In 1939, the Dutch dug a ‘Defensiekanaal’ as an anti-tank trench, lining the 80-kilometer-long canal with trenches and casemates, enclosures from which soldiers could fire their weapons. The result was a formidable barrier that was nonetheless breached the following year. On the day Germany invaded the Netherlands, May 10, 1940, a German armored train passed through the border, over the railway bridge at the River Maas and the little bridge at the Peel-Raam defense line, unopposed. (As the nearby Dutch town of Mill sits close to the German border, a…
