discovery of an undocumentated bunker!

[myt1prod]

Hello

Sorry, nothing here yet but I hope to post some pictures here tomorrow (or following days)... but as I am that exited about this discovery I felt the need to already announce the upcoming photos.

Today I got the confirmation on the existance of a quite large bunker on private grounds somewhere in northern France (I won't give away it's location before having asked permision to do so to the owner of this bunker). According to the discription I got concerning this bunker it seems quite possible that the bunker is a regelbau St-bunker, I also was presented with an aerialphoto showing this bunker which also sugests a regelbau.
This time it seems that this bunker is absolutely unknown to the main public and therefore undocumentated, it's existance is only known locally by a few people. ... really looking forward to tomorrow.

How fertile can a day be? Next to german, allied and resistance documents/maps local people often know more then is generally known to us... always very thankfull to get in touch with these local people...
Next to the above discovery I also:
- was promised a German helmet found on another undocumentated German stronghold on northern French soil and some photos showing the main bunker of this stronghold (demolished shortly after the war)... off course I will be sharing this information with you as soon as I get it.
- got the confirmation of the existance of a bunker, this time in my hometown De Panne: this bunker should measure about 11m in length but noticing it's location it is most possibly a WW1 bunker... again a soon as I visited this bunker I'll share my finds/photo's with you.
...and; whilst talking to this local French person, some Dutch speaking people were overhearing our discussion; eventually they got involved... and guess what... one of these persons was my own aunt (tante) which I never met or heard of before!!! (haha one has to go to France to meet up with long lost familymembers).... nothing to do with bunkers you must be thinking... wrong she pointed out to me that my own dad (who I haven't seen in many years) is the owner of 2 in 3 unique photocollections showing most of the long gone bunkers in De Panne. As I'm researching these constructions which once stood in De Panne it seem a familyreunion is in order (otherwise I'd have to wait untill my dad passes away )

Jean

[Saska]

WOW! One of those days which one might ask if this is realy happening....

Congrats and thanks for sharing all those nice information so far. I am excited to hear more of all this.

Greetings Saska

[dirk Peeters]

don t let us wait to long jean
dirk

[myt1prod]

As you can imagine I am as exited as you are, so I'm quite convinced I'll be able to post some photos of this possible regelbaubunker already tomorrow... Only heavy rain, storm, snow and ice can keep me from visitng the place tomorrow , none of these are very likely to occur tomorrow.

for the German helmet and information on De Panne I guess it will take a bit longer:
- the owner of this helmet and photos has to find the time to relocate these hidden treasures
- the information on De Panne requires a reunion with my dad :roll: .... as you perhaps can understand this is not always easy concerning personal matters, but eventually i'll get to the information (I hope) now that I know of it's existance.

Jean
... it will be a long night... my imagination is already running wild thinking of possible artefacts which could be still present in the bunker

[myt1prod]

something do dream about... could help identifing this bunker bunker in advance of my visit.
hard to figure out the measurements based on this very fade aerial view; my guess is somewhere in between aprox. 10m by 10m to 12m by 12m.

Jean

[AW]

good hunt... and all the best for your new "old" family

greetz
Alex

[AvB]

Looks like 505 Pak casemate to me.

[ducatim901]

Maginot?
JK

[myt1prod]

Hi All,

Arthur, I was also hoping for a PAK-bunker... but JK's guess is much closer.
I'm experiencing some troubles with my SD-card so the photo's of my fieldtrip will follow... this one photo I did manage to already upload from my SD-card; it clearly shows how comes that this bunker is only known to a few local people... it is now standing inside a barnhouse.

find the bunker

Some of you will immediately recognise this bunker as the French 'La Rochelle type' (= muliple MG bunker with observationtower), therefore some of you will even call it a Maginot bunker... one couldn't be more wrong. I've already doubted in several topics that this type of bunker was built as part of the Maginot line, since some time now I'm more and more convinced that all these French bunkertypes date back to WW1... And indeed, the owner of this bunker confirmed that his father witnessed the construction of this bunker in the year 1917. He also confirmed that this was the case for all the other similar bunkertypes (La Rochelle type) in the region. (According to several sources this far, these bunkers were constructed in case that the front at Dixmude (BE) was breached by the Germans)

I guess that the information on the Maginotline, generally known to many amongst us as being the truth, is in need of a serious update and some detailled fieldwork (there are many other reasons to believe that the Maginotline information on the region of Bray-dunes and Ghyvelde is faulty and/or incomplete).

