New Water-Line - Construction
In the nineteenth century the New Water Line, to the east of Utrecht, was created as the main line of defense. This New Holland Water-Line was a long barrier of fortified places, running from the Zuiderzee at Muiderberg and Naarden along Breukelen and Utrecht, to the river Lek at Vreeswyk, from there to the river Merwede by Gorinchem, and finally to the waterway called the New Merwede near Geertruidenberg.
It ran from the Zuider Zee. Between 1816 and 1824, the line was shifted a bit to the east, to get the town Utrecht in the middle of the Netherlands, behind the line also. However this was a bit higher ground, so more sluice gates were built to improve flooding of this new piece of the line. Also 11 new fortresses were built, at some distance around the east side of Utrecht. Between 1840 and 1860, important fortresses were equipped with a round gun tower made with very thick brick walls and buildings covered with earth, protecting the soldiers against enemy guns.
The law which regulates the defensive system was dated April 18, 1874, which was drawn up soon after the close of the Franco-German war. The system was to be completed in 8 years from January 1, 1875, at a total estimated cost of £2,500,000, of which sum about £1,894,011 had been expended on December 31, 1885. All old works not included in the system, except the forts Krayenhoff, Boven Lent and Beneden Lent at Nijmegen, were to be dismantled. Since the passing of the Fortification Bill numerous modifications and changes were proposed, and each Minister of War had his own policy on this question.
By 1880 there were sluices in the banks of the Lek branch of the Rhine river between Vianen and Kuilenburg, designed solely for laying the country under water in case of foreign invasion. If they were opened, the inundation would spread as far S. as the Waal, as far as Dort to the W., and to the Noort in an opposite direction. A military inundation of this kind is a mode of defence peculiar to Holland. It effectually cuts off the means of approach from an army either by land or water; it covers both roads and canals, leaving an enemy in ignorance of their direction and course; and, while it is deep enough to check the march of troops or cannon, it is so interrupted by shallows and dykes, as to render its navigation by boats equally impracticable. By the mid-1880s they were in the act of carrying out a comprenensive scheme of works and inundations.
By 1900 the Dutch army was a home and colonial force, with two distinct organizations. The home army was a defensive force to guard the " Amsterdam Position" covering the capital, and the "New Holland Water Line," which protects the richest parts of the country. The New Holland Water Line ran from Minden, five and a half miles east of Amsterdam, followed the line of the Vecht to Utrecht (headquarters of the line), and then south, across the Lek to the Waal, just east of Goorkum. This line was very strongly fortified, and the front was almost entirely covered by inundations. From Goorkum the line bends to the west along the broad estuary of the Waal, and is here called the 'Section of the Holland Diep and Volkerak,' the commander of which section is assisted by a naval aide.
By the time of the Great War the defense of Holland meant a gradual abandonment of the greater part of her territory and a retirement of all her forces behind a line of defense, the New Holland Water-Line, of great historic fame, but conveying to other than military experts a vague idea of its real nature.
The Hollanders would make no serious attempt to hold the border country, which did not include a single important town, against an attack. They would retire behind the water-line, and if it should become impossible to hold that the army would concentrate within the section around Amersterdam. An attack from the sea is impossible except at points which are strongly fortified, because the coast is barren waste and the water is shallow. In this manner the Dutch expected to be able to put up the most effective defense of the remaining part of the land, comprising the most populous and wealthy provinces and all the large cities. It is a method of defense that is ancient and has been frequently tried under the most unfavorable conditions.
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