Infrastructure Advice
PEW are currently on a WW1 Battlefield Tour, focusing on the area around Ypres. The first stop today was to Nieuweeport, on the Belgian Coast. It was from here that the German advance through Belgium was halted through infrastructure.
The area between Nieuweeport and Ypres is known as the Polder Plain. An area of ground that sits between the sand dunes on the coast and the clay ground around Ypres. In the 17th century the land was artificially drained by the Flemish Engineer Wenceslas Coberghar to enable the land to be farmed. The result is a complex irrigation system which feeds into the River Yser.
During the initial stages of the war, with a Belgium under threat of total German control, King Albert of Belgium made the decision to inundate the Polder plain with sea water. This was done in a controlled fashion over a number of nights. Advice was given by the Belgian engineers who ran the irrigation system; they also oversaw the execution.
The result was that the Germans were halted which assisted the British in the defence of Ypres.
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
If memory serves me correctly I think the Axis forces did something similar in the Normandy fields prior to D-day to disrupt the airborne landings.
The Allies used two different parachute harnesses one was a quick release catch and the other used straps and buckles. A significant number of paratroopers in the buckled harness drowned after landing due to the weight of their equipment and the water.