Brazil (dummy investment)

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Brazil was the code name of a dummy of the Stuttgart main train station and its track apron, as the military dummy 1940-1943 near Lauffen Allied air raids should take up.

description

The facility was located in the Großer Feld , Gewann Weidenbusch, between Lauffen am Neckar, Nordheim , Nordhausen and Hausen an der Zaber , about 35 km north of the actual target as the crow flies. This location appeared suitable due to the similarity of the river loop between Lauffen and Nordheim with the Cannstatter Neckar loop. The Army Flaka Department in Ludwigsburg built the construction by November 1940 and handed over the further work to the Böblingen Air Force Building Command. Farmers needed a special pass to continue accessing their fields.

A structure made of wood and brick imitated the station building. Light masts gave the impression of illuminated track systems. Artificial flashes of light were supposed to simulate moving trams, straw mats surrounding streets. Up to 50 flak positions and 30 headlight positions were occupied against the Allied aircraft , which extended to Brackenheim , Lauffen and the top of the Heuchelberg . The strong defense should also give the impression that the facility is a meaningful target.

From 1940 to 1942, Brazil was able to divert many attacks from the real goal. In 1941 a total of around 100 high-explosive bombs and 1,500 fragmentation bombs fell on the fields near Lauffen. The last attack took place on May 6, 1942. As the radar later enabled the Allies to direct the bombers more precisely, the system became obsolete and was dismantled at the end of 1943. After the end of the war, the local population used the remaining stones for building purposes.

The city of Lauffen was often the target of air raids due to its proximity to the sham facility: During the Second World War, Lauffen was exposed to a total of 37, sometimes relatively strong, attacks, as a result of which part of the affected population saw themselves as pawns in favor of Stuttgart. In 1958, the mayor of Stuttgart, Arnulf Klett, officially thanked the citizens of Lauffen.

literature

  • Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: The railway in Kraichgau. Railway history between the Rhine and Neckar . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2006, ISBN 3-88255-769-9 , p. 242 .
  • Erich Preuß: This is how a train station works . Transpress, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-613-71371-0 , pp. 143 .
  • Rolf Muth: Hail of bombs on the mock station . In: Heilbronn voice . January 28, 2011 ( from Stimme.de [accessed January 1, 2016]).
  • Norbert Hofmann: The air raid on Lauffen on April 13, 1944 . In: Lauffener Heimatblätter . No. 8 . Lauffen am Neckar 1994, p. 8-9 .
  • Günter Keller: The “Stuttgarter Bahnhof” mock system 1940–1943 in the Großer Feld between Lauffen, Hausen and Nordheim . Verlag Regionalkultur, 2017, ISBN 978-3-95505-014-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erich Preuß (see literature ), p. 105, names the plant as Brasilia .

Coordinates: 49 ° 5 ′ 5.4 ″  N , 9 ° 7 ′ 31.7 ″  E