New to me!
In Berlin, the flak towers were the last pockets of resistance during the final days of the war. The victorious Soviet troops had to lay siege to them with tanks and artillery, suffering heavy losses from the rooftop guns but still unable to seriously damage the structures, eventually forcing the Russians to negotiate the towers' surrender. By this time the towers were overcrowded with civilians three times their capacity and the air inside was hard to breathe.On August 25, 1940 the first RAF raid reached Berlin with the objective of bombing Templehof Airport. The attack, an embarrassment to the Nazi regime, triggered Hitler into issuing a series of orders to strengthen the air defense of major German cities and personally drawing sketches for an anti-aircraft “fortress” with gun platforms raised above the neighboring buildings. Over the course of the next few years, eight Flakturms ("flak towers”) were built in Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna with several others in the works and similar but smaller installations elsewhere.
More @ US 11
Some still exist in Berlin and elsewhere I believe.
ReplyDeleteYes and they are listed in the article.
DeleteA survivalist's dream! That's super impressive.
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
DeleteIf Hitler had just stayed out of Poland, WWII might not have happened. Or it might have been between Germany and Russia.
ReplyDeleteWhat a mistake! The world would have been totally different if not for that mistake. I mean to say the Brits and French would have retained their strength, thus the US wouldn't have become the empire we have today, bc balanced by other powers.
I imagine Germany would still have fought Russia.
Good points & Germany would have crushed Russia one on one.
DeleteI wouldn't know, but Russia has a lot of territory, isn't easy to take and to hold.
DeleteScariest thing about communism is it was able to resist the German machine, which suggests the communist machine was working efficiently at that point.
Germany was fighting on many fronts though.
DeleteYou just can't....ah....screw... with German engineering.
ReplyDeleteAverage Joe
The best bar none.
DeleteBe fair guys. these things are certainly impressive but a mountain of reinforced concrete isn't really "German engineering". Even the Egyptians have done this.
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ReplyDeleteWhilst but a young lad and stationed in West Germany, I remember well the huge concrete air raid shelter just outside the Schweinfurt train station. Squat. Grey. Ugly.
I hope they found a good use for it.
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I have no idea why they attempted/destroyed any. Seems stupid to me.
DeleteI was amazed at the mass of these building. Walls 16 foot thick, ceilings 10 foot thick of reinforced concrete. I can't imagine a concrete wall 16 foot thick. Short of a nuclear bomb, I don't see much that will hurt them.
ReplyDeleteHad Hitler, not been a megalomaniac psychopath. He quite possibly would have gone down a one of the greatest leader of the 20th century. He took a broken and broke nation, from the depths of poverty and despair. And transformed it into a powerful, rich, and modern industrial nation in a few short years. Unfortunately, for Germany and the world he turned this success into one of the evilest nations to ever exist.
Can you imagine how different the world would be today had Germany not been led by a maniac. Chances are, American would never have become the leader of the free world. The Pound Sterling, would have remained the world currency. Not the dollar. Forty million people would not have been killed. No, the world would look much different.
Badger
Really and I believe he was Time's Man of the Year in 1939.
DeleteReally impressive and they were completed in six months.
ReplyDeleteIt is said Hitler was a genius and so it seems.
These would look grand on our Southern border.
Claymores should do........:)
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