Western Europe

Germans flood the Ay River in France in July 1944, creating a lake two meters deep and several kilometers wide, slowing an advance on Saint-Lô, a German communications center in Normandy.

Germans flood the Ill River Valley during the Battle of the Bulge (winter 1944-45) creating a lake 16 kilometers long, 3-6 kilometers wide, and 1-2 meters deep, greatly delaying the American Army’s advance toward the Rhine.

The German army floods the Pontine Marches, on the coast of Italy southeast of Rome, by stopping pumps and opening dikes, in order to disrupt Allied forces who had established a beachhead at Anzio, Italy. Allied forces are surrounded by German artillery and pinned down for months by heavy shelling. The purpose of the flooding is to bring mosquitoes and malaria, “deliberately introduced as an act of biological warfare.” This has a limited military impact, but devastates the local population,…

A powerful bomb explodes in a water utility office building on the Island of Corsica. The building is also graffitied with the nationalist slogan “Freedom for Patriots.”

Reports find at least three attacks on utilities in the Hérault area, including one that damaged a water supply pipeline.

A bomb explodes on the island of Cavallo, off the coast of Corsica, causing a disruption to the local water supply. The attack was likely by the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC) which seeks independence from France.

A water company office in Ustaritz, France is damaged by a bomb thought to be placed in support of a group called the Basque Fatherland and Freedom (aka ETA). The attackers leave writing on the wall in the building demanding the release of ETA prisoners.

British Royal Air Force bomb dams on the Möhne, Sorpe, and Eder Rivers, Germany (May 16 and 17). Möhne Dam breech kills 1,200, destroys all downstream dams for 50 km. The flood that occurs after breaking the Eder dam reachs a peak discharge of 8,500 m³/s, which is nine times higher than the highest flood observed. Many houses and bridges are destroyed, and 68 are killed.

A German biologist threatens to contaminate water supplies with bacilli of anthrax and botulinum toxin unless he is paid $8.5 million.

Napoleon orders the construction of a canal between Neuss and Venlo, to connect the Rhine and Meuse rivers, to divert trade from the Batavia Republic to the Southern Netherlands, then under French control. Three-quarters of the canal are completed, but work stops because of lack of funds.