None of the la Rochelle type bunkers (WW1!! from now on) are identical to each other but have small differences concerning the height of the tower, ladders, number and position of the schartes, ... One thing they do all have in common is the wellblech interiour ceilingsupport, but not this one! This specific bunker has only flat ceilings resembling the German Hoyerbalkensystem to keep the roof up. Another striking difference is that this bunker has one large room with 4 schartes instead of several smaller rooms with one or two shartes, also the entrance to the tower is inside this biggest room, not in the hallway and/or near the entrance. Also unique to the la Rochelle type is that this bunker is fitted with two additional rooms with have no schartes; a possible chimneyshaft found in one of these rooms could indicate that these served as personelshelter. (I'll be returning to do some detailed measuring on this bunker, and later on, on every accessible bunker of the la Rochelle type hoping to eventually present you all with a detailed overview of these (and other) French WW1 constructions in the area.)

A bit further up the road two other bunkers for one MG can be found, these two are known to many as being French bunker (originally they are mentioned as being Maginot, but this topic proofs we can't be to quick to call something maginot because in reallity it seldom applies to the bunkers in the Bray-Dunes / Ghyvelde area). The owner however told me that he is sure that these bunkers are German... of course one person claiming this isn't enough. He also told me that these bunkers were fitted with transmissioncables which connected to other bunkers in the area. Before - as I also thought of them as being French - I didn't give these bunkers much notice, this time I've entered. Inside several small niches and cableholes can be found, the interiour feels German indeed although no known German Unterteilen are present. The scharte of each bunker does resemble the French La Rochelle type scharte, and so on (photos will folow, measurements will be taken also). So again something to investigate

Hope to post the photos as soon as possible, but I hope I set the mind at ease of those anxious awaiting the discovery of an actual totally unknown German bunker. Also hope to find confirmation on these last two bunkers... would be nice to ID them as being German....

Greetz
Jean

[dirk Peeters]

Jean Thanks
I thought also Maginot
But we talked already about them
And at our forum (Lebonforum) I ve posted already a good number of plans of the La Rochelle type
i ve been measuring some last week end
Dirk

[myt1prod]

at last some photo's for those interested;

A rough sketch of this bunker, detailled plans will folow...

discovery bunker2.jpg (34.8 KiB) Viewed 705 times

one of the entrances hidden in a small corner of the hangar

the main hallway; left and right personelshelters/ammostorage (??), ahead the battleroom (cutout: entrancehallway)

...

[myt1prod]

...

the room on the right with chimneyshaft; notice how the ceiling resembles the -wellknown to us- German Hoyerbalkensystem, in between them are placed loose red bricks some of which are finished with a layer of galvanised steel plate.

The room on the left: don't be alarmed these bones are fake the owner seems to amuse himself by luring female custumors into his bunker and scare the hell out of them - the bones in the cutout are real but not human - also notice the nice formation of these stalagmites, they already measure up to 5cm!! (sadly I couldn't find a pair of (stalag)'tits' this nice inside the bunker )

the first two shafts of the battle room

...

[myt1prod]

...

the other two shootingholes

next to the most right shootinghole the entrance to the observationtower - notice how the roof of the tower is made of prefabricated concrete slabs in contradiction to the many other bunkers of this type of which the roof is part of the mainstructure.

... and from here it leads to the exit (see first photos on this bunker)

Concerning these two other bunkers I've mentioned earlier in this topic; photo's will folow but I'll probably post them in a new (or existing) topic because these bunkers belonged to the Stp. Arnika (Ghyvelde).

Greetz
Jean