military

02Apr

Duck and Cover

By johnAuthor /
2 Apr ’12 /
In The Abandoned Places, The Military, The Tunnels /
Last Update 2 Apr ’12 /

An underground French military command center in the heart of a massive abandoned Maginot Line fortress. From the 1950s until France’s eviction of NATO in 1967, the facility served as one of three command centers for German, French, American, and British forces, to coordinate nuclear response to an expected Warsaw Pact attack.

19Mar

Bunker Busters

By johnAuthor /
19 Mar ’12 /
In The Abandoned Places, The Military, The Tunnels /
Last Update 19 Mar ’12 /

In the 1920s, determined to avoid a repeat of the kind of slaughter witnessed in the trenches around Verdun, which bled out a good proportion of its male population, the French government established CORF, the Commission d’Organisation des Régions Fortifiées, to create an impregnable network of border fortresses facing Germany.

10Mar

The Little Bunker That Could

By johnAuthor /
10 Mar ’12 /
In The Abandoned Places, The Military, The Tunnels /
Last Update 10 Mar ’12 /

Typical of Maginot Line fortifications, this fortress consists of a long central tunnel with underground electrical railway, separate munitions and personnel entrance bunkers, repair shops, huge magazines, escape tunnels, hospitals, kitchens, command posts, and everything else required to support hundreds of combat troops in relatively sheltered comfort under prolonged direct assault.