Indeed, Russian forces had already recklessly shelled the nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia yesterday they risked a major incident if the plant’s cooling system had failed due to flooding. Many argued for months that the possibility of Putin triggering a nuclear incident was far-fetched. Perhaps the biggest psychological consequence will be a reassessment of just how far the Russians are willing to go to achieve victory. Russia’s apparent attack on the Kakhovka dam has shocked the people of Ukraine and troubled Europe. Revisionists argue its military impact was negligible, but the morale boost for the Allies was huge, horrifying the Germans as to the damage relatively few British aircraft could wreak. It can play a crucial psychological role, most famously in the Dambusters Raid of May 1943, when the Möhne and Edersee dams were breached by British bombers and the Ruhr valley flooded. Yet the destruction of dams not only disrupts troop movements. More importantly, it brought a close to the Race to the Sea, fatally disrupting the German’s Schlieffen Plan and arguably saving the British and French armies from a decisive defeat.
The Belgians resisting the German invasion opened the sluices at Nieuwpoort, creating a one mile-wide floodplain which contributed to Belgium holding onto a corner of the country even when 95 per cent of it had fallen.
Another largely forgotten example took place during the Battle of the Yser in the early months of the First World War.
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