Fortress Europe- European Fortifications Of World War II

by J E Kaufmann

  By 1914 Belgium's defenses were virtually complete, but its army's equipment was obsolete. Despite all these precautions, the new forts failed to deter the Germans. In fact, the Germans, having every intention of violating Belgium's neutrality in order to outflank the French, designed heavy artillery such as the 420-mm Big Berthas to smash the Belgian fortifications. In August 1914 the Schlieffen Plan was implemented and the German armies raced through Belgium, investing Liege by penetrating the undefended gaps between the forts. On August 8, the first of the Belgian forts fell to German artillery, even before the Big Berthas arrived from Germany. The arrival of the 420-mm guns on August 12 only speeded up the process. On August 18 the central citadel of Fort Loncin suffered a hit by a shell that penetrated an ammunition magazine and detonated it, creating a huge crater across the right center of the fort. Several gun turrets were shattered, popping out of their shafts, and/or toppling into the crater. The commander of the Liege defenses was pulled from the rubble and forced to surrender. The remaining forts of Liege fell soon after this debacle. Namur's forts resisted only four days. Antwerp lasted a little longer, but also succumbed to the heavy German guns.'

  After the Great War, Belgium remained an active ally of France to secure its future. In the late 1920s, as France completed plans for the Maginot Line, Belgium committed itself to its own security. If both countries had worked in concert on the new defenses, and Belgium had not returned to neutrality in 1936, the course of World War II might have been different.

  MAJOR FORTIFICATIONS

  The Liege Defenses

  The Namur Defenses

  Albert Canal Line

  Antwerp's Defenses and the National Redoubt

  The KW Line

  Coast Defenses

  LOCATION

  1. The Liege Defenses

  After World War I Belgium's situation changed little, since Liege remained on the most convenient invasion route from Germany into France. Thus the Belgians resolved to establish their main defenses in the area, taking advantage of the surrounding terrain. The region to the north and east was mostly open with some woods and rolling terrain, but the Meuse River, which flowed east from Namur through Huy and Liege, created a steep sided and narrow valley cutting through the heart of the city before turning on a northerly route toward Maastricht. It served as a major anti-tank obstacle and was incorporated into the defensive scheme. To the south of the city the terrain became rougher as it neared the Ardennes, also facilitating defense. Fortified Position of Liege II (Position Fortifiee de Liege or PFL II), the second line of defense, consisted of revitalized forts of the World War I era and new bunkers to fill the intervals.2 These forts occupied the rolling terrain that surrounded the city. The main line, the PFL I, was anchored on the Meuse river behind the Dutch frontier, opposite the roads to Maastricht, swung southward toward Verviers in the gentle terrain astride the Aachen to Liege highway, then curved westward towards a point south of Liege where the terrain had more relief, was more heavily wooded, and easily defendable. The entire line covered about 50 km and was situated mainly on the Herves Plateau. It acted as an outer defense line for Liege and a major barrier blocking not only the approaches from Aachen, but also Maastricht in the event of Dutch neutrality being violated."

  2. The Namur Defenses

  Namur, like Liege, sat on a major road junction that included the main route from Aachen to France via Belgium. The main defenses consisted of old forts that occupied the high ground around the city. Here the Meuse River created a well defined valley as it passed through the steep-walled city. Although it might appear that the Belgians refortified this city to deter French aggression, the decision was made while the two countries were still allies. It appears, therefore, that Namur was intended to be a final block against a German penetration along the main highway from Aachen.

  The Meuse River continued on to Huy and Liege, forming steep sided banks rising an average of about 100 meters above the valley floor. Although, less pronounced than in many places in the Ardennes, it still presented a formidable obstacle. This well-defined valley continued on towards the Dutch border past Liege.

