Hitler's Fortresses by Chris McNab

Author:Chris McNab
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hitler’s Fortresses: German Fortifications and Defences 1939–45
ISBN: 9781782008286
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 2017-10-16T04:00:00+00:00

THE NORTHERN SITES

Belgium

During the Great War, the Kriegsmarine’s coastal artillery force experienced its first large-scale deployment away from home waters along the Belgian coast. Some 225 guns were deployed, shielding the canal exits that led to the U-boat harbour in Brugge (Bruges). The success of the U-boats in commerce raiding around Britain precipitated the legendary Royal Navy raids of March 1918 against Zeebrugge and Ostend. After the war, little of the 1918 defences remained, having been spiked by the German troops prior to their withdrawal and scrapped after the war. Belgium had a modest array of coastal defences in the inter-war years including the excellent Vickers 94mm pedestal gun, and these were initially occupied by German troops in 1940 before more elaborate defences were organized.

The German coastal artillery forces deployed in Belgium between 1940 and 1944 were substantially less than those between 1914 and 1918. Zeebrugge lost its strategic importance, as the longer-ranged U-boats were based out of harbours in France rather than in the more confined waters of Belgium. The Atlantic Wall in Belgium was largely an extension of the Channel defences in the neighbouring Pas-de-Calais region of France under AOK 15 control. As a result, the defence sectors here were numbered and named in the AOK 15 fashion as KVA.A (Küstenverteidigungs-Abschnitt-A: Coast Defence Sector-A). Each KVA roughly corresponded to a divisional sector, and was further divided into three regimental sectors (KVA.A1 to A3).

The Navy guns in Belgium were an unusually motley selection including Tsarist 3in field guns rechambered by the Poles in 1926 for standard French 75mm ammunition, as well as more conventional naval guns. The predominant Army coastal weapon was the K418(f), better known by its French designation of 155mm GPF. The most powerful weapons in Belgium were not the fixed batteries, but rather four railroad gun batteries. The most common weapon was the 17cm K(E), which was a gun taken from the World War I Deutschland class and remounted on rail carriages, and there was also a battery with the powerful 28cm Kurze Bruno. As in the neighbouring AOK 15 sectors in France, the Belgian coast had a denser concentration of infantry positions than in the neighbouring Netherlands because of its role in defending against an expected Allied amphibious invasion. In the summer of 1944 it was occupied by the 712. Infanterie-Division, 89. Armee Korps. Since the Belgian coast was only 58km long, the Atlantic Wall construction there consumed only 510,420 metres3 of concrete – less than 5 per cent of the total.

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