Diamantgraben

[jopaerya]

Hello

The L 408 at Margival and Le Havre and the 609 at C.I. had a dry moat in front of the entrance's ,
does anyone how this works , was this just like the medival way with chains or did they roll out of the bunker ??

Regards Jos

[Lars Bertelsen]

Hello Jos

Or maybe just a fixed brigde?
I think I have seen a picture of one, but I do not remember where - or if it was an AW bunker.

greetings
Lars

[AvB]

All the two floored HQ bunkers on the Channel Islands had dry moats too. The bridge could be brought in and in the entrance there was a niche for the bridge.

[jopaerya]

Thanks Lars and Arthur

The L 408 at Margival has the same niche .

Regards Jos

[jopaerya]

Hello

This is what I could find in the Panzeratlas a 99P9 and a 100P9

Regards Jos

edit = oke these one's are used inside the bunker please see the B werk Besseringen
http://www.untertage-übertage.de/Westwall.html

[M19 MADMAL]

Hi Jos,

Some photos of the 609SK with the dry moat and draw bridges.

Both the entrances of the bunker shown have a sort of 'pully' block above the entrance doorway. There is also a metal bar frame of the bridge still in place but as these frames are shorter than the width of the moat both have dropped down and are now buried in the infilled moat. Guess they were covered with wood which spanned the entire lengh of the moat and the recess inside each doorway (as in AvB's photo) was for a spare wooden section to allow an escape if the original had been shot to bits?

Malcolm

[jopaerya]

Thanks Malcolm

As allways very helpfull information and photo's

Regards Jos

[MNO KI]

We are currently restoring the 609sk of 584 Reg.319 ID. We are having problems with flooding from the dry moat. Over the years it has been backfilled with rubbish and earth, and now the water level is sitting just below the entrance doors. When it rains the water level raises and seeps into the entrance corridor. Does anyone have any construction details for this type of dry moat? We had assumed it was open at the bottom with a layer of gravel for drainage, but now we are wondering why the water level does not drop. Maybe it is solid with one or two drains which have become blocked? We are planning to empty it out, but it looks like about 100 tons of backfill to move!!

Regards
Paul

[jopaerya]

Hello Paul

I have no drawing of the 609 but the dry moat for the L 408 is a monolite block with no drains .

Regards Jos

[g_steer1]

If the 609 moat was solid and didn't include drains, it would have rapidly filled with water and this was supposed to be a 'dry moat'.

[jopaerya]

Hello

Here a other bunker with a dry moat .

Regards Jos

[jopaerya]

Thanks to Nick Terry, nice NARA drawing of a "Diamantgraben" with pipes for hand grenades and other things.