Splinter trench
A splinter trench , also known as a cover trench (in the sense of the air protection building regulations) or splinter protection trench , is an air defense structure that should provide protection from rubble , splinters and the effects of gas . A cover ditch can be safe against various bombs under favorable conditions, but it can never be as safe as a real air raid shelter . Cover trenches (DG) were basically planned and built without bomb-proof foundations, which means that they can be completed in a relatively short time.
The history and development of cover ditches began with the experience of World War I , when planes also dropped explosives and gases.
The construction and construction of air protection cover trenches took place in numerous variants, with the ceiling mostly made of concrete . These variants include small cover trenches (KDG) for approx. 25 to 50 people, fragmentation trenches (SG) or fragmentation trenches as a direct further development of trenches as well as cover holes that should protect about five people against fire from low-level aircraft.
The term cover trench describes the basic design and construction: Cover by or in a trench. The construction methods were cover trenches half-sunk into the ground in the design of semicircular ceilings (full arch outside) and "rooms" sunk into the ground with straight ceilings. For camouflage reasons , the cover ditches should be greened with a maximum of one meter of cover, observing the maximum limit. In some cases, cover ditches were subsequently reinforced. These measures were carried out by putting on a concrete hood.
A cover trench can be built completely under the top of the terrain with a maximum of one meter of cover or only halfway into the ground. Cover ditches have at least two entrances or at least one emergency exit in addition to the entrance.
Web links
- Information on cover ditches in World War II on the website of the Bochumer Bunker e. V. (contains building regulations and contemporary representations)
- Private and public cover ditches from the Second World War in Osnabrück
Individual evidence
- ↑ Excavators are coming: Splitter trench will be flattened , Neumarkter Nachrichten of April 18, 2009, accessed on June 28, 2019.