Charlottenlund Fort

Back to my trip to Europe now.  This was our 'home' for 4 nights - a campsite in a fort!  Charlottenlund Fort was built in the 1880s to help protect Copenhagen from dodgy foreigners.  Given how easily I got in it's not working well.

The fort still has it's full complement of 12 305mm guns which were

 installed when it was remodelled in 1911-12

As camping spots go, this one was pretty surreal!

Some later steel and concrete.

Fort Thüngen

From Diekirch we caught a train for the 45 minute journey into Luxembourg City. First stop was Fort Thüngen  - formerly an artillery fort which formed part of the city’s defences, it is now a well-stocked museum.

Above and below -  fortress guns c1840. 

19th century light field gun. 

A large diorama which uses 1/72 figures to depict the retreat of the Austrians following the fall of the city in 1795.

 I was rather pleased with this sinister shot of Dr. Guillotin’s finest.

 A fine 3D diorama of the city fortifications lives under a glazed floor.

 The museum contains several fine paintings. This is the Battle of Thionville, 1639.

Detail from ‘General Hatry at the siege of Luxembourg in 1795’.

Going through the Mill

I have a load of photos from a trip to the Netherlands last September - here are the first of them.  The small town of Mill lies a few km south of Nijmegen and was the scene of a 2-day battle in 1940

This pillbox was part of the Peel-Raam Line built in 1939.

This particular bunker contains mannequins in Dutch uniforms crewing a machine gun.

Not all of the dummies were inside....

Nearby is a relic from a slightly later campaign - a splendid Ram Kangaroo.

Atlantikwall - European Road Trip day 9

Just west of Ostend (but not as far west as Westende) is a lovely stretch of Atlantikwall.  

Next door is a German coastal battery dating from the Great War but when we visited it was being renovated.  Which gives me an excuse to go back...

Unlike many such lumps of Atlantikwall, this one is well preserved (one careful owner, never assaulted) and still fitted out with many of the original toys.  Like this rather nice PAK40.  

I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

Read all of this - it's worth it!

A very dangerous thing.  And a big bomb.

There is a good display of beach obstacles.

A Belgian gun - under new management as a 12cm K370(b).  Actually it's a replica but it looks good.

A 105mm U-Boat gun.

Several of the bunkers contain these well-equipped mannequins.  In some museums these can be rather cringe-worthy but here they are very well done.  I think the chap second in from the left looks a lot like Martin R.

This was the Commandant's house - very nice too!

After a couple of hours it was time to fill up with relatively cheap Belgian diesel and head back to Zeebrugge for the ferry.  Three miles short of the terminal the mileage for the trip hit 1,000.

Coming soon - the Command Bus tours the Netherlands...