Bunkerinfo
The West Wall was an approximately 630 kilometer long defense line which ran from the German town of Kleve to the Swiss border near Basel. The Construction of the Westwall started in 1936 and was before the outbreak of the Second World War was reasonably completed with approximately 18,000 bunkers, tank barriers and trenches. At the end of the war new life was pumped into the West Wall when the Allies threatened to break the line. The first construction phase of the Westwall was the Pioneer Building Program that was constructed between March 1936 and May 1938. The second construction phase of the Westwall took place between May and October of the year 1938 and was the Limes Bauprogramm. In these periods there are more than 1800 machine gun bunkers were built and approximately 10,000 personnel quarters. The last major construction phase of the Westwall took place between October 1938 and December 1939 and the Aachen-Saar Construction Program was what preceded it ensured that Aachen and Saarbrücken also fell under the protection of the West Wall. A few more areas were added between January and June 1940 Westwall drawn and these were the Geldern-Stellung along the Dutch border, the Orscholz-Riegel between the Saar and Moselle, and the Spichern-Stellung between Saarbrücken and Forbach.
The Pioneer Building Programme
On March 7, 1936, Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles by entering the Rhineland with a large force. Shortly afterwards, the first plans were made for the construction of defense works along the 350 kilometer long border area with France. The first defenses were built at the river crossings of the Saar and from April 1936 the construction of defenses in the area between the Rhine and the Moselle began, which were constructed by the Border Guards, a small organization within the German regime. In the Pionier-Bauprogramm mainly thin-walled and often small bunkers with 3 embrasures were built that only provided protection against shrapnel. Most of these bunkers only had a wall thickness of 30 cm and there was no space where the bunker crew could sleep. It was concluded soon after the completion of the Pioneer Construction Program that the defenses would not provide sufficient protection, after which construction of the Limes Construction Program began in May 1938. One of the best preserved bunkers from the Pioneer Building Program now houses a museum under the name Westwall Museum Konz. Nowadays, small-scale bunkers from these periods can still be found along the entire line, including the frequently built Regelbautype D2. As shown in the 2 photos below.
Border guard bunker - Regelbau D2
Limes Bauprogramm
The second and actually the first major construction phase of the Westwall took place from May 28, 1938. The intention was to build more than 11,800 bunkers before October 1, 1938 along the German border area from the Swiss border to the German municipality of Bruggen near Venlo in the Netherlands. These bunkers were also a lot larger and heavier than the bunkers in the Pioneer Program and were equipped with wall and roof thicknesses of 1.5 meters. The most built bunker from these periods was Regelbau 10, of which 3471 were built during the Limes Construction Programme. This type of bunker was a group shelter for 15 soldiers and had a separate battle space for a machine gun. The bunkers could also be closed completely gas-tight and they were also connected to the fortress telephone network so that the men from different bunkers could communicate with each other. Of the 11,800 bunkers that had to be built in 4 months, only 1,000 were fully completed by the end of 1938 and only the concrete of 8,000 other bunkers had been poured. The Limes Construction Program employed approximately 250,000 workers spread over approximately 1,000 contractors and approximately 58,500 units of the Reich Labor Service, all under the leadership of the Organization Todt (O.T).
In 1939, the Limes Program was expanded to include the tank barriers that today form the most visible traces of the West Wall. This Höckerlinien (Dragon's Tooth barrier) consisted of 4 rows of dragon's teeth of approximately 1 meter high and had a width of 7 meters. Not much later, this was expanded to approximately 13.5 meters with a height of 1.5 meters, after which the barriers were expected to be able to stop all armored vehicles. You still encounter these barriers everywhere along the Westwall, unlike the Limes-Regelbauten. Almost all of these were blown up by the Allies after the war for fear that they would be of significance again in future wars. However, some bunkers have been preserved, as can be seen in the 4 photos of the Hürtgen Forest below.
Some Reglbauten from the Limes-Bauprogramm
Regelbau 10
Regelbau 11
Regelbau 23
Water bunker
Aachen-Saar Bauprogramm
On October 9, 1938, Hitler announced that the West Wall would be expanded even further. In the earlier construction phases, Aachen and Saarbrücken were both important industrial areas left outside the defensive line and this had to change. On October 12, 1938, work began on a new section of defense line that would run around Aachen. This section of line started at Herzogenrath near the Dutch border near Kerkrade, then passed in front of Aachen and connected back to the existing Westwall at Steckendorn. An estimated 750 bunkers and many kilometers of tank barriers have been built in this new stretch of line.