  3. The Albert Canal Line

  This line picked up where the Meuse defenses of Liege ended as the river entered the Netherlands. The main part of the Albert Line ran from Liege to a point north of Maastricht, and from there relied upon a series of canals and the Campine between Maastricht and Antwerp. The new canal formed a formidable anti-tank obstacle opposite the Maastricht Appendage (the narrow strip of Dutch territory separating Belgium from Germany). The Albert Canal turned back and ran west to Antwerp where the Meuse returned to form the Dutch-Belgian border near Lanaken.

  At the point where the Albert Canal turned away, another canal, the ScheldeMaas (Meuse) continued to parallel the Meuse River and then turned northwestward almost again paralleling the border where it was replaced by a barrier formed by the marshes and woods of the Campine region, after the Meuse turned into the Netherlands. The canal and this rough terrain formed a good defensible barrier along the Dutch border all the way to Dessel. It covered a large part of the Dutch border up to the point where the canal turned toward Antwerp. Although the ground was level here, much of it was heavily wooded, especially in the vicinity of the Dutch border. This was the region where Allied troops got bogged down as they attempted to relieve the airborne troops dropped at Arnhem in 1944.

  4. Antwerp's Defenses and the National Redoubt

  Antwerp, a major urban center, served as Belgium's main port. In the 1920s, Belgium undertook a dredging operation up to Flushing in order to turn Antwerp into the largest seaport in Europe. The old forts of the inner ring, already obsolete, could no longer adequately defend the growing city. New positions had to be created in the outer ring. The main component of the outer ring was the new anti-tank ditch that defended the eastern half of the city. These defenses formed the Fortified Position of Antwerp (PFA). The terrain around Antwerp was relatively level but dipped to the northwest of the city, near the Schelde River. The Schelde flowed through Antwerp, gave access to the sea, and formed marshes that served as a major obstacle and last line of defense.

  The army created the Tete de Pont de Gent (TPG), or Bridgehead of Ghent, on the Schelde River and linked it to the defenses of Antwerp to form the Reduit National or National Redoubt. This line, which ran through low terrain, had few natural obstacles to back it up beyond the low sandy terrain and polders along the coast.

  5. The KW (Line or Dyle Line

  The KW Line extending from Koning shooikt to Wavre, included the Dyle River to the east of Brussels and was linked to the PFA and to the PFN. Its northern section ran through a lightly wooded area and its southern part passed through mostly open level to rolling terrain.

  6. Coast Defenses

  The coastal region of Belgium was limited since the wide mouth of the Schelde River was entirely in Dutch territory. As long as the Netherlands remained neutral, the approaches to Antwerp along the Schelde would remain open for sea going ships. Ostend was the only sizable port on the Belgian. coast. A second, smaller, port on the entrance to the Leopold Canal was Zeebrugge of World War I fame. The coastal region consisted mainly of dunes followed by polders (land reclaimed from the sea). Canals crisscrossed the area.

  HISTORY

  In the 1920s the Belgian military decided to set up new defenses and restore a few old ones, assigning the task to the Belgian Superior Council of National Defense. As is often the case in such circumstances, its members disagreed over the steps that should be taken to defend the southern province of Luxembourg. They finally decided to concentrate the defenses on the Flemish lands of the north, where most of the country's eight million people lived. The less numerous Walloons of the south immediately complained about being abandoned. However, the government, which maintained an army of only 72,000 men at the end of the 1920s, was unable to defend both the north and the south and decided to shield the most vulnerable area, the approaches to Liege.

&nbs
p; Between 1928 and 1931 a special commission, led by the Minister of War, planned the new defenses of Belgium. The commission finally settled on creating fortified bridgeheads on the Meuse at Liege and Namur, restoring some of the old forts (eight at Liege and seven at Namur), and preparing only token defenses in the south. However, it evinced no interest in linking up the Belgian defenses with the French Maginot Line. The commission also called for the creation of the Ghent Bridgehead and the formation of a National Redoubt, but gave this project low priority.

