The Dutch by Richard E. Schultz

too shallow for Roman ships to sail across. He first marched his soldiers over the sand dunes while his sailors found passage for their ships through the narrow waterways. Once he arrived at the beginning of the marsh, his men began dredging a canal deep enough for the Roman barges to carry supplies while an adjacent causeway capable of bearing the weight of heavily armored formations was built. The first mile of the canal was completed without incident, but when the barges began delivering timber for the construction of the causeway the Ingvaones tribesmen reacted. They hid in the marsh’s tall grass and fired a constant barrage of arrows and missiles at the Roman sailors and soldiers working in the belt high water. The Ingvaones also risked hand to hand fighting under the cover of the early morning mist which masked their numbers and movements. During the day they sent formidable flotillas of small canoes filled with painted tribesmen to strike at vulnerable point along the line of construction. The Romans always outnumbered at the point of attack and unarmored because of the work, suffered severe casualties. Eventually these successful tactics halted the construction.
    To counter the enemy’s strategy General Weir had his men erect tall watchtowers, where they mounted their long range catapults and batistes and fired them at the approaching enemy during daylight. The towers allowed the work to continue, but the soldiers were forced to sleep in full armor. At night only their javelins and short swords could be used to drive off the Ingvaones who came to burn the causeway and watchtowers. Three months into the costly campaign, the Roman army began to doubt it could reach their objective before being stopped by cold weather. Suddenly, nature intervened almost miraculously on the Roman’s behalf. At the beginning of a bright sunny day, a large flotilla of enemy canoes, were maneuvering for a morning attack on a Roman position. Astoundingly, the Ingvaones entire force began to flounder as the water level in the marshes abruptly rose dramatically. An unseen storm, far out in the North Sea, had sent a series of rogue waves crashing across the coast line and pushed huge amounts of sea water into the marshlands. The dissipating force of the channel waves struck with enough force to tip over the over-crowded Ingvaones canoes. The Romans, warned of the incoming water by alert sentries in the watchtowers, safely clung to the already completed parts of the causeway and their larger barges. The general ordered a rapid and forceful Roman counterattack that killed or captured the entire floundering flotilla. In the aftermath of the battle, many Romans celebrated the event as a sign that their gods favored this conquest. Even General Weir, less mystical than his men, agreed someone’s gods had intervened. Being a practical commander; the general immediately put the prisoners to work dredging the canal allowing more of his skilled soldiers to work on the causeway. He also salvaged the enemy’s canoes for his army’s use.
    After this battle, there were no daylight attacks on the Romans and their advance gained speed. Instead the enemy tried more insidious means to turn the advancing army around. The Ingvaones often set fire to the dry grass of the marshlands or placed sharpened oak stakes below the waterline in finished sections of the canal. While a few Roman soldiers suffered burns and two supply barges were sunk when impaled, the Romans continued to advance at a relentless pace and the struggle continued. The enemy tactic that the ordinary legionaries feared was the nightly raids when small groups of painted tribesmen would carry off an unfortunate sentry. Each loss of a friend enraged comrades who only pushed harder to reach the objective and hopefully free them. Thoughts of revenge drove the Roman soldiers and sailors to an almost super human effort and by the end of the fifth month of the campaign the Droger Land