The memory of the Germans taking all the bikes lasts a long time. When my son, Keir raced in the International Youth Tour at Achterveld in 2006 and there was a German team, the Dutch kids started to sing at the Germans "Bring back our bicycles" - they were of course told off by the Commissaire but it did surprise me just how these memories had been handed down quite a few generations... However the area local (and north and east too) to Achterveld did suffer greatly in the closing years of the war with real starvation and the allies having to do food drops...
Hilary Stone, Bristol, British Isles
M-gineering wrote:
> Jerome & Elizabeth Moos wrote:
>> We tend to think of a major war as an
>> event that totally suspends normal life, but in fact life did go on
>> in France, including a lot of activity building and riding fine
>> bicycles.
>
> The Dutch economy grew in the first years of the war. In the end of
> course it all went pearshaped, and the requisition of metals and most
> vehicles means that pre war cycles are now rare.