Fortress Europe- European Fortifications Of World War II

by J E Kaufmann

  SUPER HEAVY BATTERIES Type Norway Kiberg 3 x 280-mm SKU45 4 x 406-mm SKC/34 Trondenes I 4 x 305-mm U30 Bofor Ladingen Engeloy I 3 x 406-mm SKC/34 3 x 280-mm SKC/34 Orlandet 3 x 280-mm SKU45 Jusben Fjell (Bergen) 3 x 280-mm SKC/34 MovikVara 3 x 380-mm SKC/34 1 x 305-mm Naval Naval Turret Naval Naval Turret Naval Turret Naval Naval Turret Naval Turret & Casemate

  WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT

  Naval bunkers with the following prefixes

  M - for medium coastal batteries

  S - for heavy coastal batteries

  Fl - for anti-aircraft units

  V - infirmary

  Air Force bunkers had a prefix of L.

  Construction Types:

  E A Al B B1 C D Maximum armor thickness Concrete Thickness 5.0 meters 600 mm 3.5 meters 420 mm 2.5 meters 250 mm 2.0 meters 120 mm 1.0 meters 60 mm 0.6 meters 60 mm 0.3 meters

  Type E was used for V weapons sites and HQ, while A was for heavy gun batteries, and sub and E-boat pens. Type B was for most positions in strong points and resistance nests

  WEAPONS 406-mm SK C/34 380-mm SK C/34 340-mm KM 12f 305-mm SK U50 305-mm How. M. 16 (Bofors) 280-mm SK U50 280-mm SK U45 240-mm SK U40 210-mm Skoda 170-mm SK U40 (also includes RR) 164-mm K 454f 164-mm KM 93/96f RANGE (METERS) 56,000 55,700 35,000 51,000 30,000 39,100 36,100 26,750 23,000 27,200 20,000 17,000 155-mm SFH 414f 150-mm K L/45 50-mm K C/36 150-mm SK U45 150-mm SK U40 105-mm SK U60 105-mm SK C/32 105-mm K 331(f) Schneider 19,500 16,000 19,525 18,000 20,000 17,500 9,500 12,000

  T-10 Spinne Torpedo - Designed for coastal defense and wire guided. One man could direct three torpedoes. Had 5,000 meter range.

  WORLD WAR II

  After 1941, most of the German units in the West consisted of veterans of the Russian front who needed rest, or older men. In 1943, Ost Battalions, consisting of prisoners from the East, were incorporated into many of the static divisions manning the coast defenses. The loyalty of these prisoners was dubious at best, but under the supervision of German officers and NCOs they could be kept working. Better quality troops usually manned the artillery batteries.

  The command of the Atlantic Wall was also problematic because the army and the navy squabbled over jurisdiction over the coastal batteries and tactical control. This would eventually create difficulties during the invasion of Normandy because it would affect the selection of enemy targets.

  The last British raid before D-Day involving regular army or large commando units, took place at Dieppe in August 1942. The operation demonstrated the futility of attacking a defended port, even with its fortifications still under construction. However, it also exposed some of the weaknesses of the Atlantic Wall, which would not be corrected until Rommel's arrival.

  Although the Atlantic Wall was still incomplete on D-Day, it presented a formidable obstacle to the Allies and determined their strategy. Rommel's dummy positions successfully diverted many aerial bombs, while his improved defenses caused the Allies some serious problems. If the super-heavy artillery had been installed in the casemates or armored turrets of Normandy, it would probably have caused serious disruptions to the disembarkation process. It is true that the Longues Battery was eliminated by Allied naval bombardment, but a greater number of heavy batteries would have been more difficult to silence.

  There can be no question that the Atlantic Wall played a significant role in the events of June 1944 and influenced the decisions of the Allied leaders. The German defenses and strong points at Omaha Beach amply demonstrated the difficulty of an opposed landing. If the Americans had better luck at Utah Beach, it was because they just missed the more heavily defended areas. Had the invasion targeted the heavily fortified Boulogne-Calais coastline, it may well have been as disastrous as the attack on Dieppe, despite Allied air superiority. The fortress areas of the Atlantic Wall proved to be particularly hard nuts to crack. Some of the first that the Allied came across were Cherbourg and Brest, whose ports were left in ruins after the battle. Once the Allied supply lines were established, the other coastal fortresses were largely bypassed, foiling the German strategists who had hoped to tie up their adversary on the coast.

