Date(s): 2015. Photos by Aymar. 1 - 24 of 24 Total. 756 Visits.
1 Westwall Museum
The exhibits are from the
Westwall Museum in Bergzabern. There are other Siegfried Line museums. The big one is in Pirmasens. The Bergzabern Museum is privately run. (By hearsay, some spa image controversies in the past. The exhibits do not differ much from those you would expect in any Wehrmuseum, say that in Rastatt.) The museum is located in two 'Regelbau 516' bunkers. (That may correspond to something like the Hawkings-class of heavy cruisers.) Most of the Westwall bunkers were blown up after the war. A few were deemed suitable as ammunition depots (by those who were allowed to store ammo after the war).
First impressions, main and side exit (two smoke bombs are in arm's reach), 6 ft armored concrete on top, two visible ventilation grilles.
2 Westwall Regelbau 516. Isometric projection. Gun rack next to the staircase. For more extended catacomb systems try Rome (or the mysterious Cheyenne Mountains). Two ammo chutes can be made out.
3 Westwall Museum
No well groomed picnic area without Alice in Wonderland mushrooms. (There will be no pictures of charnel houses in this set.)
4 Westwall Open air exhibit. Lectern showboard, by memory: Great efforts were made to standardize the various bunker components. Less than 700! door types were in actual usage. - Nifty touch, the door within door idea. Implied, there will be always a way to boot out if worst comes to worst. Ironic part, the point is moot if a door is never fitted in. The case for this bunker. Most of the Siegfried line was never finished. After 1940, that defensive line is superannuated, we will never need it again. All material will be forwarded to the Atlantic wall (whatever is in vogue). 1944/45, the stockpiles are gone. The present doors were fitted in after the war when the bunker was used as an ammo depot (most likely by the Leclerc army). You cannot let just anybody wander in.
Idle speculation, what was used as door during the winter of 1944/45. A purloined bedsheet? The curator: no eyewitness accounts from that period.
As for the persistent rumors of an industrial production capacity geared ...
5 Westwall This looks somewhat like my drawer of orphaned socks. Whatever ammo you can lay your hand on. Just drop it in the magic cauldron and stir three times.
6 Westwall 88 millimeter ammo with shipping crate. Sign says: PaK (Panzerabwehrkanone) and on board gun of armored vehicles. I believe it was also fired from heavy flaks. Foreground, an empty copper shell. A hint of burnished ash tray. Any better officer casino.
7 Westwall Center piece, an actual field gun (more than 88mm). Assigned mission, to cover the B38, North-South running, between Wissembourg and Bergzabern.
The most important part is probably the wedge which closes the breech during firing. Spring cushioned recoil. Kick of the mule precautions will apply. The length of the gun rail is certainly impressive. Maximum range, unsure. It could reach Wissembourg. That would mean at least 6,5 miles.
There is in ongoing debate if loaders should be allowed to wear gloves. Numb fingers can become rather clumsy. On the other hand.... Particular compromise, left-handed gloves, but only left-handed gloves, were permitted. One is displayed on the gun carriage.
The picture shows a rubbled Schweigen (the 'Weintor' hamlet between Wissembourg and Oberottenbach). Possibly generic.
What does not dovetail too well, why were the Bergzabern bunkers by-passed, statement by the museum curator, while the more recondite Mundatwald bunker...
8 Westwall Museum Gun crew and personal trainer. It is unclear how many square miles had to be evacuated for training sessions. Most likely a remote proofing ground. The shown gun caliber was mostly wishful thinking. - Home cleaning hint: the prominently displayed fume extractor could be pressed into other usages. What is wrong with making a little money as car cleaning outfit during battle lulls.
9 Westwall In bad taste, not too much difference between a tobruk and cop hiding under a manhole cover. Vehicles with leaking radial shaft seals, we will ferret you out. The camouflaging does not make too much sense. A tobruk is basically a foxhole reinforced with concrete, more below the grass line than above it.
Foreground (I am in no way responsible for the arrangement): an officer's chest (grouch bag), a routing box (a switchboard for a small area bunker network) and a nickle-zinc battery (partial view only).
10 Westwall Museum A gas mask for horses. Shiva model, three intake filters are better than one.
11 Westwall Creature comforts in the crew quarter. The triple bunks could be pulled up in drawbridge fashion to increase the living space. An officer did usually not sleep in the same room as enlisted personal but I could not detect any hidey-hole.
12 Westwall Average bunker temperature is 10° C. Standard equipment of any bunker, a special potbelly stove. It looks as if 4 mess kits could be hooked to the stove at the same time (one of the hooks has broken off). I do not want to spoil the exoticism but it should be remembered that milk from the neighborhood grocer was ladled into alu vessels until the early sixties.
