Tankturret fortification in the Westwall

After the conquest of France, the Western Wall was dismantled in favor of the Atlantic Wall. Weapons, equipment and barriers were removed to the new line on the west coast. This action proved too enthusiastic. After landing in Normandy the Allies stood in Paris in august. Also in the same month, Hitler gave the order to investigate the current state of the Western Wall. It showed that swift action was needed if the WestWall was to slow an allied advance, let alone stop! Renovation was sorely needed with particular attention for tankstopping resources. This meant that obstacles had to be built, existing obstacles had to be restored and that bunkers had to be upgraded to the more modern weapons as existing construction were arranged for arms from the 30’s. To increase the tankstopping power the Germans decided to build constructions with tankturrets.

Since 1943 the Germans had good experiences in fighting with tankturret fortifications in defensive battles. The tankturrets with 7.5cm KWK guns would be a great improvement on the defensive quality of the Westwall.

In October 1944 there were only Pz I turrets available, these turrets were equipped with a machine gun, so no tankstopping power but available ... It was decided to direct 55 of these turrets in the Eifel sector and 40 placed in the Lower Rhine sector. Festung Pionierr Kommandeur XIX was responsible for the work in the Eifel but the rapid allied advance made it impossible to build all 55 planned constructions. By the end of February 1945 only 44 were combatready. In the north at Pionier Festungs Kommandeur XXI they build 32 of the planned 40 towers until early March 1945.

Also planned was the installation of 19 F PzDt 4010 in the Westwall, near the end of 1944, 11 were reported ready. These reinforcements didn’t improve the tankstopping power and therefore 24 F PzDt 4804 towers built. 13 turrets in Festung Pioneer Door Comma XIX and 11 turrets under Festung Pioneer Door Comma XXI. These turrets were equipped with 3.7cm guns, the armorstopper of 1940…

Actually tankstoppingpower was provided by PantherTowers and VK3001 models, both with a 7.5cm KWK gun. Two VK3001 were placed in the lower Rhine, the PantherTowers ‘coming up next’.
The largest number of tankturret fortifications was build in the southern sector of the Westwall, after the war this sector was managed by the French. The French gave a company permission to demolish all the turrets in their sector and almost all the turrets were removed.The only survivor is the Pantherturret of the Westwallmuseun in Niedersimten.

Pantherturrets

In 1943, the deployment of buried Pantherturrets proved to be an ideal defensive weapon, thanks the 7.5cm KWK42 L70. The development of regular application of this Pantherturrets has 3 models. The first model would be placed on a steel shelter, developed by the Organization Todt. The idea behind this model was speed. Constructing and placing a steelshelter with a turret was to be much faster than a concrete structure. The second model followed the approval of Adolf Hitler on the use of Panther tankturrets for defensive fortifications, work started in may 1944. The technical design was presented in October 1944 as Regelbau 687. A large concrete construction. In October 1944 time ran out for constructing fortifications of this magnitude. A third and last model was designed, suitable for the moment. The Pantherturret on a woodenframe or Holzunterstand, a design presented in November 1944. The advantages of the woodenframe work with the Pantherturret were constructionspeed, simplicity in construction and valuable materials saving. It was as an emergency solution for those sectors where tankstopping power was badly needed because the ‘enemy’ already knocked at the door…. For sectors where there was less pressure the Regelbau 687 had to be constructed. The Holzunterstand was very a very crude design and had a lot of problems.

Technical details of Pantherturrets in the Westwall

The Pantherturrets were manned by personnel from special Festung Kompanien, a turret had a three-man occupation.

Constructed types	Westwall
Panther- Stahluntersatz	119
Panther- Betonsockel	63

The procedure for constructing a turret, the army chose a tactical correct position, the Festungs Pionier Stab send a specialist to look at the practical side of the chosen location and he could decide otherwise by soil or soil conditions. Finally, as the location and construction was clear, the Organization Todt build the structure through subcontractors.