  The truth is that Hitler over-committed vital forces to the Atlantic Wall in Norway, diverting valuable resources and troops that would have been better used in the West. Thus while the British and Canadians eliminated most of the heavy batteries on the Channel coast, the German troops in Norway sat idle, braced for an invasion that never came. The Atlantic Wall almost succeeded in its mission, but, as Rommel had predicted, the outcome of the invasion was decided in the first twentyfour hours.

  Atlantic Wall Bunker, B-werk, Regelbau 634 with a 6 embrasure cloche and armored plate.

  Atlantic Wall Bunker

  Standard Doppelgruppenunterstand, Regelbau 622, B-werk.

  Atlantic Wall.

  Universal emplacement of Ring Stand type for tank turrets.

  APPENDIX

  THE IBERIAN PENINSULA

  1. Background

  The neutral countries of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain and Portugal, provided a secure anchor for Germany's Atlantic Wall. Dominated by rugged terrain, the Iberian Peninsula favored the defender. An allied invasion force that managed to take over the peninsula would still have to pass the formidable and easily defended barrier of the Pyrenees stretching across the Franco-Spanish border.

  The fact that Spain refrained from becoming an active member of the Axis, saved Germany the enormous expense in manpower and resources of defending the long Iberian coastline. Spain's coastal defenses were quite modest and consisted of old weapons from the early 1920s. They were augmented with eighteen 15-inch guns purchased from the British Vickers company between 1929 and 1935.

  Late in the war, with Germany moving closer toward defeat, Franco had the army create a barrier along the Pyrenees, known as "Linea P."

  2. Description

  The Spanish coastline was defended by a number of adequate, if antiquated positions. Spain's counterpart of Gibraltar at Ceuta, in Spanish Morocco, allowed it to keep an eye on shipping through the straits. Ceuta's gun batteries included two with four 150-mm guns with armored shields, two batteries believed to be of 9-inch guns (six and four gun batteries), and five batteries with a total of ten 305-mm guns. Although they were old, these weapons were still effective.

  The port of Cadiz, which served as a proving ground, had a variety of different caliber weapons, many of which were obsolete by 1940. Its three old 305-mm guns were probably its most effective weapons. There were also a variety of coast defense weapons in other Spanish ports. The 15-inch Vickers guns that defended a few key ports and the regular artillery weapons of the Spanish army served as the most effective units for coast defense on the peninsula. The Spanish also installed some of the new Vickers 15-inch guns in the Balearic Islands early in the 1930s, particularly at Majorca and Minorca.

  Barcelona's coastal defenses centered on the old fort of Montjuic, overlooking the city from the south. Further to the north of Barcelona, not far from the border, were the beaches of the Gulf of Roses that were vulnerable to sea-borne invasion. Here, the military deployed about five batteries, some in concrete casements. North of Roses, on the outside of the peninsula, stood another battery with 100-mm guns near Port de la Selva.

  The port on the island of Tenerife in the strategic Canary Islands in the Atlantic was defended by three forts. In addition, work began on two coast defense batteries to the northeast of the port in 1940. Three batteries observed in 1941 were believed to have 8-inch to 10-inch caliber guns mounted on barbettes or pedestal mounts. The city of Las Palmas and its port on the island of Gran Canaria had several coast defense batteries situated above 150 meters elevation over 1000 meters inland. In addition, three batteries were placed on the crests of a peninsula to the north of the port.

  The land defenses consisted of Linea P (the P may have referred to Pyrenees) with several thousand blockhouses stretching from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean across the Pyrenees mountains. Presently little information is available on Linea
P, although the Spanish government has recently facilitated access to information on the subject. Almost all of the research and articles written on this subject come from Colonel Arcadio del Pozo y Senillosa and the team of Jean-Louis Blanchon, Pierre Serrat, and Louis Esteve. The frontier included three military regions: Region IV ran from the Mediterranean to Vielha, Region V started west of Vielha and ended at Valle de Anso, and Region VI continued on to the Atlantic coast.

