Antwerp fortress
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As a military defense system, the Antwerp fortress consisted of two ring-shaped belts of forts around the Belgian port city of Antwerp . Built between 1859 and 1914, the complex had a total circumference of 95 km.
Early history
Up until Belgium's independence in 1830, the city fortifications of Antwerp consisted of the Spanish city wall near the current Leien (Italiëlei, Frankrijklei, Amerikalei), bounded on the south by the south palace (Zuidkasteel; north of the current Palace of Justice) and bounded on the north by the Nordfort, which was on the site of the current Kattendijkdok. The forts “Liefkenshoek”, “De Perel”, “St. Maria "and" St. Filips ”was built during the Eighty Years' War in 1584 by the Duke of Parma ( Alessandro Farnese ) with the intention of blocking supplies to the Dutch in Antwerp. These forts were located at the bend of the Scheldt in Kallo.
After the independence of Belgium
From 1830 the defense of Belgium consisted of twenty fortified towns, the so-called Wellington Barrier to protect against France. The task of the fortress Antwerp also included the defense of the Scheldt (“Rede Defense”). It was secured by the forts “De Perel”, “Burcht”, “Isabella” and “Saint Marie”. The “Rede Defense” of the Scheldt was later strengthened by the construction of the “Vlaams Hoofd” fort, which was located to the west of what is now the end of the Sint-Anna tunnel .
Law of 1851
In the middle of the 19th century, after Napoleon III took office . made it clear in 1851 that the Belgian army had no means of withstanding a French attack. The second French empire was then the leading military power in Europe. It was necessary to centralize the defense. It was therefore decided to build a ring of forts around Antwerp (the so-called Fortjes 1-7). Originally only built as earth wall palisades , these were later reinforced with stone constructions.
Law of September 7, 1859
In the middle of the 19th century, the concept of defending Belgium was changed because full national defense was not realistic. Antwerp was best suited as a last bulwark (Nationaal Reduit) until help should come from the ally Great Britain . The choice of Antwerp as a so-called National Reduit was based on the good possibilities for storage and defense. The Nationaal Reduit under the law of August 9, 1859, provided for a wall of walls with a ring of forts and flood ditches. The fort ring should consist of eight so-called Brialmontforts - named after Henri Alexis Brialmont . They were built from 1859 in an 18 km long ring from Wijnegem to Hoboken .
Law of 1870
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 it became clear that the German artillery could bombard the besieged Paris from a distance of 7 km. So the ring of the Brialmontforts was too close to the city of Antwerp. At first it was decided to build the forts “Merksem”, “Zwijndrecht” and “Kruibeke”. In addition, the defense of the Scheldt with the forts “St. Filips ”and“ De Perel ”expanded. These were small elongated tank forts designed to ward off any attacks from the water. These forts were to be armed with 24 cm and 28 cm caliber guns. The fort "De Perel" was never armed.
Works in the period 1878–1905
In 1872 the idea arose of concentrating the defense of Antwerp on the line of the Rupel and Nete rivers with flooding of the polders around the rivers. However, there was a lack of financial means to start construction immediately. From 1878 three forts were built in "Walem", "Lier" and (from 1882) "Steendorp". Fort “Schoten” was built in 1885; the following year the "Duffel" ski jumping hill was built to defend the Antwerp - Brussels railway line . Three more entrenchments (“Oorderen”, “Berendrecht” and “Kapellen”) were built to defend the dikes, the polders to be flooded and the railway to the Netherlands. Finally, the law of 1902 started the construction of the forts “Sint Katelijne Waver” and “Stabroek” during this period. They were not yet completed in 1914.
Law of March 30, 1906
The development of new weapons progressed so quickly (see explosive grenade - from around 1890; rapid-fire gun from around 1900) that in 1900 a committee was established to review the defense of Antwerp. This committee viewed the current defense as flawed, but was unable to offer a solution. Finally, in May 1905, the government presented a proposal to demolish the Brialmont ramparts and build a security ring around forts 1-8 and a new line of defense on the Rupel - Nete line. This plan was ratified by law of March 30, 1906; it included the construction of eleven new forts and twelve entrenchments. This Antwerp fortress (the so-called Hoofdwestandsstelling ) was to comprise a total of 16 forts and ten entrenchments on the right bank of the Scheldt and five forts and two entrenchments on the left bank.
