Unusual bunker camouflage – Stützpunkt Krimhild
During my recent long weekend in the province of Zeeland, Netherlands, I was pleasantly surprised by the numerous bunkers of the second world war which were still present. I did now that in the Netherlands we still had quite some bunkers present, but I was overwhelmed by the amount of bunkers in Zeeland.
As part of the Atlantic Wall, several so called Stützpunkten (SP) were build. There were not directly located at the shore, but some kilometers inland. I could convince my wife and daughter to have a look at some of those. So we did visit most of the bunkers from SP Kolberg, SP von Kleist and SP Krimheld.
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- 1. Stützpunkt Kolberg
- 2. Two pieces of type 611, rounded
- 3. Two pieces of type 669, squared
Stützpunkt von Kleist consists of two bunkers type 611 and two 669, the rounded 611 types were also used to house soldiers.
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- 1. Stützpunkt Kolberg
- 2. Two times type 623
- 3. Anti-tank trench
Stützpunkt Kolberg consisted of two bunkers type 631, and three bunkers type 623.
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- 1. Stützpunkt Krimhild
- 2. Anti-tank trench
- 3. type 625
Stützpunkt Krimhild was quite big, consisting of bunkers type 630, type 625.
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- 1. Stützpunkt Krimhild
- 2. Entrance Defence (Eingangs verteidigung)
- 3. aims towards the entrance
- 4. Inside type 625
On one of the type 625’s there was even original text present indicating the room to defend the entrance (eingangs verteidigung).
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- 1. Stützpunkt Krimhild
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- 1. Type 621,
How it looked just after the war.
The roof and painted windows are clearly visible
And an exceptional camouflaged bunker type 621 which served as a communication and command was built on the edge of the village and painted as a house together with a partly build roof.
Stützpunkt Fichte "Nord Batterie" consisted of four anti-aircraft 10,5 cm S.K.C/32 which were originally naval guns.
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- 1. Stützpunkt Fichte "Nord Batterie"
- 2. 10,5 cm S.K.C/3 position
- 3. 10,5 cm S.K.C/3 position
I wanted to share this information with all of you and might be interesting for some of us that are interested in building dioramas, especially the command center from Stützpunkt Krimhild might be interesting for a diorama.
The family weekend at the coast was already great but the visits to these Stützpunkt locations was a cherry on top of this weekend.
Enjoy the rest of the pictures as well.
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- 1. Type 631
- 2. Stützpunkt Kolberg
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- 1. Stützpunkt Krimhild
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- 1. Stützpunkt Krimhild
- 2. type 630
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- 1. Stützpunkt Krimhild
- 2. Tobruk
- 3. Standing on top of a type 630 looking towards another type 630
- 4. ventilation shaft
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- 1. Stützpunkt Fichte "Nord Batterie"
- 2. 10,5 cm S.K.C/3
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- 1. Stützpunkt Krimhild
- 2. Dragon's teeth
Beautiful! Thanks so much for posting, seems very nearby for me as well, should go there once!
@michel-verschuere,
It was in the region Walcheren, several of those Stützpunkte are located near Vlissingen.
Not sure if that is nearby for you. For me it was approximately a 2 hour drive.
Hi John, I live near Ghent in Belgium! Will be about the same drive as for you. Now I hope the travel ban ends soon! Take care!
very interesting - nice post!
That's very interesting - something I knew little about. Thanks!
Thanks for posting John, never knew there were bunkers in Holland. Saw many in Normandy but didn't realize they extended into Holland as well. Nice post
@tom-bebout,
They extend even further, all along the west coast of Europe, from France all the way up to Norway.
Most famous and impressive is ofcourse the coast of Normandy. I had the opportunity once to visit and it is immense.
What a nice info, my friend @johnb! Very detailed indeed!
As a true modeler, you somehow found a way to add some "modeling activity" during that wekend 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
@fiveten,
Indeed my friend, I was able to find some 'free' time during the weekend.
In general I have to say that it was a great weekend together with my family, some time to read the headlines and even visit historical places of WWII. What more to wish.
Well done, John. Thank you for sharing. There's something special about actually visiting where the history took place. By the way, thank your wife and daughter for taking the time for us too.
@gwskat,
Same counts for me, when I visit those places I always try to imagen how the soldiers must have felt during that time. Especially during battles. It must have been terrible to be stuck in a bunker while being under attack.
having lived relatively close to the shore most of my life I took such bunkers for granted, but of course many people have never seen them. In Denmark there are a lot of bunkers along the westcoast, but several former WWII airfields have a lot of them too, and one is even active today at Karup Air Base, housing different things, like the central search and rescue center. I have been in that one once, and it is MASSIVE - I do not recall the dimensions, but it is huge, like a small mountain in flat Denmark 🙂
Thanks for sharing these John.
@airbum,
Very recognizable, Erik.
I am living close to the airfield 'fliegerhorst' Volkel, created by the Germans during WWII. Quite some personal (one man) bunkers are situated around the airfield and also a few bigger ones. When I was still a boyscout we used one of these bigger bunkers as our scouts 'home'. It was impressive to see how much people could be present in those bunkers.
i love these pics, John. They're quite interesting!
Thanks for sharing them with us.
Brings back lots of memories John !
I hope the remaining ones can get saved . I saw most of my playground bunkers demolished in the 70 ies. Lots of work and carbon emissions to demolish them. Lots and lots of steel in them too.
Here is a photo of an unusual one in Leffinge Belgium and classified as a historic monument
The towers on the horizon are apartment buildings on the seadike miles away.
Thanks for posting. I’ll go check them out next time bit am curious about something.
There are no mountains in Zealand but one of your phots shows them in the background.
@bernardbedeur
Thanks for sharing yours as well.
The 'hills' on the background are the dunes close to the sea.
Zeeland is indeed entirely flat except for the dunes.
Aha ! Of course. The Netherlands still have Dunes. I’m used to mountains now as I live in California ! In my native Belgium we have them replaced by what is known as the « New Atlantic Wall » appartment buildings ! a crying shame to replace Natural Systems with Man made ones.
So interesting all.
Thanks again,