Another few Dutch bunkers

[Erik Zwaan]

Hello PMs,

Last year November I started a building thread of a 1:35 scale cutaway Dutch bunker from the WW2 era (1:35 Dutch WW2 Bunker Cutaway).

On the same site where I bought the model (www.lextempelman.nl), a few free downloads are available of bunkers in various scales and appearance. As I have been through a tremendously busy period in the past weeks, I needed a temporary breakaway from finalizing the Santa Fe sleeper tracks and doing something light and easy instead.

So I built a few more bunkers. The small one is HO-scale (1:87) and is just a few centimeters big. It's a Dutch WWI bunker and used as a group shelter for soldiers manning trenches. The other one has a bit of a story to it.

It's a similar "GSP" (Group Shelter Place) as the one I built last year, but instead there's a cut right through it. This is not designer's fantasy, but it really exists.
Probably puzzled by what's inside those small bunkers that can be found all throughout central The Netherlands, the idea must have been born to saw through the thick concrete and expose the inside of one of those few hundreds of bunkers still dotting the countryside. As they formed part of a water defense line (inundation of the surrounding polders to halt the enemy and to protect the western part of the country), the scenery was completed with creating a patch of inundated area at the bunker's foot.

Besides the artistic effect, this is also part of an effort to make Dutch military history better known to the public. This model is scale 1:50 and I have enclosed a few pictures of the real bunker no. 599 at the Diefdijk (Dike of Thieves), near the location where highway A2 cuts through the dike. Year of completion: 1940, just in time before the German invasion.

Well, that's all for this thread. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Time to go back again to unfinished railway business .

Cheers,
Erik

[Butelczynski]

This bunker was cut just recently?I don't think I've ever heard of anyone cutting bunker in a half.must have been quite a job.Good idea on model too.

[southwestforests]

That is interesting.
And it got me curious enough to go play in Google.
Found this,
https://www.dezeen.com/2013/12/11/mo...elier-de-lyon/

The movie shows a diamond wire saw being used to cut a straight section through the centre of the monolithic structure, and a crane lifting it away to create a narrow slit.

It took 40 days to slice through the solid concrete bunker, which was one of 700 constructed along the New Dutch Waterline, a series of water-based defences used between 1815 and 1940 to protect the cities of Muiden, Utrecht, Vreeswijk and Gorinchem.

[Philip]

This is neat.

[Kevin WS]

Erik - nice to see you start another bunker!

Cutting the bunker up is an interesting approach - and a very practical Dutch one too! The idea is great and I am surprised someone has not copied it.

[Erik Zwaan]

Thank you guys! Well appreciated .

I have seen the movie clip before about how the bunker was cut into halves, it's quite amazing and actually a very good idea.
I didn't know about its existence until last year when I was hiking in the area and got curious about bunker interiors. There are many, and in all kinds of sorts. Invariably, they were all closed, which fueled the fantasy and when googling for more information, the story of No. 599 emerged. I knew about the site with the paper bunkers but had never actually checked it out in more detail. And the rest is, again, history.

By the way, today is Day 1 of the latest Corona lockdown in NL. How exciting.... home confinement for at least another 5 weeks. Good for paper modeling though over Christmas and New Year .

Stay safe,
Erik

[Dave Pete]

Interesting slice of history in the bunkers. Simple projects like the bunkers can be very satisfying and relaxing to do. Thanks for posting!

[Diderick A. den Bakker]

Originally Posted by southwestforests

That is interesting.
And it got me curious enough to go play in Google.
Found this,
https://www.dezeen.com/2013/12/11/mo...elier-de-lyon/

A brief remark on this waterline: large stretches of land were inundated to make overland approach to the Western part of the country very difficult. The bunkers were added in the thirties as extra defenses.
Of course (as always) no one could know that the Germans would send planes with parachutists over the inundations to the Hague to try and capture the government and royal family - in which they did not succeed. Armoured forces attacked the large dyke across what was then the Zuyderzee / IJsselmeer ('Afsluitdijk'), which gave easy access to Amsterdam, thus also avoiding the inundated areas. The savage attack by German Bombers on the centre of Rotterdam made capitulation inevitable. The Waterline and the bunkers had been of no use...