Camp autumn forest
The Herbstwald camp was an alternative accommodation for the Deputy General Command VI Army Corps - Wehrkreiskommando VI Münster , which was set up under this camouflage name in the Baumberge during World War II .
After the bombing of the Royal Air Force in Münster in July 1941 the order was given to explore an alternative accommodation outside the Cathedral. When in 1943, after a long break, the air raids increased again and caused ever more severe destruction, the decision was made to set up a new camp. At the beginning of 1944, construction work began in the Im Drosteloh forest area in the Baumberge near the then Annette von Droste Hülshoff youth hostel (now Hotel Steverburg). The construction sites were shielded from enemy aerial reconnaissance by wire nets covered with leaves, as was the excavation from the air raid tunnels and from the blasting.
On October 31, 1944, after further heavy air raids on Münster, the Baumberge alternative accommodation was moved into. The underground rooms could offer protection to several hundred people. There were eight large barracks, two vehicle fleet barracks, a central laundry barrack and a barrack for air force helpers (so-called girls' barracks) on the camp grounds. The camp was last used by the 1st Parachute Army under General Günther Blumentritt and Army Group H under Colonel General Johannes Blaskowitz . On March 30, 1945 these last German troops also had to leave the camp. American units occupied the Baumberge region on that day and advanced on Münster. The Allies was until the occupation of the camp either by their air reconnaissance nor by their secret the existence of the camp autumn forest known.
Staircase of one of the completely destroyed 8 large barracks of the bunker complex
Walled up bunker entrance
Foundation of a barrack
The camp was used by up to 1,450 Russian and Polish displaced persons in the summer of 1945 . Occasionally there were attacks against the local population, including an innkeeper who was shot. In 1948 the underground tunnels, passages and rooms were blown up on the orders of the British occupying forces.
literature
- Heinz Böwing: Bombers, Bunkers and Barracks - When World War II came to the Baumberge . Westfälische Reihe, Münster 2015, ISBN 978-3-95627-398-8 ( reading sample [accessed on October 22, 2015]).
- Die Baumberge Self-published by the Baumberge-Verein Münster, Münster 1971
Individual evidence
- ↑ Memories of the end of the war in Nottuln - bombers, bunkers, barracks On: Westfälische Nachrichten Online from April 11, 2015
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 57 ′ 19.8 " N , 7 ° 22 ′ 47.6" E