Structure of the forts and entrenchments
The Brialmontforts
Classic forts were roughly rectangular in shape. A good Belgian example of a rectangular fort with artillery positions at the corners is the Liefkenshoek fort from the 16th century. After that there was a gradual development in fortress construction. In the 19th century there were two fortress-building schools, the "French" and the "German" school. The German forts had a polygonal system with caponiers. The French forts were based on a bastionary system. Brialmont (the architect of the Belgian forts) had traveled to Germany in 1846, where he got to know German fortress construction. The forts had several functions.
Those were
- Remote defense
- Defending the spaces between the forts as well
- Trench defense.
The design was adapted to these functions. On the outside, the forts were surrounded by a 40 to 50 m wide trench in order to make a direct attack as difficult as possible. Outside the trenches, the glacis was an uncovered slope that allowed attacking infantry to be effectively fired. On the inside of the trench was the escarpen wall, which reached up to a height of ten meters and protected the crew against direct fire. The artillery was placed under cover behind this wall.
The actual fort had a polygonal structure. In the main building of the fort, the so-called reduit , were the lounges for the occupation in peacetime. It served as a final protection after the enemy had already entered the fort. This reduit was made of bricks and had cannons on the roof for defense, usually behind a crenellated wall. At the front of the fort, the main guns were set up behind earth walls. Further guns were in the caponier of the front. The main facade was about 350 m wide and had a half caponier on each side. About thirty guns and grenade launchers were set up on the earth cover of the main facade to defend the apron. A bridge was installed to cross the rear ditch. This entrance was protected by two defensive positions.
The later forts, such as the “Walem”, “Lier” and “Steendorp” forts, have a similar structure, but without a reduit. The forts were connected to one another by the so-called Krijgsbaan.
- → see also: communication (fortress)
Law of 1906
The construction of the forts decided by the 1906 law began in 1909 after the land required for them had been expropriated . The work was carried out by the Bolsée company from Antwerp. The forts, which are very similar in terms of their construction plan, were made of 2.5 m thick unreinforced concrete, which was supposed to resist cannons up to 28 cm caliber. The forts of the so-called "second order" had a main dome with two 15-cm guns, two domes with 12-cm howitzers and four domes with 7.5-cm cannons. The "First Order" forts had two domes for two 15 cm cannons each and two additional domes with a 7.5 cm cannon. The 15 cm cannons and 12 cm howitzers were placed at the front of the main building. Capons for trench defense were built into the flanks of the front . These capons were available in the following designs: assembled casemated capons, capons with domes (Bornem), free-standing capons (Stabroek, St. Katelijne Waver and Gravenwezel) or tied-on capons (Brasschaat and Kessel). Fort Bornem has a structure with a pseudo-fortified front with domes on the caponier.
Armament
The forts had multiple functions:
The first forts 1-8 (built from 1859) originally had no permanently installed artillery, as mobile field guns were used for this. The artillery was built into the later forts. According to the knowledge already prevailing at this point in time, the ceilings of the cavities were made stronger than originally planned
The main developments in the field of artillery:
- From 1885 picric acid or nitrocellulose powder was used instead of black powder .
- The use of TNT increased the fragmentation effect of the grenades (explosive grenade).
- In Germany, the first cannon barrels were made from drawn steel , which replaced the barrels made from cast iron and bronze up to that point . This enabled the caliber to be increased. The effect was thus increased many times over.
Developments in chemistry and metallurgy dramatically changed the cannon, which had hardly changed until the middle of the 19th century.
As a result of the rapid development in the field of artillery, the forts had to be adapted to the changed conditions.
Some of the guns were already placed in bunkers , while the others were still free.
