Atlantic Wall Museum, Battery Todt 2010
IKS Production 2010
This is a great place to visit, I would love to go back one day.
website:
Atlantic wall near Ostend part seven of eight
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On 23 March 1942 Führer Directive Number 40 called for the official creation of the Atlantic Wall. Fortifications remained concentrated around ports and other strategic objectives until late in 1943 when defences were increased in other areas as the risk of invasion increased.
Organisation Todt, which had designed the Siegfried Line (Westwall) along the Franco-German border, was the chief engineering group responsible for the design and construction of the wall's major fortifications. In late 1943, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was assigned taken out of the Italy and given the job of improving defences. Starting off in Denmark and working his way down the coast, Rommel believed the existing coastal fortifications were entirely inadequate and he immediately began strengthening them. Under his direction, a string of reinforced concrete pillboxes was built along the beaches, or sometimes slightly inland, to house machine guns, antitank guns and light artillery. Mines and antitank obstacles were planted on the beaches themselves and underwater obstacles and mines were placed in waters just off shore. Rommel believed that he needed to destroy the Allied invasion before it could unload, as once it was ashore he knew from experience in north Africa that there would be no way of stopping it.
Until 6 June 1944, the Germans had laid almost six million mines in northern France alone. Aware of the danger of paratroop landings behind the sea front defences, Rommel ordered gun emplacements and minefields extended inland, along roads leading away from the beaches. In likely landing spots for gliders and parachutists, the Germans emplaced slanted poles with sharpened tops, which the troops called Rommelspargel (Rommel's asparagus). Where possible, many areas were permanently flooded through the destruction of weirs and sometimes sea defences, causing damage to fields which lasted for many years after the war.
The Atlantic Wall consisted of batteries, bunkers, minefields and all sorts of other defences which can be seen in the below series of films. Many bunkers still exist, for example near Scheveningen, Den Haag, Katwijk and in Normandy. In Oostende, Belgium, shown here, the public may visit a well-preserved part of the defences. That section consists of emplacements of the Saltzwedel neu battery and the Stützpunkt Bensberg, consisting of accommodation, defences and other military emplacements made by German military engineers (Pionierstab) who were in charge of bunker construction.
Kettlebell Complex - Batterie Todt
I visited this place and made this video without any sympathy for former or present extreme political organisations, past, present or future. The Batterie Todt is an interesting and fun to explore, and also makes a cool setting for a kettlebell complex...
5 continuous rounds of:
5 snatches
5 squats
5 swings
(Each side)
5 prone tricep extensions
10 plyo press ups
fitnesspilgrim.com