  The Meuse between the Namur and Liege bridgeheads would not be heavily defended. The PFL II was built between 1928 and 1932, followed in 1934 with the construction of a second line, PFL I, which was 5 to 8 krn in advance of the of the old forts. PFL I received four new and modern forts by the mid-1930s to secure the vulnerable flank facing the Maastricht Appendage and stop a German advance on Liege along the main road from Aachen.

  Among the new generation of forts was Fort Eben Emael, which was built on the recommendation of General A.G. Galet of the special commission. Its mission was to secure the flank opposite Maastricht, which was open to a surprise attack by the Germans who could quickly cross the narrow strip of Dutch territory and force a crossing of the new Albert Canal. Fort Eben Emael was completed in 1935 while work continued until 1939 on other forts whose construction had not begun until later. Unfortunately, Eben Emael may not have not been a great secret to the Germans because the Belgian contractor sub-contracted work to two German companies.

  New and deeper galleries made for the old forts were added at Namur and Liege, new turrets mounting different weapons replaced the older ones. At Antwerp many turret positions were transformed into simple machine gun casemates. The newest work at Antwerp consisted of an anti-tank ditch defended by special bunkers. Some canals, such as the Albert Canal, were fortified. The KW Line, which later became the main defense line, received less attention until the end of the 1930s.

  In 1936, when the new king decided to restore his country to a state of neutrality, all hopes for joining with the French defenses vanished. The defense of the Ardennes was virtually neglected even though some small bunkers were built along the main routes. On the other hand, positions like Antwerp and the National Redoubt received more attention. Brialmont had warned against building three fortress rings because Belgium could not raise enough troops to adequately defend them, and maintain a field army at the same time. However, his warning was ignored and by the late 1930s the military ended up with a greater number of defensive positions than in Brialmont's time and with an army too small to defend it all.

  By 1939 the defenses of Liege were complete except for a fifth fort that had been planned for the PFL I. Actually, in addition to this proposed fort of Remouchamps, plans for two other small forts at Comblain-du-Pont and Les Waides were dropped even earlier. Most of the other positions were also ready, but work continued through the early part of the war on the KW Line.

  The Belgian attempt to fortify much of their country turned out to be of little value in view of later political developments. Indeed, the defenses of Liege and the Albert Canal Line had been conceived with the idea that France would support Belgium. However, when he declared the neutrality of his country, the king adamantly refused to consider French intervention, even in secret. Denied their original plans, the Belgian generals had no recourse but to turn these defenses into delaying positions. If French help could not be gotten without advance preparation and French troops could not enter the country before an invasion, the only line that could be used as the main line of defense would be the incomplete Dyle or KW Line.3

  DESCRIPTION

  1. The Liege Defenses

  The PFL II around Liege consisted of eight restored forts of the original twelve. Two of these, Pontisse and Flemalle on the left flank of the Meuse, stood on the heights overlooking the river valley.' The remaining forts formed the bridgehead position on the right bank.

  Each fort was given new deeper galleries and an improved ventilation system. One interesting feature found in a few of these forts was a new air intake block located beyond the fort's fosse. This block, disguised as a concrete water tower, had its own defenses. The infantry positions on the forts were eliminated based on a mistaken evaluation of their future role. Thus, each fort was manned only by artillery men and had no infantry component as in the past. The garrisons of the forts numbered up to 500 men in the larger forts and 300 men in the smaller ones. In addition to replacing the old wrecked turrets, the army installed more effective longrange weapons. The old 210-mm howitzer turrets were replaced by 150-mm gun turrets. Machine gun and 120-mm mortar turrets took the place of the old twin 150mm gun turrets. The 120-mm gun turrets positions received twin 105-mm gun turrets. The old 57-mm Quick Fire gun turrets were replaced by a more powerful 75mm howitzer turret. Cloches were not included in the refurbishment of these forts.