Some bunkers from the Aachen-Saar Construction Program near Aachen
Regelbau 6a (SK)
Regelbau 105 (SK)
The new section of line at Saarbrücken started at the height of the existing Westwall at Dillingen/Saar and from there followed the River Saar and then passed in front of Saarbrücken to reconnect with the existing Westwall at Niederwürzbach. A whole series of new Regelbauten were also designed for the Aachen-Saar Bauprogramm because practice had shown that the large number of Regelbauten from the Limes-Bauprogramm caused too much confusion and also caused too high production costs. Another important improvement in the new types of bunkers was that they all had 2 meter thick walls or even thicker. And were therefore protected against almost all existing bombs and grenades at the time. Also, machine gun bunkers were no longer built that fired frontally, but where possible they all operated in a flanking manner. If the bunker had to fire frontally due to its location, it was fitted with a 20 cm thick armor shield around the loophole. Another problem that was solved in this new series is that all bunkers were also equipped with their own ammunition room and that the crew quarters were directly connected to the fighting room, something that was not the case with the Limes-Regelbauten
Some bunkers from the Aachen-Saar Construction Program near Dillingen/Saar
Regelbau 107b
Regelbau 114 (SK)
Regelbau 114 (SK) – Armored turret 20P7
Regelbau 115 - Armored turret 20P7
Photos: R
Geldern-Stellung
In 1939 and 1940, the last section of the Westwall was constructed along the border with the Netherlands. The Line connected to the existing part of the Westwall at Brüggen and ran just behind the Dutch border towards Kleve where it connected to the Nerder Rhine. The reason why Germany had this section constructed during the War was because they were afraid that Allied troops would try to enter Germany through our country. Although this section has not been as heavily developed as large parts of the rest of the West Wall, some bunkers of the Regelbau 102v and Regelbau 107 types were built here. In 1944 and 1945, another defense line was constructed parallel to the Geldern-Stellung, which we know as the Maas-Rur-Stellung. Various remains of both lines have been preserved.
Bunker of the Geldern-Stellung near Kleve - Photo (CC BY-SA 3.0) wikipedia.org
Air Defense Zone West
In addition to the West Wall itself, work was also carried out from 1939 on the so-called Air Protection Zone West. This was an approximately 250 kilometer long area located 40 kilometers behind the West Wall and was expanded with approximately 60 light and heavy Flak batteries. The area started behind Aachen and ran approximately to Karlsruhe. The main task of the Flak batteries that were built was to defend the airspace above the Moselle and Rhine areas against enemy air attacks from the south.
LVZ-West-Geschützbettung in Feckenhausen - Photo (CC BY-SA 3.0) wikipedia.org
Orscholz-Riegel
The Orscholz-Riegel or Orscholz Switch was a branch of the Westwall which was located in a triangle between the Saar and the Moselle. The line started at Trier and ran along the Moselle to Nennig. From Nennig the line continued across the land towards Orscholz. In fact, the Orscholz Riegel provided an additional fortified line between neutral Luxembourg and the West Wall. The line was constructed between 1939 and 1940 and consisted of 75 bunkers and a tank barrier of approximately 10 kilometers in the form of a Höcker Line.
Blown up bunker of the Orscholz Riegel
Höckerlinie in the Orscholz Riegel
Photos: (CC BY-NC 3.0) Spuren-der-kriege.de
Spichern-Stellung
This section of the West Wall was built between January and June 1940 and was largely on French territory. The Germans built additional defenses here after the French army withdrew behind the Maginot Line. The reason for building additional defenses at this point in the West Wall was to protect the industrial areas around Saarbrücken. What is special about this part of the West Wall is that it was never demolished after the war, as was the case with the rest of the West Wall. As a result, much of this section of line is still present today and it provides a good image of German defensive technology from the end of the 1930s.
Spichern-Stellung bunker Regelbau 505 "Wotan"
Spichern-Stellung bunker
Photos: (CC BY-NC 3.0) Panoramio.com
Ettlinger Riegel
This part of the line was a branch of the Westwall which was constructed between 1936 and 1937. The whole was approximately 10 kilometers long and ensured that the Rhine valley at Karlsruhe was blocked. The section of line started at the Rhine at Rheinstetten and then passed in front of Karlsruhe and stopped again at Malsch on the northern edge of the Black Forest. Several bunkers have been built in the line, as well as tank fencing and anti-tank ditches. After the war, almost everything was blown up, but remnants of the line are still present.
