Peel-Raam position
The Peel-Raam position was one of the Dutch fortresses with which the country responded to the European arms race from 1930 to 1940 . The position stretches from Weert on the Belgian- Dutch border in the south to Grave on the Maas in the north and is essentially based on the shipping and drainage canals that already exist in the north-south direction . It also included the Peel , a swamp and moor landscape, as a natural obstacle . The Peel-Raam position was intended as one of the lines of defense against a military enemy from the east in order to be able to make the fortress of Holland ready for defense with the time gained .
Bunker types
The following types of bunkers were used in the construction of the position :
- The porcupine (code letter S), a small bunker with a total of three notches to defend the bunker with a machine gun . The name porcupine comes from the steel parts protruding from the concrete, to which camouflage nets and similar camouflage material could be attached.
- The concrete casemate (code letter B), a similarly large bunker as the porcupine , but with a flanking effect of the armament.
- The cast steel casemate (code letter G), a small bunker with an armored dome for observation of the battlefield and for defense with a machine gun.
A total of 357 porcupines , 223 cast steel casemates and 64 concrete casemates were installed together with the Grebbe line . On average, the individual bunkers were 250 m apart.
Further fortress structures
Because of the flat terrain in the course of the position, the construction of wet fortress trenches offered itself, provided that existing drainage channels and shipping routes could not be used. The Defensie Canal was the only canal that was built from scratch especially for this purpose.
Five bunkers have been preserved from the Vossenberg Fortress .
The fighting over the Peel-Raam position
During the Second World War , the Peel-Raam position could not fulfill the hopes placed in it; the Dutch defenders had to withdraw from their positions to the west on the evening of May 10, 1940 .
Especially the porcupine- type bunkers , with their many notches, proved to be a deadly trap for the soldiers inside . In addition, this type of bunker protruded very far from the surrounding area and was therefore a good target for the artillery of the German attackers .
The Peel Raam position today
As far as they were not destroyed by the fighting of the Second World War, the individual bunkers are still there, but most of the openings and entrances have been bricked up. The section of the Peel-Raam position at Griendtsveen can be described as very instructive for a visitor, especially since the bunkers are very close to one another at this point. In the immediate vicinity at Ysselsteyn is the largest German military cemetery in the Netherlands with almost 32,000 grave sites.
