Approaching the T-St-S 73 Polom, the only built infantry cabin fortress Stachelberg.
The construction of the fortress was started in autumn 1937 by Ing. Zdenko Krulis and Konstruktiva, a.s. - Prague. Over 1,500 workers worked on the construction site in three working shifts.
During the year of construction, the vast majority of underground corridors and halls, accommodation facilities and technical facilities protected against bombing were built at a depth of up to 60 meters below the surface.
We managed to concretize 10 percent of these areas and complete the heavy infantry cabin T-St-S 73 Polom, which you can see in the photos.
Today we will find a museum exposition in it, which we will visit together.
The Stachelberg complex was to consist of a total of 11 above-ground buildings. Four infantry cabins, two artillery towers, two artillery cabins, two mortar towers and finally the so-called entrance building, rugged entrance to the underground complex.
The armament of the fortress after completion was to consist of ten 100 mm howitzers vz. 38 with a range of 12 km and fire rate up to 20 rounds / min, eight 4.7 cm anti-tank guns vz. 36 with a range of 6 km and a firing rate of 35 rounds / min; and several dozen heavy and light machine guns to defend the immediate vicinity of the fortress's own surface.
A crew of 778 men (46 officers, 15 sergeants, 717 men) was planned for the fortress; along with them, another 240 men - two infantry companies - were to be accommodated underground to fight on the surface of the fortress.
In the case of a permanent siege, the self-sufficiency of the building was planned under constant fighting for two months.
It provided for food supplies underground, with the recycling of cartridges fired and everything that could support the crew for such a long time.
All construction activities on the fortress ceased on September 23, 1938, when the general mobilization of the Czechoslovak army was announced.
The real combat deployment of the fortress objects, however, never occurred.
The Munich Agreement, the Munich Betrayal, was the reason for Czechoslovakia being curtailed by the Reich's border area, including all fortifications ...
Everything that could be used by the enemy, the Nazis, everything that could not be evacuated or evacuated, was destroyed by the Czechoslovak army.
While clearing the underground, engineers carried out a few blasts, which flooded the galleries opening to the surface and covered the drainage system of the fortress. Thanks to abundant underground springs, the underground was filled with water within a few days, which prevented access to the interior of the fortress not only to the Nazis but to all visitors until 2000, when it was finally opened to the museum visitors.
A number of anti-tank barriers, steel hedgehogs. Steel obstacles had the advantage of easier handling and minimal coverage of the enemy infantry behind them over concrete obstacles.
At the shooting range of the cabin there was a so-called diamond ditch, an excavated space into which fired machine gun cartridges could fall, there was a grenade slide to defend the area around the cabin. The ditch also prevented the filling of shot with earth and gravel in explosives artillery shells in the area.
Detail shot. I'm not an expert, so I can only guess what weapons were originally to be fitted. I would see the left one on a howitzer or mortar and the right one is for a heavy machine gun to defend the surroundings.
This loophole looks at the mouth of a 4.7 cm anti-tank cannon. These weapons supplied the fortifications Pilsen Skoda.
Huge mass of iron ... The wires above were used to fasten camouflage nets.
The entrance to the lower floor of the fortress through a diamond moat is currently the only entrance to the complex. Care must be taken when entering :)
The armored door is open. We can enter together ...
Will you wait for my next article or will you visit http://www.stachelberg.cz/ right away? :)
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