strange towers of the third reich..

strange bomb shelters, what a weird design too..effective?
Dark Roasted Blend: Strange Towers of the Third Reich

 

Strange, but interesting link. My only question is under the first photo where author says the buildings also offered a small footprint from the air so it was hard for the bomers to ensure a direct hit. Unless I'm sorely mistaken, bombers didn't fly around Germany trying to find bomb shelters to blow up right?

 

thats right luke, bombs to slide off them.

 

Well, as we all know, Bombers in WW2 weren't particularly accurate. Having a small 'footprint' from the air meant that there was a much reduced chance of the bomb shelter being hit directly, whereas a more conventional bomb shelter that could hold 500 people would be easier to it (though not on purpose).

That large, superstructure with the flat roof, is a bunker, not a bomb-shelter. I could be mistaken, but I believe I either saw it in a thread here or on TV and believe it was occupied by the Nazis as a virtually bomb-proof bunker, with a large array of AA-Guns on top (you'd think they wouldn't put military targets - aka guns - on a bomb shelter).

 

thats right matt, bunkers, flak towers, both used for ack-ack defence.

 

nice space ships Ray ! you still hae some interesting facades still in Hamburg and even some of the medieval city towers were used for fortifying and protecting the German townsfolk during the bombings. Nürnberg comes to mind as one.

interesting link Ray. the immense Flak towers with the 12.8cm Zwillings were housed in Hamburg, Vienna and Berlin only though many smaller structures were located throughout German especially in dense factory-borne area like the Ruhr. the towers could actually house thousands of persons

 

not sure I'd want to on the top floor if it all went wrong erich, were there any bombs that managed to destroy any? or did they actually provide fairly good safe places during raids, ray..

 

hard to say the big flak towers and the associated communique centers-towers were not destroyed

some of the medieveal fortress like cities in southern Germany were creamed by the bombings so concentrated they were, the largest and thickest towers were still able to stand while the buildings in general were no-more.

 

strange things, inside the branch angle tower Kölner Festungsmuseum - Außenstelle Winkelturm

 

I wonder if those above ground bomb shelter towers had anything to do with the ground water tables in the areas they were used? I understand the overall concept, and coupled with a high water table would be less expensive to construct than below ground shelters which would need pumps to stay dry, and power source to run the pumps.

Just a thought.

 

exactly so clint, cost and design played a part in building them..

 

Fascinating structures and interesting to see they were developed from '36.

Seeing as they were desinated for industrial areas they do make a lot of sense, and they do look like they survived rather well although they must have been unpleasant places to shelter in.

Explosive concussion would still have been a big factor though, so a direct hit wouldn't have been needed to seriously injure or kill those inside.

 

not what I'd feel safe in phil, but they worked? ray..

 

Is it just me, but that building looks a lot like a giant beer stein!



That was probably the purpsose of those buildings... keeping Deutchland's beer rations cool and tasty!

Leave it to the Germans to come up with a tower design!

cheers!

 

Seems a bit like a grain silo to me, probably would look even closer to one from up in the air. I think the mentality behind this was to be a "Jack of all trades, master of some" in that it looked "weird", could be used to attack, well hidden, and be used by civilians during air raids.

I think in the 30s the party was really just experimenting, they had all this labor on hand from "regular" Germans to concentration camp inmates later in the decade, it's like they just wanted to keep people working and building what ever someone could draw just to say "look at this thing!".

 

eye spy with my little eye! good point suzie, on the ball here, ray..

 

Naah dont think they were build that way because of high groundwater levels like in Holland as many houses have bombshelters underneath too , some go quite deep actually. My guess is theyre build like that for costeffectiveness of the design.
The huge FLAK towers are utter monsters and were used by Soviet forces to train their tanks on ,but ,hardly any damage was done .Inside these remain fully intact today .
Damages in some Berlin towers are afterwar .
These are massive structures ,even when whe the Berlin citycouncil would want to get rid of those they'll have a helluva job blasting those ..Berlin has three or four of those wich covered their skies . I think theyre protected under the 'denkmalschutz' now , (momument status) .
Fact so many remain today can be seen as a sort of proof these were effective ..

 

These concrete towers were unique AIR RAID SHELTERS of Nazi Germany, built to withstand the destructive power of WWII bombs and heavy artillery. Their cone shape caused bombs to slide down the walls and detonate only at a heavily fortified base.

Cheaper to build above ground than to dig bunkers, they were quite effective, as it was possible to cram as many as 500 people inside. Plus the "footprint" of such tower was very small when observed from the air, so it was very hard for the bombers to ensure a direct hit.

 

The big ones with the square roofs held 4 large FLAK cannons on top ,theyre combined functions and are known as Flaktürmen ..besides shelters these were also ammo storages and held ammo lifts too to transport shells up to the cannons.
Theres a site on the net showing these Flaktowers and other shelters from the inside , impressive to see .
Read a story of a survivor these FLAKS that these were operated by crews of 15 year old kids in the war , both boys and girls from HJ and BDM

Berliner Unterwelten e.V. | Flaktürme in anderen Städten

http://www.gdrecon.co.uk/flaktowerspt1.html

 

thanks for link heinrich...