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"Once the Netherlands fell, there were concerns about ports in the low countries, such as Antwerp, being used as the base for an invasion," he said.

The most fervent attacks happened in the Netherlands in 1566, where many of the iconoclasts saw their acts as symbolizing their rebellion against the Hapsburgs, the Catholic Spanish dynasty that then controlled parts of the Low Countries.

The ill-fated plan, which aimed to sweep around heavy German defenses by cutting through the Low Countries, required Allied airborne forces to seize key bridges behind enemy lines and hold them until armor could advance.

Last year, he used that same race-craft to win the prestigious Belgian one-day classic De Brabantse Pijl, where usually only the toughest riders from the low countries triumph.

Descendants of 16th-century Protestant Anabaptist radicals from Germany, the Low Countries and Switzerland, Mennonites rejected military service and the concept of a church hierarchy, suffering years of persecution and making them reliant on the patronage of rulers eager to exploit their belief that agriculture and faith are intertwined.