From a showboard, bunkers are smelly places at the best of times. It was often impossible to light a candle in the morning and that regardless of strenuous ventilation efforts. Some reported deaths due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Obvious fix, 'summer villas' sleeping in hastily erected garden houses above ground (which was strictly forbidden but sometimes tolerated - better than no Somerville at all). It is suspected that it was an option during the 'drôle de guerre' phase 39/40. Winter 1944/45, unlikely.
13 Westwall What is wrong with camping chairs and a jukebox (the Volksempfaenger is on the top shelf).
14 Westwall Funérailles in four parts: a Wehrmacht's 'gamelle' (mess kit, contemporary Tupperware), the fluted receptacle for the never used gas mask, the immortal coal shuttle and a field bottle in a leather pouch (the screw cap, collapsible handles, could serves as cup). For the sake of comparison, a gold miner museum would feature a hip flask, a panning kit and a pickaxe. One way to keep things apart.
The lug of the gamelle could be used for securing it with a strap to a backpack (technical term 'haversack'). The eating utensiles are not missing. Scissor-folded inside. Half of a spoon handle could be clicked onto half a fork handle. Waste not, want not.
As for missing items. Not much need for trenching tools (the ubiquitous folding shovel) if you already man a bunker.
15 Westwall The shown poster (undated) says basically that this type of bunker is shell proof. In particular, that it will withstand direct hits by 44 mm French howitzers and all sorts of air mines. Technically that may have been correct. Particular wrinkle, the better it is built the more strongly it will vibrate when hit. Beatles version, we all live in a grand piano. Certainly confidence inspiring. The vibration part could even be true.
16 Westwall Ammunition chute for the large caliber field gun. The projectiles had to be cranked upwards to the firing platform. Once you learn how to operate a ammo crank you never forget it.
17 Westwall If it is a hotel is will have a laundry drop. This smaller chute was for the benefit of the machine gunner who was supposed to keep an eye on the rear gate. Broomstick operated? The basic layout of all those bunkers is similar to a tank, just more roomy.
18 Westwall Yes, the layout looks sinister. But the picture series tried to document the building of the Westwall (1938-40). RAD stand for Reichsarbeitsdienst (draft recruitment) in charge of construction. The organization Todt is also mentioned.
19 Westwall The bunker in the backdrop is camouflaged with bulrushes. Undated but nearly certainly from 39/40. Age bracket, shown amount of baby fat, photo quality. The Wehrmacht, like all government and government affiliated organizations, was wasteful of manpower, but never so wasteful that it would man bunker systems in the heartland without apparent reason through the Russia campaign.
The shown round table (table ronde) scene would be described as a teach in a Maoist leaflet. Words of wisdom are dispensed to the young 'fauves'.
20 Westwall Ultima ratio. Areas earmarked for artillery duels (a pious fraud given the imbalance in the actual fire power) were evacuated (just as temporary measure). Flanking measures, anti-looting posters. (Roughly, horse thieves will be hanged.)
21 Westwall This well aerated and somewhat dilapidated building near Kapsweyer will once have served as a barn for curing tobacco leaves (additional clue: no floor boards, just racks). It now earns its keep as pedestal for a relay mast (e-plus network). The suspended condemnation verdict. As for the connection, the museum's gallery shows the picture of a bunker that was camouflaged as a curing shed (or rather was built into an actual one). The famous ha-ha effect. Hardly a very brilliant idea if you ask me. A smoke out will just offer itself. No particular Hemingway input will be required for coming up with that particular brain wave. Also just the excuse you need for torching everything. A single spark will suffice to set the whole tinderbox aflame.
Tried to peek in. Not sure what I expected. Giant clothes-hangers.
Westwall history. All work stopped in 1940 (75 000 deployed land mines were retrieved, all locations had been carefully marked on ordnance maps). Consensus: these fortifications have outlived their usefulness. Different story in 1944 after the liberation of Paris. 40 000 landmines were deployed helter-skelter (who needs maps). Flanking measure, hastily dug anti-tank trenches and abatis of felled trees. Civilians and forth graders (possibly sixth graders, the showboard was somewhat vague in this respect) had to pitch in (any kind of organized volonté general will do, at least where nothing else is at hand. Undisputed: a completely futile last ditch effort. It will still have looked good in a Gauleiter report.
The smaller 'Regelbau' bunkers (by memory Regelbau 19) had steel doors of uniform thickness (by memory: 3cm). Those could be breached with ease in 1945. The miracle of shaped charges. Card house syllogism, if you know how to ...
24 Westwall, Farrenberg (Mundatwald) Meditation garden for the harried bunker garrison. No peace of mind without basket ferns. Actually a water retention basin fed by a capped well at a somewhat lower elevation. There was even some kind of pump house. And who could have foreseen that the actual fighting would be over within minutes.
