Fort Battice

Our 2nd stop was at Fort Battice - a massive undground bunker comlex. It was built in the 1930's as Belgium had known it was to be invaded by Germany. However, when Belgium was allowed to become it's own country - it had to declare that it will never take sides in a war and always remain neutral. Surrounding European countries had promised that if Belgium were to be invaded that they would send their militaries to defend them. Even today they have only a very small military.

It is built on the extreme eastern part of the 330m high Herve-plateau, at 17 km from the German border. Battice was the foremost advanced base. The central massif of the fort has the shape of a pentagon, protected on four sides by an anti-tank moat; there was no moat at the side facing railway No. 38. The central part had a surface of 13.5 ha (about 33 acres), while the total surface of the entire fortress was approximately 47 ha (116 acres). The building of the fortress started in April 1934. At the outbreak of the war, some finalising work was still taking place. Fort Battice disposed of a garrison of 750 men. After the surrender of May 22 (1940) the surviving crew were transported to Germany, where they spent five years in captivity (many never came back).



The above picture we were told is a trench where 6 machine guns were placed. Their intention was to shoot at planes. There were many problems with this though. 1) It was next just a few meters away from a main cupola (more on these below) - so it would be a main target for many, many bombs. 2) Belgium was not permitted to attack anyone and 3) they had no idea what a glider was... okay. here is that story. As we know - Germany was incredibly innovative when it came to warfare. The first sent a wave of gliders in that were launched from a nearby field. The soldier in charge of this post saw planes with no engines and had no idea what to make of it. He radioed his commander in the bunker and asked to what do as there were planes with no engines coming towards him. His commander thought the soldier was drunk and told him to do nothing. The German gliders contained paratroopers and easily placed them exactly where they needed to be. Also - since at this point in time the were was no 'war' - Belgium could not fire on anyone unless they were being attacked. Germany had not yet opened fire so even if they knew what a glider was - there was nothing that they could do.

We had a tour of the outside and inside. It was an amazing view from the top - very easy to tell why they built a fort there. From the view near the remaining cupola it was easy to see Belgium's two enemies... Holland and Germany. The above picture is looking out towards Germany from the cupola above one of the machine gun batteries to protect the main guns from enemy troups.

The remaining cupola was beyond impressive. It was a rotating (360°) turret with two 120mm canons each. These turrets with a protective armour of 60cm had a diameter of 6 meters and weighed 210 tons; they had a reach of 17 kilometres. There was a provision of 1500 grenades per canon (3000 per cupola). While the original motor no longer was in place - they did have a smaller motor for demonstration purposes.



Underground was where it really got impressive. The greatest part of the fort lies underground at a depth of 30 meters. All 15 surfacing fighting blocks could be reached through a system of underground passage ways approximately 3 km long. The picture above is the main bunker entrance.

The floor was retractable and if you happen to make it past that -the tiny black square you see on the far wall was a very large machine gun. Our tour guide and his assistant kindly removed the gun so we could see it...

a closer view of what was waiting should you make it pass the first obstacle. While it's hard to see in the shot - there are also tubes where Belgian soldiers could drop grenades into the entrance as well should someone make it past the gun.

This is the main stairway - 30 Meters to the bottom (9 stories below gorund)

The door greeting you at the bottom

The fort was also equipped with a power station consisting of six Diesel generators (175 HP each), providing the necessary energy to keep the fortress in operating condition.

Below is damage the bunker took from American tanks when taking the fort back at the end of the war.

We had a very nice private tour with Phillip - a local police officer. He took a break from his normal duty to show the fort to us. I can honestly say that this was the first time that I had a tour guide that was armed. He was incredibly knowledgable on the bunker and WWII. I wish we had another few hours to spend in the fort to really see it all. We were all on a tight schedule - we wanted to make it to stop #3 and he had to meet with the DA about the person he arrested earlier in the day!