German Army Construction Workers at work

[Pierre Grande Guerre]

This time my contribution does not exist of period pictures of Pickelhaube wearers, but a series of pictures of German construction workers in the process of building a bunker.
These guys of “Pioniere Kompagnien” and “Armierungsbataillone” left their concrete traces along a meandering line of 750 km. along the Western Front from Nieuport in Belgium until Pfetterhouse, France. Without these guys the Western Front travellers of nowadays would only find back the countless cemeteries.

While the French were still building “cagna’s” of wooden beams, natural stones, and some steel H-beams, the Germans started from 1916 on to fortify their “Unterstände”, the “older bunkers of natural material” with concrete and to construct newly designed concrete bunkers.
As peaceful and quiet these period pictures show below the construction process of a “Pioniere Kompagnie”, in the reality of all day war, building bunkers and fortifications was often a dangerous job. These works were often done and were continued under heavy artillery fire and rifle fire. Many of these construction workers along the front were killed during their work.
You might expect some standardization of the bunkers, but after visiting hundreds of German bunkers myself, I might say that the exception forms the only standard for German bunker architecture. Of course there are single and double machinegun bunkers, designed for the same purpose. But due to the local conditions, like the quality of the soil, the height, the weather conditions, or the circumstances of the construction process (made hastily or at ease) all machine gun bunkers differ from each other, as other types of bunkers do also differ from each other. (Sleeping rooms, dressing stations, café’s (Kasino), etc.).

I apologize for the quality of the pictures, which I collected years ago, clicking from the internet, and I don’t know anymore, where I got these, and I don’t know alas the source. I am afraid , that you will not be able to zoom in a lot. This is all I have. But despite these disadvantages I dare to show these series, because I suppose that the bunker aficionado’s amongst us might still enjoy these pictures.
Any comments or higher res. pics are welcome!

 

[Liongules]

Very interesting photos! Thanks for sharing.

 

[drakegoodman]

Thanks Pierre. Not hard to see why many of these fortifications and bunkers are still standing today. The amount of steel reinforcement being used is amazing.

"You might expect some standardization of the bunkers, but after visiting hundreds of German bunkers myself, I might say that the exception forms the only standard for German bunker architecture."

Well put

Cheers,

- Brett

 

[Lost Skeleton]

If the Haitians had access to rebar like that, Port-au-Prince might still be standing.

Chas

 

[Pierre Grande Guerre]

I did not expect any reactions at all about these construction workers. So, a pleasant surprise for me to see 3 reactions. Thanks, gentlemen!
Indeed, Chas, as sad as the fate of Haiti is, the German concrete constructions of those times still stand after 100 years and are almost undestroyable.