  3. History

  Spain did not succumb to the fortress-building craze because it was involved in a bloody civil war that lasted three years and precluded extensive public projects like fortified lines. When it emerged bloodied and exhausted from the civil war in 1939, the reins of government were in the iron grip of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the leader of the Fascist faction.

  Beginning on January 3, 1940, Fascist Spain allowed German U-boats to resupply in ports such as Cadiz, Vigo, Cartagena, and Las Palmas, in the Canaries. The Allies did not find it worth their while to stop the military and economic aid that Spain lent the Axis. As the war came to a close, the Spanish became concerned about an invasion of pro-Republican forces from France. So in 1945, at a time when many fortifications were being dismantled or destroyed in various parts of Europe, Spain began to work on its first line of fortifications, Linea P. It was the last major European defensive line of the war and the first of the post-war era.

  NOTES

  Chapter 1:

  1. See chapter on Belgium.

  2. The fort had the following armament: 2 old cast iron Mougin turrets with 2 x 155-mm guns each; 2 new disappearing steel turrets with 2 x 155-mm guns each; 2 new disappearing steel turrets with 2 x 57-mm guns; 1 new disappearing steel turrets with a machine gun; two 80-mm guns in open position; six 220-mm mortars; four 150-mm mortars; 12 machine guns

  3. These names were not applied to these sections before the war, but were adopted after the war for convenience's sake.

  4. At least one had three entrances.

  5. In 1933, the short-barrel German 105-mm guns (100-mm according to German nomenclature) of Ft. Guentrange were replaced with long-barrel weapons. It appears that the German-built complex at Mutzig also maintained a few batteries in a supporting role.

  6. The term main d'oeuvre or MOM creates some confusion. It refers to military labor, and some works have been identified as MOM bunkers, abris, etc. This only means that military labor built them and the design could have come from the STG or there regions' engineer command. In many cases groups of MOM bunkers would be named for a commander such as Billotte Bunkers.

  7. The German First Army had two 420-mm pieces. One was a Czech Skoda weapon and the other of German origin (possibly a Big Bertha?).

  Chapter 2:

  1. The Eifel is an extension of the Belgian Ardennes and provided an excellent defensive shield for the Germans between the Mosel River and a point near Aachen. It also served as an excellent area to conceal the massing of German troops for offensives in 1940 and 1944.

  2. Except for the OWB Line, which was identified as a fortified front, the other positions of the East and West Wall were not broken into special sectors. These other defenses were also intended for use by field units and the only type of sectors set up would relate to Festung Pioneer (Fortress Engineer) headquarters responsible for their construction and maintenance.

  3. The term werkgruppe was not actually applied to those positions on the East Wall until 1944.

  4. The categories of strength were created before 1935. In June 1939 Hitler directed that all positions be called Panzerwerke to create confusion among his enemies. Any position with a cloche was to be called a Panzerwerke. The term was nothing more than propaganda when used during the war. To avoid confusion Panzerwerke will only refer to heavy independent works in this manuscripts, but the proper term should be B-Werke or A-Werke depending on the type of structure.

  5. Two other positions were labeled as werkgruppen for propaganda reasons, but one had a single block and the other had no links between its three blocks.

  6. German reports state it was actually 200 kilometers in length with four positions per kilometer.

  7. The French term cloche is used to avoid confusion. The German terms are quite specific, but also sometimes confusing. A non-moveable cupola or cloche for weapons is identified as a Schartenturm. The standard type was a six-embrasure model known as a Sechsschartenturm. The other type with three embrasures, and actually only half a cupola or cloche, was known as a Dreischartenturm. As can be seen, it is not always possible to identify whether this was actually a regular cupola for roof mounting or a more unusual type of armor designed to be used like a casemate position. The Germans identified their special observation cupolas or cloches by the distinctive term Beobachtungsglocken and their rotating turrets by the name of Panzerdrechturms. The main problem is that in many cases they often identify all of these as Turms orturrets, making it impossible for the reader to distinguish one type from the other. Hence, we use the French term cloche for clarification.

