WW2Museums.com

Bunker type 700 with road blocks and Anti tankwall Ritthem

(Netherlands, the - Zeeland - Ritthem)

Bunker type 700, steel barrier and Anti-tank wall.

The wall was built in mid-1944, is of reinforced concrete and has an overhanging edge to make the climbing of infantry and tanks more difficult.
At regular intervals, the wall has tobruks (single shooter concrete foxholes) for armaments with a machine gun.
On both sides of a tobruk in the wall are made additional loopholes.
The wall is about 1.5 km long and can be explored in its entirety.
At the beginning and at the end of the wall were special 'bunkers. "
In order not to be recognized into the dyke profile, they were provided with an armored steel roof of 30 cm. thick. This was lower than the profile of a bunker with a roof of 2 meters of reinforced concrete.
When the water flowed in after the bombing in October 1944, the Dutch authorities asked the occupiers to may strengthen the Trekdijk. So it was possible th keep a large part of East Walcheren remain dry. The Germans voted in and the gun of the 700 were removed, the bunker disappeared in October 1944 (for the Liberation of November 1944) under the dyke-strengthening.
For that reason, the bunker after the war not inventoried. By coincidence, the bunker was rediscovered in 1990 and made public.
SPECIAL BUNKER
German bunker built 1943-44
Rediscovered in 1990
Opened with the cooperation
From the Walcheren authorities
1991
The German bunker type 700 is, if known, only
built in Walcheren and probably the last of 5 of the former Atlantic Wall.
Special at this bunker is the roof of 22 cm. thick armor.
The usual concrete cover was about two meters thick,
so the bunkers formed notable bumps in the landscape.
To the bunkers in this anti-tank wall as low as possible
silhouette is chosen for the steel construction. In
This bunker was a 7.5 get 40 anti-tank cannon housed.
On the other side of the dike there is still an anti-tank wall visible.
It was part of the defense of the fortress
Flushing, which ran from Fort Rammekens to Valkenisse
in the dunes.
Access at your own risk.

Photo 1, 2: The bunker type 700.
Photo 3: A steel barrier named a "Hedgehog" (porcupine) by the Allies. These were about 1.5 m high. In the background you can see on the slope of the road that the anti-tank wall disappears below it.
Photo 4, 5: The Anti-tank wall.
Thanks to Remco de Goede for photo No. 2 of his website:
www.bunkerfotos.nl