Word: rupel
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Near the town of Boom, in Belgium, the Germans fled across the last bridge still standing over the Rupel River. Rear guards clambered under the bridge, set dynamite charges, began to string a detonating wire to a safe distance, a minute or two away. But they had been seen. A patriot slipped out from his hiding place in the bushes, ducked under the bridge, whittled at the wire with his pocket knife, severed it, scurried away. Moments later British patrols crossed the bridge, heard from Boom's Maquis the story of their hero. He was eleven years...
...first Nazi blow was struck at about the same time as the main attacks were biting into southeastern Yugoslavia, in Rupel Pass. There the Greeks fought hard, using the same tactics of cross fire as had proved so deadly against the Italians in the Pindus Mountains. But the fight was vain: the Nazi break-through in the Vardar Valley, and the prong which had then turned eastward towards Salonika, threatened the troops' rear. It became necessary to abandon Salonika...
Nevertheless the Greeks in Thrace, who had death on their minds, fought on, both in Rupel Pass and farther east. In many forts they fought until every man was wiped out. In Fort Perithori, they abandoned the upper works, retired underground, and conked Nazis one by one as they tried to enter. Altogether the Nazis claimed 80,000 Greeks in Thrace; possibly there were not more than 30,000. As they were gradually cleaned out, the Metaxas Line took its place in the rank of sad, futile names: Maginot Line, Mannerheim Line, Albert Canal, Carol's Line...