The Battle of the Floods – Holland in February 1953
I remember this book. I was in grade one in 1953 and was probably in grade two when it arrived. It is in worn condition, and one can see where tape once held its spine in place – proof it was well-read for many years. As a child, the flooding was far away and unimaginable. Now I read it as my mother would have, and it is heart-wrenching.

The Battle of the Floods: Holland in February 1953 was published in Holland by the Netherlands Booksellers and Publishers Association, Amsterdam for the benefit of the Netherlands Relief Fund. The text of the English edition was written by a British journalist living in Holland. All rights reserved, Amsterdam 1953.

Excerpts from book: “Many brave deeds were recorded that night as people struggled to warn their neighbours . . . The dyke is giving way! Church bells were rung and rusted air raid sirens set awailing. But they proved to be puny signals; their messages of warning were drowned by the raging wind.”

“Day and night the engineers, soldiers, local farmers, labourers and experienced contractors heaved rocks and sandbags into the gaps, heaped sandbags and stones against weakened embankments, and used every bit of material to make temporary repairs. In terrible weather, with snow and hail and sleet tearing at the faces and hands and legs of the workers like a flail wielded by a giant fury, the dykes grew slowly higher and stronger, and the greedy seas saw the doors relentlessly closing as breach after breach was repaired.”

Over 400,000 acres of the Netherlands were flooded, equal to 7.8% of the country. The population of the flooded area was 664,000. About 100,000 people were evacuated and the death toll rose to 1,487. There were about 143,000 houses in the flooded area and, of those, 4, 720 were destroyed or badly damaged.

I had known about the flooding in the Netherlands, but I viewed the images and read the details with heightened awareness. The response, determination and optimism of the Dutch population in the face of such devastation make me proud of my Dutch heritage.