Just spent the weekend at a friends Dacha near the River Bug which separates Poland from Russia.Now a beautiful peaceful spot but in the fields around it I found 3 german bunkers. The one nearest the river had it’s side blown out but the other two were still in one piece. I managed to prise a few pieces of reinforced concrete from the destroyed one and may try to incorporate them into a diorama. About a mile away is a four story high Command and control bunker I presume. A huge thing which is slowly sinking into the soft soil. It was leaning at about the same as the Tower of Pisa but otherwise complete.Hard to imagine the Hell that was going on there 60 years ago. The night was creepy imagining all those ghosts.The *&%#@ Frogs made sleep a little hard despite the BBQ and Vodka. History sometimes jumps up and bites you.
Frogs…not french i hope…lol
Got any pictures? That must have been pretty eerie.
“It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it.”-R.E.Lee
Yeah, Jim - did you take any pictures? Sounds amazing.
Cheers,
LeeTree
Jim:
My dad was in the RCAF and we spent 4 years in Zweibrucken in the late 50’s. It was right on the seigfried line and there were many bunkers around there as well. We’d play in them all the time despite warnings not to. At that time there was still quite a lot of unexploded ordnance lying around, as well as other souvenirs in the fields and woods. Great place when you were 10 or so years old, but time puts a different perspective on things now.
This was right around the Cuban missile crisis and I remember air raid drills, keeping a certain amount of food on hand, but by and large we kids were shielded from the political realities of the time.
It is interesting to look back now, some 40 years on, and realize the history that was swarming all around.
Bruce
I wish I had taken a camera but as usual you never have one when you need one. It was not something I was expecting to find or I would have definitely brought camera and Hammer and chisel. To have piece to go with my chunk of Berlin Wall. Thats another story.
Jim:
Definitely something to tell your kids …
Bruce
The amount of history lying around the European countryside is amazing. There is something around every corner. Too bad you didn’t get any pics, but sounds like some neat memories.