Fortifications on Kornwerderzand.

Kazemat XVI is unique on Kornwerderzand, it seems to be a machinegun bunker with only a fighting compartment,there seems to be no other crew room or similar.





Ouside views.

The armoured shaft for the perioscope.







The closed firing port.




View of the fighting compartment with the firing table for the Schwarzlose. I don't know where the square opening in the floor leads to, my best guess would be a water tank.

 

There seems to be quite a confusion when it comes to the last two Kazemates on Kornwerderzand. As well in the sources on the web as the information in the museum are ambiguous when it comes Kazemat XVII, soem say it is an diesel engine bunker, some say that it was another search light bunker. No sources, including the museum do mention an 18th bunker of dutch origin.

But let's get back to Kazemat XVII! For me it seems quite obvious, due to the air intake vent and the exhaust system, that Kazemat XVII is a generator bunker built to house a big diesel engine. To me it is also quite obvious that the entry has been modified, either by the germans or when the complex was in use in cold war times.







The entry with the added forefront.






The airintake and exhaust system.

 

I found another building, which definitely had a military role, in the Kornwerderzand complex. As I stated before there is no mention of a Kazemat XVIII to be found. Many sources speak about a second searchlight bunker though, any details that I found about this bunker pointed to Kazemat XVII as being the second searchlight Kazemat. But I think this is a eighteenth Kazemat and it is the aforementioned searchlight bunker.







Outside views.
The building style, as well as the texture of the concrete, are the same as the other seventeen pre-WWII dutch Kazemates.
Regarding the brick building, my best guess would be that it is a transformation that has been added after the bunker was used for military purposes, otherwise it would also spot the camo paint scheme. Furthermore it looks very plausible to me that the big slab of concrete on the roof was put there to close off the opening for the searchlightbeam, either by the germans or by the dutch when the complex was used during the cold war years.



A few details.

The inside.





Details of the roof.



Details of the add-on brick building.

 

I found this concrete platform inbetween the RB 612 and Kazemat X. To me it looks like it might be another open bedding, maybe of dutch origins. I'm not sure about this though.

 

There is one source that indicates that there were four small diesel engine bunkers on Kornwerderzand, I found Aggregaatkazemat D without a problem, it was just a few meters from what I suppose is Kazemat XVIII.



On the other side of the highway, inbetween Kazemat XVII and Kazemat XI, I found an identical entrance that could very well be another, fifth engine bunker: Aggregaatkazemat E. I checked the measurements and the dimensions are absolutely identical to the other Aggregaatkazemat entarnces.

 

I will conclude my description of the Kornwerderzand fortifications with two objects I did not manage to identify.
They are located on the eastern side of the highway, not far away from Kazemat XVII, they might very well be of civilian origin, but I include them anyhow just for the sake of completeness of this little description.





The first one, a kind of a box shaped silo.




The second one, some kind of platform or foundations. A friend told me that that he was told it was a platform to put on AA artillery during the cold war. He saw Flycatcher / Bofors L40 combination firing from positions on Kornwerderzand when he was a kid. This could be a possible explanation but till a definitive confirmation it's only a hypothesis.

Thanks for your interest!

 

That concrete position between RB612 and Kasemat X looks like a light AA mounting. The platform in the last photo looks suspiciously like a platform for a mobile radar unit. Can't tell from the photo whether there's grass growing between the concrete blocks or over the remains of a wire mesh earth mat.

 

It's grass growing inbetween the conccrete blocks/tiles. So it might have been a platform for the Flycatcher?!

 

I like the surviving cammo, especially inside when you took a picture through the bars.

 

Cheers Skyline. Bang goes that theory....