded area was crossed by roads, dykes, or navigable waterways, artillery forts were set up. These forts, of course, had to be rebuilt at frequent intervals as military technology evolved.

The Waterlinie was breached by the French in 1794/95 and by the Germans in 1940. On both occasions, the invader did not play fair: Napoleon's generals waited for winter and let the inundations freeze over; the Luftwaffe simply flew over them.

This collection of essays was published in conjunction with an exhibition in Fort Asperen in 1986. A general overview of the history of the Waterlinie is followed by pieces dealing with different aspects: water, architecture, landscape, and life in the forts. A final chapter provides a catalogue of the 68 separate defensive works making up the Waterlinie, with brief descriptions and an indication of their state in 1986. The writers are more concerned with the physical fortifications themselves, and the process by which they were designed and built, than with their use in war. This is probably a reasonable approach, especially for what is essentially an exhibition catalogue, and it also reflects the fact that for most of its existence the Waterlinie was primarily a way of telling potential attackers "don't even think about it".

The essays are all interesting in themselves, although they do overlap rather a lot. G. Koppert is probably the worst offender. What he has to tell us about water is interesting, but there isn't very much of it, and it is buried in a long and unnecessary rehash of the history of the Waterlinie that we already know from the introduction by Chris Wills. It looks rather as though Koppert's essay may have been written for another purpose and recycled here.

The essay by Willem Heesen and Wilfried van Winden on landscape is very interesting, drawing parallels between the way that landscape was used by military engineers and by eighteenth century landscape gardeners. Cees Straus also provides an interesting insight into fortification in practice, by bringing together accounts by officers and soldiers stationed at Fort Asperen during the 1939-40 mobilisation.

The book is generously illustrated with photographs and diagrams, and includes a detailed fold-out map.… (altro)