Whatagain in Eben Emael.

[whatagain]

Hello

Eben Emael. The impregnable Belgian fortress built close to Maastricht and that would delay a German breakthrough in Belgium sufficiently long to allow for the French forces to link with BEF and Belgians troops on the KW defensive line.

From there Weygand chief of the French armies had no plans but this is another story.

The fortress was built in 1932-1935 and was nearly complete in May 40.
It was manned by about 700 hundred troops - artillery and that will prove important.
It was attacked by surprised without war decoration in Belgium by air when no German troops had yet entered our territory.

The attack began at about 4 30 in the morning cumulating the necessary elements of surprise :
- Belgium was not on war foot albeit had mobilised
- this was the first attack ever by air
- Germans Fallschirmjegers used hollow charges. A nasty surprise in warfare.
At about 5 am the fort was rendered useless.
On 11 may after being surrounded it capitulated.

Soldiers of Eben Emael were for long considered as having failed, giving the fort that had cost so much resources in so short a time.

Yet they were not to blame.
They were totally taken by surprised. Lacked individual weapons with firepower and had no training in close combat.
No infantry troops were available on site as the fort was supposed to give support to troops fighting Germans kilometres away.

Of the 600 estimated personal present on 10 may 19 list their lives and 80+ wounded.

5 Germans were killed out of a force of 71 super trained elite paratroopers.

Here some pics of the visit underground.
The visit lasted 4 hours and we would have needed another 4 hours to visit above ground.
There are more than 5 kms of galleries and the fort is about 900 m times 700.

[whatagain]

Whatagain’s bro in the gallery running from main entrance. 
there is normally 20 cm of concrete for the tunnels. 

The 60 mm gun blocking the main entrance. 
no tank of that period could survive a hit of that size. 
note that the empty shell is automatically dropped in a shell room under the position. 
These internal doors are mostly for keeping the fort airtight. The fort was kept a bit over pressured. 


Machine gun covering the entrance. 
a German Maxim modified to our 7.6 mm of that time. 
note that a second Maxim was fitted directly under that one and could be switched in some seconds in case the one firing jammed. 
smart. 

The main entrance. The fort is actually on top of the entrance and that zone could have been flooded. 
Stairs. Quite large actually. 

[whatagain]

The toilets were at the entrance. Other toilets at fighting positions were not linked to the sewage and had to be emptied and brought here via the galleries. Nice job. 

Showers. Actually quite identical to the ones in the mines. Remember Belgium was very rich and had many coal mines in 1930. 
one shower per week. 

The canteen. Actually troopers would get their food and eat in their rooms. 

The room of officers. Space was no problem for officers. 

The barber. 

More gallery. 
The trooper’s room. They actually used the ‘hot couch’ system : one bed for 2 guys. 
meaning no privacy humidity dampness smells etc. 
contrary to the troops in the French Maginot line the soldiers would spend one week in the fortress than rotate outside and be replaced by another unit. 


The ventilator used to put the fortress slightly over atmospheric pressure. 
that would push gasses out and fight against a gas attack. 

The generators used for the ventilators and to produced electricity. 
there were 6 of them. 

[whatagain]

Up to there we were in the logistical part of the fort. 
now we will climb 20 meters and arrive at the level of the fighting units. 

A gallery going down ! To one of the 4 cupolas holding the main guns. 
architects wanted to keep 25 of ground above them. 
according to army calculation a hit from heavy gun (big Bertha of WW1 that exploded the nearby fort of Lincoln) would create a crater of 12 m. The specs were asking to sustain 2 hits in the same hole - 24 meter of penetration. 

The filters. Each hole in the ground would be filled with a cylinder of active charcoal. 
and replaced every 3 hours. 
there was an identical rooms on the other side. 

Doors to close the ventilation on one side and force the air to go through the other side. 

Telephone room. An officer would select the fire missions requested and decide which would be done in priority. 



Then the coordinates would be sent to the calculation room which would give instructions to the firing guns.  

Jeff was installed here to block any German advance should they venture down once they had taken some position at ground level. 

Me in front of the door leading to a firing position above. 

[bjd]

Two thoughts: Living down there must have been almost as bad as being in a submarine.

And, I'm always amazed at the enormous amounts of concrete used in military buildings such as the submarine base in Bordeaux, the flakturm in Vienna, these forts along the borders, the bunkers along the Atlantic coast... Nothing can be done with it afterwards.

[whatagain]

This is a water container. 200 litres. To be pulled by x men. 
Ammunition wheel cart that goes into the lift. 
the lift is a copy paste from what was used in the mines. 


The wiring needs fixing. 




Emergency exit and way to lower used gun barrels for replacement. 

One floor below the guns. Shell rooms. 

Tout ça pour ça… 
3 guns of 75 per ‘casemate’ or bunker. 
i find the câliner if the guns quite light but I figured the goal was to disrupt supply columns rather than to fight troops. And the rate of fire is better. 
one of the 4 batteries fired 2000 rounds in 30 hours of fighting. 




One of the batteries Maastricht 1 or 2 destroyed by the paratroopers. 
The sick bay. 80 wounded should have been looked after. 


A diaporama showing the paras and their gliders.   

And the hollow charge -50 Kgms in 2 parts. 
i imagine the guy running under bullets with 25 Kgms 

[whatagain]

A nice story - the main cupola holds guns of 150 mm or a bit higher.
Belgian army wanted to install bigger guns but … Germans complains as the range would allow to bomb Germany.
Since we were neutral we accepted the argument !

[kerouac2]

Really interesting report, and some of the installations look superior to what the French had. (In defence of the French, they had a lot more forts to build.)

It looks quite a bit like how the Israelis imagine underground Gaza to be.