Hollandstellung pt 2

edwin

edwin

Active member
Dear all,

During my recent summer vacation in the south west of the Netherlands (Zeeuws-Vlaanderen) I took the opportunity to explore several major strongpoints of the western part of the so-called Hollandstellung.

The Hollandstellung comprised a defensive line of 411 bunkers, which was constructed by the Germans in 1916 and was designed to repulse an allied attack from neutral Holland. This never occurred. The Hollandstellung was constructed between Knokke located at the coast and Antwerp in the east. The western part was built by the Marinekorps flandern, while the eastern part was built by the regular infantry. Reinforced concrete was used for the first time by the Marinekorps to construct bunkers. As no fighting occurred here the majority of the bunkers has survived and is remarkably well preserved.

2.3.1-2

The western part of the Holland stulling comprised several strongpoints along the Belgian-Dutch border. These were integrated into dykes or existing defensive works originating from The Dutch revolt (the war between The Netherlands and Spain 1568-1648). I vistited the following strongpoints (stützpunkte): Wilhelm (Knokke), Heinrich (Hazegraspolder), Dora (Lapscheure) and Maurtiz (Maldegem).

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Four bunkers and machine gun emplacements of the Wilhelm stroingpoint are integrated into a dyke that runs parallel to the Dutch border from Knokke to Retranchement. Due to the extensive vegatation the bunkers are nowadays well hidden.

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Next, I visited the Heinrich strongpoint which is located next to the Wilhelm strongpoint and comprises several WW1 personell bunkers. This site was also used during WW2 and therefore contains also several bunkers from this period.

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This strongpoint is siutated at the site of the former Spanish fort Hazegras near the Hazegras lock. This lock can be used to flood the low lying fields.

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The Dora strongpoint is also located on the site of a former Spanish fort (St Donaas) at Lapscheure near the old sea dyke. Dora is very close to the Dutch border as evidenced by the good view on Sluis.

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dora13 by

dora11 (2)

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In addition to several personell bunkers, this site also contains an interesting small ammunition bunker.

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Finally, I visited the Mauritz strongpoint near Maldegem.

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This strongpoint comprised 4 bunkers of which one personell bunker remains as well as a small bunker of unknown function to me.

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Additionally, several other concrete remains are present also of unknown function.

Batterie Deutschland of Marinekorps Flanderen located at Bredene comprised the heaviest coastal defense batterie with four 38 cm cannons. However, this site is nowadays a pile of rubble.

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Near the Border at Assenede, a piece of the electrified fence that was put in place along the entire Belgian-Dutch border in 1915 by the Germans has been recreated. It gives a nice impression about the extreme measures the Germans took to guard the border to prevent people from crossing in and out to neutral Holland as well as smuggling.

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Although The Netherlands were neutral during WW1, it suffered from violations of its neutrality from time to time. This was especially true for the south west part as illustrated by the photo's below.

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This restaurant can be found in Sluis and was bombared in the fall of 1917 by the British as indicated by the commemorative plaque on the building.

Regards,

Edwin
 
Mauritz 2 and mauritz 6 where for machine guns those pins that stick out of the concrete are those to set the gun
Did you go inside the mauritz 6 there is a little construction olso to place a machine gun

Did you make a trip along the canal (afleidingskanaal stinker en blinker )wel there are at least a dosin hidden along the side
If i am not mistaken you found the bunker that is on our property (dora 9) at that bunkersite there are 2 machinegunposts with a big wal in between one is located on the front of that bunker and one on the back
There where two of these tipes on the same land
Mauritz 1 is about a mile from where i live
If you want i can look for the pics i have from the bunkers
Along the canal you can even find a bunker that is named to the 1 marinecorps flandern
It has a machinegun post wel hidden in the ground

Jonas
 
This was fun and a very nice visit! Thank you for posting. Why did they pick on the restaurant? I don't get that part. They didn't invade just shot at a restaurant?
 
During the early war years, Dutch neutrality was more or less respected by the allies and Germany. However, during the final years Dutch neutrality was often violated and this ranged from soldiers crossing the border to dogfights in the Dutch sky and bombardments. Especially the parts of Holland bordering Belgium were often affected and this is particularly true for the south western part. Here, different towns were mistakenly bombarded by the British during 1917 and 1918 and these include Sluis (pictured), Goes and Zierikzee. These bombardments resulted in many civilian casualties.

See the link for more information (its in Dutch): http://www.zeeuwseankers.nl/nl-NL/verhaal/562/zeeuwen-slachtoffer-van-misbombardementen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Regards,

Edwin
 
kaiser said:
Mauritz 2 and mauritz 6 where for machine guns those pins that stick out of the concrete are those to set the gun
Did you go inside the mauritz 6 there is a little construction olso to place a machine gun

Did you make a trip along the canal (afleidingskanaal stinker en blinker )wel there are at least a dosin hidden along the side
If i am not mistaken you found the bunker that is on our property (dora 9) at that bunkersite there are 2 machinegunposts with a big wal in between one is located on the front of that bunker and one on the back
There where two of these tipes on the same land
Mauritz 1 is about a mile from where i live
If you want i can look for the pics i have from the bunkers
Along the canal you can even find a bunker that is named to the 1 marinecorps flandern
It has a machinegun post wel hidden in the ground

Jonas
Click to expand...

No we did not go along the canal, which leaves room for future explorations :D Additional information and photo's are as always highly appreciated!

Regards,

Edwin
 
Along the canal between leestjesbrug and strobrugge you wil find the most bunkers (only reacheble by bike ,no cars are aloud)
Somewhere in the middle of those two bridges on the other side of the two canals you will see a huge bunker that partical bunker has a narow coredor underneath the road on that side there are 5 bunkers
When i was jonger i made drawings of the bunkers i visited and made fotos of them in and out i can post pics here to give you a clue where the bunkers are and how the look like

Jonas
 
kaiser said:
Along the canal between leestjesbrug and strobrugge you wil find the most bunkers (only reacheble by bike ,no cars are aloud)
Somewhere in the middle of those two bridges on the other side of the two canals you will see a huge bunker that partical bunker has a narow coredor underneath the road on that side there are 5 bunkers
When i was jonger i made drawings of the bunkers i visited and made fotos of them in and out i can post pics here to give you a clue where the bunkers are and how the look like

Jonas
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information! This will be of use for planning my next trip :D Yes, I am interested in your bunker photo's.

Best regards,

Edwin
 
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