#Story
Strategic object
It is the 10th of May 1940. Explosions sound everywhere. The war has begun. Doetinchem is already blowing up its bridges, hoping to hinder the Germans with their equipment.
The metal debris flies through the city. Captain Willem Voltelen from Doesburg is hit and does not survive. He is the first war casualty in Doetinchem. The blowing up of the bridges proves futile in retrospect: the Germans do not come from the south but move from east to west.
In September 1944, the Allies enter the Netherlands. They liberate the area below the great rivers. Above them, the Germans stand their ground: they manfully dig defences along the Rhine, IJssel and around the cities. Here too, near the Oude IJssel, there is a trench system. And again, the same fallacy is made, this time by the Germans: when the Allies approach on the 1st of April 1945, the Germans blow up the bridges to hinder the Allies. Again pointless, because the Allies are also coming from the east.