The
Atlantic Wall at the Belgian coast
By Frank Philippart
Von Rundstedt,
Oberbefehlshaber West, in 1942 was put in command of the occupation troops in the West. This consisted of the 7th and 15th
army and the 88th army corps. Each army
was responsible for the defence of a certain area. The area for 15th army lay between the Seine estuary (
Due to
the fact that the Westerschelde estuary was defended by two different armies (15th army and 88th army corps), the
German high command ordered in August
1942 a separate army corps, the 89th ,to defend the coast between Blankenberge and the Westerschelde. At the
end of 1942, the 89th corps was responsible for the defence of the whole Belgian coast and
The 89th
corps consisted of three divisions each defending a separate sector of the coast. Each sector was called a KVA (Kustenverteidigungabschnitt).
There were 3 KVA's in this area: KVA A3: from the
French-Belgian border to just before Blankenberge with
171 RD (43) and 48 ID (44) KVA A2: to the Westerschelde with 712 ID and finally KVA A1 at
During
the war, a second line was set up with the spare troops
("Abschnittreserve") of the units of the present divisions. This
caused a shortage which was filled up with older troops, called Festung Stammtruppen.
These troops manned the fixed defence works like the Schartenturmen and 4.7 cm
PAK 36 (t) guns, etc…
Shortly
after the occupation of
Stützpunkt (Stp)
(strongpoint) which means that a port possessed the armament to repulse an enemy assault.
As the
war progressed, the Germans got more and more fearful of an allied invasion and therefore they reinforced more and more
ports. The most important ones
were designated as "Verteidigunsbereich",
meaning the highest degree of fortification, for example Vlissingen (NL). The other ports became strongpoint-groups (Stützpunktgruppe (StpGr)). A StpGr consisted of several Stp's.
The navy
defence consisted of MKB Hundius and MKB Kursaal.
On the
following pages you can see what the Belgian coast is offering you in the way of remaining fortifications. For more,
detailed, information please refer to
the books on this subject of Hans Sakkers and Alain Van Geerteruyen.
New Book : "De Atlantikwall. Tussen
Willemstad en de Somme" travel-guide NEW
These
pages are the result of several recce’s.
Many
thanks to the people who have helped me to find them and for the spelling :
Alain Van Geerteruyen, Hans Sakkers, Dirk Peeters, Emmanuel Leysen, Peter Heijkoop, Yvonne Owlets/Mayo, etc
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