At this point in time, the main heavy artillery was the 21 cm guns from Krupp and the 22 cm guns from Le Creusot. In order to be able to withstand this caliber, the concrete vaulted ceilings had been reinforced to a thickness of 2.25 to 2.5 m until 1890. However, developments often progressed so quickly that the reinforcement construction work cannot keep up. In 1905 the Japanese set during the siege of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War already 28-cm guns one, just before the First World War Germany already had 42-cm howitzers (so-called. Big Bertha ).
Tests carried out in Russia in 1912 with a Belgian armored dome showed that it could no longer withstand a caliber of 28 cm. This information was ignored by the Belgian military leadership, in particular a further reinforcement of the forts was no longer possible for structural reasons.
The maximum gun caliber for the fort artillery was a maximum of 15 cm (only the forts for the defense of the Scheldt "De Perel", "St. Filips" had 24 cm and 28 cm guns). The armament for long-range combat of the forts of the outer line consisted of one or two domes, each with two 15 cm guns (39 kg grenade with a range of 8.4 kilometers), two domes for a 12 cm howitzer each (20 kg shell, range 6.4 km), four or six turrets for a 7.5 cm cannon (5.5 kg shell; range 6 km), and two observation turrets. In addition, there were sixteen cannons 5.7 cm (2.7 kg grenade, range 2.2 km and grapes for close defense) as well as two 7.5 cm and two 12 cm guns for the defense of the trench for the defense of the gaps.
Use of the forts of Antwerp in the First World War
When the war broke out in 1914, the German army first attacked the Liège fortress. Your attack group was armed with the heaviest German (42 cm caliber , range 10 km) and Austrian type ( 30.5 cm caliber , range 9.6 km) guns that could be set up outside the range of the fortress artillery. The forts built of concrete could not withstand these calibers for long.
On August 15, 1914, Fort Loncin was destroyed by a German hit in the ammunition depot. 350 men were killed instantly and half of the fortress was destroyed. To this day, the remains of these men are buried under the fortress.
After the defensive works around Liège had been destroyed, the Germans marched on the second large Belgian fortress. On September 4th, the first guns were aimed at the forts on the Walem - Breendonk axis. Due to the heavy fighting on the French front , the attack was initially delayed, but was resumed on September 22, 1914. The first targets were the forts Walem, Lier and Sint Katelijne Waver, whereby the fort Walem was initially attacked with Austrian 30.5 cm and German 42 cm mortars. On September 30, the forts of Walem, Sint Katelijne Waver and Koningshooikt had been artillery defeated. Then the German troops were able to take Fort Sint Katelijne Waver and the entrenchments Dorpveld and Bosbeek on October 1st. On October 2nd, the forts Lier and Walem fell. On October 4th, the German army also captured Fort Kessel. The bombardment of Fort Broechem began on October 5th and was taken out of action the next day. This made the fortress of Antwerp untenable.
On October 9, the Belgian army gave up the right bank of the Scheldt and with it the forts of Schoten, Brasschaat, Merksem, Kapellen and Lillo.
On October 10, the army also gave up the left bank of the Scheldt and withdrew to the Ijzer line in western Belgium.
In total, German and Austro-Hungarian troops fired 590 shells of 42 cm and 2130 shells of 30.5 cm at the forts. Although resilience was low, its role should not be underestimated. At least they offered the Belgian army the opportunity to retreat to the Westhoek .
Between the wars and the Second World War
During the First World War, the vulnerability of the forts was shown. It was clear that the development of artillery advanced faster than the construction of forts resistant to it. The idea of forts was out of date. After the First World War, forts were therefore no longer widely seen as a method of defense, and the role of forts shifted to primary support for the infantry.
So only minor adjustments were made between the two world wars. These included:
- Armament - the old guns were partially replaced by positions for light and heavy machine guns. The old turrets were replaced by so-called Abri élémentaires (semicircular armored bunkers); there were six of these bunkers per fort.
- Reinforcement of the fortifications in places with reinforced concrete.
- The improvement of ventilation and the establishment of gas-tight rooms.
The forts also served as warehouses.