  The main defense against direct assault was the fosse. Intermediate positions consisting of bunkers and obstacles protected the gaps between the forts. Fifty-five bunkers, most mounting only machine guns and only nine including an anti-tank gun, covered these gaps. There were three different sizes of bunkers. The heaviest, which were very few, had walls of up to 1.5 meters of concrete, the intermediate had 1.0 meter thick walls, and the lightest were as little as 0.5 meters thick. Both lines of Liege had anti-tank rails, up to five rows deep.

  The PFL I included two large and two small forts built in the 1930s. A third small fort, which was to secure the right flank of the line, was never built. The two large forts occupied the key positions. Eben Emael secured the left flank on the Albert Canal, opposite the Maastricht Appendage, Battice dominated the main route from Aachen.

  Fort Eben Emael, the pride and showpiece of the Belgian defenses, was built into a plateau overlooking the newly constructed Albert Canal, which cut through the plateau as it reached the Meuse River. From the air, Eben Emael looked like a slice of pie with the canal and its steep walls forming its eastern and northern sides, a man-made water filled anti-tank ditch delineating part of its western side, and an arching anti-tank wall outlining its southern side. A single entrance block gave access on the west side. Like the French entrance blocks, it included a rolling bridge obstacle and protective weapons crenels. The galleries were at two levels, the upper gallery virtually circling around the center of the fort. This was a design favored by the Belgians as opposed to the French design of a single main gallery taking a straight path. The lowest gallery was approximately 60 meters below the surface.

  A large subterranean caserne accommodated the garrison. A wooden barracks located adjacent the fort in peacetime was to be removed in time of war. The interior facilities were complete with a large barracks, a kitchen, an infirmary, a mess hall, storage areas, and a well. The usine contained six diesel engines to meet the heavy demands of this large fort. During peacetime an outside power connection was used. The intermediate level had 4 km of galleries that led to the combat blocks. Here also, the two air intakes on the face of the Albert Canal fed in the fresh air, which passed through purification filters. The ammunition magazines were on this level, and unlike the French and many others, the Belgians decided not to keep a large supply of ammunition inside their combat blocks.

  The fort had multi-level blocks for machine guns and anti-tank guns at different points along the anti-tank wall and fosse. Two blocks occupied positions at the level of the canal's footpath. The fort's surface, which was well above the entrance, and anti-tank ditch and wall were covered by two machine gun blocks and an open position for anti-aircraft guns. These blocks formed what was known as the fort's defensive battery.

  The offensive battery, located on the fort's surface, consisted of four artillery casemates and three gun turrets. The main weapons were two 120-mm gun in a noneclipsing turret. Even though they had the range to reach Maastricht, they were partially masked by St. Peters Hills on the opposite side of the Albert Canal. The range of these cannons reached the outskirts of Liege
, but fell short of the large fort of Battice.

  Two eclipsing twin 75-mm gun turrets occupied positions on the southern end of the fort. The four artillery casemates were identified as either Maastricht 1 and 2 and or Vise 1 and 2, according to the direction they fired. These 75-mm gun casemates faced the direction in which their guns fired unlike the French casemates, whose facade faced to the rear while their guns fired to the flank. The embrasures for these long barrel weapons allowed a traverse of 70 degrees as opposed to the French 45 degrees. Each three-gun casemate not only had the mission of protecting the fort's flanks, but also of covering vital river and canal crossings. These weapons were semi-automatic, firing at a rate of 10 rounds per minute, half the rate of the turret's automatic guns.

  All the blocks of the fort contained air filters and latrines, but all ammunition came from below and was sent up to the weapons by means of monte-charges. Expended shells were quickly evacuated by a slide to a lower level to prevent fumes from fouling the air. Most of this equipment was similar to the French. Many of the blocks, especially those of the defensive battery, included a small observation cloche. Some cloches included an opening in the roof for a small periscope. Not all the cloches were the small observation type, some mounted machine guns. The garrisons of most of these blocks consisted of 25 to 35 men.