Siegfriedline / Westwall website

Panzerwerk Katzenkopf

Contact: Tel: 06525-492 Fax: 06525-79146 E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Open: from april till october 3th only at sunday - 14:00hr -17:00hr. Excursions, groups possible at other dates and times, mail... Temperature in Bunker: 10c !

For the protection of ist territory, Germany started in the year the 1936 (officially in 1938) the construction of an enormous fortified line along its westem borders. This line reached from the border-area of Basel (Switzerland) up to Kleve (Germany, lower Rhine area) and was 630 km long. They called it the "Westwall". Of the 22.000 forts, bunkers and pillboxes planned, 14.800 were constructed, among them 32 forts of the type "B", with 2m thick concrete walls.
At Irrel, 2 forts of this type, the "Katzenkopf" and the "Nimsberg", were built as northern stronghold of the "Westwall", tasked to secure the important Road-axis Luxembourg - Cologne. Both of the upper floors were originally divided into 45 rooms of varied sizes. These were the troop quarters for the crew of 84, guard rooms, gunnery rooms, first-aid station, lavatories, ammunition supply, cold storage chamber, canteen, kitchen, as well as telephone controll and radio station. More than 60 electric motors for the ventilation system, the water pump, the heating and the lighting were supplied by electricity produced by two diesel-engine generators. The fort itself and ist immediate area could be defended by several firing postions to include two gun-turrets with 6 firing- holes for 2 sMG34 each, a 50mm grenade-thrower and a flamethrower. The artillery and infantry watch-turrent was used for the all'round observation and the shooting commands. On the fourth and deepest floor are two large galleries totalling 138 m of legth. One leads to the waterpump-room installed over a 180 meter deep well, the other to the remote gun-turret.

source : http://www.westwallmuseum-irrel.de/

Begleitend zur Ausstellung empfehlen wir Ihnen das Buch: "Beiträge zur Geschichte des Bitburger Landes", Band 14, "Dokumentation: Westwall in der Eifel", ISSN 0939-0189 Herausgegeben vom Geschichtlichen Arbeitskreis Bitburger-Land stellt diese Broschüre die Geschichte und die Bauten des Westwalls in unserer Region auf etwa 70 Seiten mit unzähligen Fotos der Zeit, Zeitungsausschnitten, Landkarten und Bauwerksplänen ausführlich dar. Gerne schicken wir Ihnen das Buch gegen Einsendung von 7,50 Euro - auch in Briefmarken - direkt nach Hause. Nutzen Sie hierzu bitte die Möglichkeiten unserer Kontaktseite oder schreiben Sie direkt an: Tourist-Information Irrel, Hauptstraße 4, 54666 Irrel, Deutschland.

 

Bronnen

D.Bettinger/M.Buren, Der Westwall, Osnabruck, 1990.

M.Gross, Der Westwall, Keulen, 1984.

U.Papschik, Westwall behoud, Der Prumer Landbote, 26 (1990),p.60-61.

B.Quarrie, Das grosse Buch der Deutschen Heere, 1990.

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