In addition, the Antwerp fortress was reinforced with an anti-tank trench that ran from Berendrecht (at the former Berendrecht ski jump) to the Albert Canal near Massenhoven. The anti-tank ditch stretches 15 km from the city center around Antwerp. Its length is 33 km. The anti-tank ditch has 15 locks to regulate the water level. These locks were defended by bunkers. Thirteen of these bunkers were built, two of which have since been demolished. The other two locks were defended by the nearby forts and entrenchments. These bunkers were each armed with three 13.2 mm machine guns.
In World War II the fortress Antwerp played only a limited role. After the invasion of Belgium in 1940 , the Belgian army withdrew to the Koningshooikt - Waver line on May 14th. After the Wehrmacht had bypassed the Maginot Line near Sedan on May 13 , the Belgian army command decided to withdraw further to Antwerp. On May 16 and 17, some forts and entrenchments were still fighting, mainly to cover the army's retreat to the Westhoek.
The Germans continued to keep Antwerp fortress ready for defense during World War II. Some forts were used by the oppressive apparatus of the occupying power. Fort Breendonk was a Gestapo camp. More than 3,000 prisoners were killed there.
In September 1944, the Western Allies made a stormy advance (Paris had surrendered without a fight on August 26, 1944 ). British troops liberated Antwerp.
Today Fort Breendonk is a national memorial.
present
The forts 1-7 (law of 1851) were torn down during the construction of the Brialmontum wall, with the exception of Fort 2, whose reduit is now part of the sports arena. Brialmontforts 2–8 still exist. Only Fort 1 (when it was 100 years old) was demolished in 1959 for the construction of the Wijnegem shopping center and the extension of roads N12 and R11. Of the forts under the law of 1870, the forts Merksem, Kruibeke, St. Filips and Zwijndrecht still exist today. Fort De Perel was blown up by the Germans during World War II. The last remains were demolished in 1958. All forts from the period 1877–1883 (Walem, Lier, Steendorp, Schoten) still exist. The duffel jumps and chapels from the period 1883–1893 still exist. The ski jumps Oorderen and Berendrecht were demolished in the course of the port expansion. All forts built between 1906 and 1914 still exist today. Only the Massenhoven ski jump was demolished for the construction of a reservoir along the Albert Canal. The ski jumps Smoutakker and Schilde were blown up by the retreating Belgians during the First World War.
Two of the forts 2–8 now serve as museums, two have become natural monuments, one is municipal property, one is a recreational area and one is owned by the University of Antwerp. Two of the forts from the period 1870–1890 are still in military use, one is a recreation center and one has become a nature reserve. Of the forts from the period 1877–1883, one is used by the military, one is a natural monument, one is jointly owned (formerly: Ministry of Finance) and one is rented by a rifle club and radio amateurs. The Schanze Kapellen is a military area; The Duffel ski jump is privately owned and made accessible to the public with EU funds. Fort Sint Katelijne Waver is built with recreation houses and Fort Stabroek is used for paintball maneuvers. Of the forts from the period from 1906 to 1914, three are still military areas, one was built with recreation houses and one with fishermen's huts, two are museums, two are privately owned, and three are used as recreational areas. Many of the forts are wintering spots for bats . This applies to five of the forts 1-8 and for eleven of the forts built later. Fort Brasschaat is where most of the bats hibernate with between 800 and 900 specimens. Smaller bat colonies between 20 and 300 animals overwinter in the other forts.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erich von Tschischwitz: Antwerpen 1914 , in: Schlachten des Weltkrieges , Volume 3, Oldenburg / Berlin 1925, p. 105 online at digi.landesbibliothek.at , accessed on April 29, 2014
- ↑ www.breendonk.be ( Memento of December 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
literature
- Joop Peeters: België 1914. PH Bedrijfsadvisering Utrecht 1997, ISBN 90-9010977-3
- L. Laureyssens: Geschiedenis van Fort Oelegem. Antwerp 1986
- R. van Nunen and W. Segers: Ranstse Versterkingen. Oelegem 2003