The Dutch Break The Dikes

Navigator to pilot. Go ahead, Ben. Coast of Holland just ahead. Good. Pilot to bombardier. Open bomb base and prepare to bomb. Right. Bomb doors open. Navigator to pilot. We're over the target. There's West Capella. And there's the great dike.

Pilot to bombardier. Target below. She's all yours. I need a little left. No, no, too much. Give me a little right. Just a little. There, steady now, hold what you've got. That's it, hold it.

Steady. Bombs away. Mission accomplished. Long train of bombs hurtles earthwood and the great dyke at West Capella in Holland is breached. The ocean pours through the spreading halls, washing over the land, drowning out the gun emplacements of the Germans.

Modern warfare? Well, not exactly, modern. not exactly modern. A Dutchman thought of the same strategy 400 years ago. His name was William the Silent. He wasn't a silent man at all. It is his story we tell tonight. His story and the story of another time in history when Holland was fighting for its freedom. And the

Dutch broke the dice. The NBC University of the Air presents Chapter 7 of We Came This Way, a new historical series for our listeners at home and overseas. With John W. Vanderkook as narrator, we present Chapter 7, a story of how the Dutch broke the dikes in We Came This Way.

Here, 1555, Charles V of Spain gave up his throne and retired to a monastery. A tired old man swollen with gout and sick of conquest. Forget him, but remember his son in success Philip II by the grace of God, King of Spain, Caesar Augustus, Lord of the Earth, absolute dominator in Asia, Africa and America, Duke of Milan and both the Burgantes, hereditary