Bunker No. 26 by Ettlinger Riegel - Photo (CC BY-SA 3.0) wikipedia.org
Wetterau-Main-Tauber-Stellung and Neckar-Enz-Stellung
These were two defense lines that were located much further into Germany, and can be seen more or less as precursors to the West Wall. The reason why this location was chosen is due to the Treaty of Versailles, which prohibited Germany from building defenses up to 50 kilometers inland from the Rhine border. The Wetterau-Main-Tauber-Stellung (WMTS) was constructed between 1936 and 1937 east of Frankfurt. The line was approximately 60 kilometers long and started at Büdingen and ended in the Bavarian town of Klingenberg. 328 bunkers were built in the line, but soon after completion they no longer met the requirements. The Neckar-Enz-Stellung was constructed between 1935 and 1938 and ran from Eberbach to Besigheim along the Neckar and from Besigheim to Enzweihingen along the Enz. This line was approximately 86 kilometers long and was expanded with 450 bunkers. Both lines were largely cleared after the war and played little or no role in the Second World War.
MG-Schartenstand of the Neckar-Enz-Stellung - Photo (CC BY-SA 3.0) wikipedia.org
Map of the West Wall showing the different lines.
Tank barriers
Characteristic of the contemporary Westwall are the long rows of dragon's teeth that can be found everywhere in the landscape. These Höckerlinien can generally be divided into 2 groups, the first group dating from 1938. These Höckerlinien consist of 4 rows of dragon's teeth and have a common width of 7 meters. The second group of Höckerlinien consist of 5 rows of dragon's teeth that together have a width of 13.45 meters and date from 1939. In addition to these dragon's teeth barriers, anti-tank walls (Panzermauer) have also been built in the West Wall. These had a height of 3 meters and, like the dragon's teeth, were made of reinforced concrete. A third barrier that could regularly be found in the Westwall were the metal Hemmkurven. These were large metal triangles that were often placed to close off streets and roads. Many kilometers of the Höckerlinien can still be found. These were usually placed on open plains and were expected to stop armored vehicles. The tank walls are a lot rarer in the Westwall, but around Aachen two pieces of a few hundred meters can still be found. The Hemmkurven were probably all cleaned up after the war. Many anti-tank ditches have also been dug, many of which were closed again after the war.
Höcker line from 1939 with 5 rows of teeth
Höckerlinie over a small river near Roetgen
Tank wall 1 near Aachen
Tank wall 2 near Aachen
Demolition of the Westwall
Although the West Wall was once the largest construction project in the world, little of it is visible today. Already during the war, some parts of the defense line were blown up after the line was broken. It was feared that the Germans would take the bunkers again and then use them again in the battle. For this purpose, a special branch of the Allied army was created that blew up the bunkers immediately after the battle or filled them with sand. After the war, the destruction of the West Wall only really started when the Allied High Command ordered the demolition of all defenses on German territory. This was largely carried out by the French army, which first had all armored turrets and armor parts transported to France and then blew up the bunkers with explosives. By the end of 1946 this meant that more than 4,600 bunkers of the once 18,000 bunkers had been cleared.
Remnants of a blown up bunker
Remnants of a blown up bunker
The demolition from this first phase continued until the Federal Republic of Germany was established in 1949. From that moment on, the demolition of the West Wall was continued by Germany itself because many of the bunkers and in particular the many kilometers of tank barriers were in the way. Of course, the fact that Germany wanted to erase tangible memories of the war in order to be able to build the future with a clean slate also played a role. In the 1970s, people slowly began to realize that the remains of the West Wall served a historical importance and were part of German history. In 1979, many of the remaining bunkers were therefore classified as protected, partly because a unique nature reserve had developed around the line where rare plants and animals had found refuge. From the 1980s onwards, more and more bunkers were renovated to open them to the public in the form of Westwall Museums. From the turn of the century, Germany increasingly began to realize that the West Wall could also fulfill a tourist function, given the many people who visit traces from the Second World War. As a result, informative signs are increasingly being placed at the remaining bunkers and more and more walking routes are appearing that show people the way along the remains of this once mighty but now almost erased defense line.
Below you will find photo reports of the Westwall bunkers we visited.
Bunkerinfo
The Westwall was a line of defense that ran from the German site to the Swiss border at Basel. The Construction of the Westwall started in 1936 and was reasonably completed before the outbreak of the Second World War with about 18,000buncs, tankblocks and trenches. At the end of the war new life was pumped into the Westwall to the Allied threatened to break the line. The first phase of construction of the Westwall was the Pionier-Bau programme which was built between March 1936 and May 1938. The second phase of construction of the Westwall took place between May and October 1938 and was the Limes-Bau 319. In these periods there were more than 1800 mitrailleubunkers built and about 10,000 mansions. The last major construction phase of the Westwall took place between October 1938 and December 1939 and was the Aachen-Saar-Baar at the same time that Aken and Saarbrücken were also covered by the Westwall.