Word: istein
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Furious French shelling of Germany's "land Gibraltar" at Istein, south anchor of the Westwall, and French flooding of the river valley south from Strasbourg with water from the Rhine-Rhône Canal last week, suggested one place whence Weygand was drawing man power for his effort-from the Burgundy Gap at the corner of Switzerland. Meantime, only some 85 of perhaps 250 German divisions were so engaged in Belgium. At any hour Mussolini might march. Regardless of dangers on other fronts, Weygand had to strip them of troops for the desperate battle in the north...
Last week rain fell continuously on the Western Front. In the 20-mile sector north of the Swiss border which faces the rocky fortress of Istein-Germany's "Gibraltar of the Rhine"-sodden French infantrymen came in from patrol to report that across the swelling river the German troops were busy in the flats. To stop this activity-whatever it was-French engineers had an answer that cost no lives, no ammunition. They closed the gates that drain Rhine water into the Rhine-Rhone Canal, let the river flood the flats...
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