bikes with special handlebars that could be steered while playing a horn. When Nazi invasion looked imminent the Dutch Army was belatedly mobilised, but the country’s defensive strategy remained largely as it had since the seventeenth century: in the event of an invasion, a ‘waterline’ of land would be flooded to create a liquid barrier protecting major cities. If things got really bad, they could rely on a second Cyclist’s Regiment created in March 1939, with gleaming new bicycles and a corporal who served as a mechanic. On the evening of 9 May 1940, Hitler authorised the invasion of Western
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