  8. According to some sources, the length of the Oder Line was 285 km with up to three structures per kilometer.

  9. Manually it fired 30 to 60 rounds per minute, while electronically it fired up to 120 rounds a minute.

  10. The Germans call these cloches cupolas and make no significant distinction between turrets and these fixed non-rotating armored positions. In the present text the French term will be used to avoid confusion.

  11. When the Central Sector is listed as two sectors, the West Wall totals four sectors.

  12. This is a term used by Bettinger and Buren in their book, but apparently not one used before or during the war.

  13. This unusual type was the culmination of bunkers with tank turrets. The Panther turret from a Panzer V tank was not only used in a concrete shelter, but it was also setup with a steel box-like structure. A few of these were used on the Eastern Front and the Italian Front. Most, which is over 150, were set up on the Western Front, mainly on the West Wall and inside of Germany

  Chapter 3:

  1. The Belgian debacle caused the French to abandon many of their own forts, despite the fact that they were actually superior to Brialmont. This explains why Fort Douaumount, which had only a skeleton garrison, fell so quickly in the battle of Verdun.

  2. The PFL II, as described in this text, actually consisted of PFL II, PFL III and PLF IV. PLF III was a third line that included large casemates with 47-mm Anti-Tank of two types which protected the city. It included over 40 concrete positions. PFL IV consisted of forts Flemalle and Pontisse and the defenses of the left bank of the Meuse between Fort Flemalle, southwest of Liege and Lanaye next to Eben Emael. The PFL IV included three sections with machine gun bunkers and some anti-tank bunkers on the Meuse, and the Albert Canal (some on bridges). Usually, these two PFLs are overlooked and included as part of the PFL II.

  3. Initially, the French had only wanted to take up positions along the Schelde, but in the first months of the war they decided to advance to the Dyle.

  4. Pontisse and Flemalle were actually part of PFL IV.

  Chapter 4:

  1. After 1940 they were used by the Germans for antiaircraft guns.

  2. In some cases, such as the Bath and Zendijk Positions, the 1941 German toponymy is used, which may not reflect the actual Dutch 1939-1940 name for a particular position.

  3. According to some sources, the Grebbe Line is not part of Fortress Holland.

  4. Brongers call these lines the Betuwe Positions and the Maas-Waal Positions.

  5. Fort Vechten still has three of its armored turrets.

  6. The Neder later changes names and becomes the Lek.

  Chapter 5:

  1. These camouflage methods were commonly used on other Swiss forts as well.

  2. Swiss army units were linguistically and ethnically homogeneous, speaking the language of their canton of origin. German cantons were the most numerous, followed by French, Italian, and Romanish.

  Chapter
6:

  1. Before the war began 9.2-inch, 6-inch, 4.7-inch and 6-pounder Quick Fire gun batteries had been set up although some old muzzle loaders remained in service.

  2. The general Headquarters Line, after the war was known as the Ironside Line (after the C-in-C of Home Forces, Edmund Ironside.)

  3. The invasion of North Africa began on November 8, 1942. The airstrip had about 1,350 meters completed then and ready for use.

  4. The British, like the French, had not yet perfected an anti-personnel mine in mid-1940.

  5. Pooh was not installed until February 1941.

  6. The guns were turned over to the army in 1942. A late arrival in 1944, the 13.5-inch gun named "Bruce," was designed for extremely long range but not much of a success.

  7. This was also the main armament of Singapore.

  8. Like many of these weapons, these were old, but this model originated in 1894 with modifications and many more were brought back into service after the war began.

  Chapter 7:

  1. I (Bassa Roja), II (Alta Roja-Gessi), III (Stura), IV (Maria-Po), V Media Roja), VI (Germanasca-Pellice), VII (Monginevro), VIII (Bardonecchia), IX (Moncenisio) and X (Baltea).

  2. Little research has been done on the full extent of the Vallo Alpino and most of Italy's other World War II fortifications, as of this date. Most of the details in this chapter on sectors, types of fortifications, and numbers have been provided by Dr. Carlo Alfredo Clerici who has done considerable research on this subject and is now publishing it.

  3. According to a 1942 Italian report of the Stato Maggiore, the Northern Front included the Swiss and German borders, and the Eastern Front covered the Yugoslav border.