Lets have a thread on post-industrial fortifications. I find

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>>32713218

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geschichtsspuren.de%2Fartikel%2Fverkehrsgeschichte%2F135-sperren-wallmeister.html&act=url

Cold war era West Germany obstacles

>>32713343
got to love this. Everyfucking bridge, highway, channel or other shit was fitted with obstacles and some are until today

>>32713343
>Cold war era West Germany obstacles
If you want to look at modern defenses and obstacles then look at Switzerland.

>>32713343
nice

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>>32713218
Related indeed.

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The Hungarians fortified the fuck out of the Carpathians back in WW2. But then the Romanians changed sides and the Soviets just went around.

>>32713401
theirs aren't newer than the ones in Germany

>>32714803

>and the Soviets just went around

This seems to be the historical norm when it comes to these highly fortified defensive barriers... your enemies will just go around them.

>>32714877
>>32714803
Yet it was one of the fortifications what holded somepoints the enemy pretty long, it was not captured, because the hungarians retreated.
Anyways it was only bunker line, some mines, bared wire trenches... and tanktrenches..

>>32713218
i'll take "large stationary targets" for $400, alex

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>>32715667

Hungary performed pretty well in WW2 compared to what little resources they had available.

>>32713401
This
Plus we had all tunnels and bridges weired up
And if you ever have been here you know how many of them we have.

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Maxim Gorky Fortresses I&II which each featured two 305mm batteries overlooking Sevastopol and its harbor (Crimean Campaign) from the north and south west. They were only part of the coastal defenses but proved to be more than a nuisance for the Germans, their siege at times involving many self propelled guns, two Karl 615mm mortars, the 800mm Dora rail gun and requiring ~7-8 months to disable in order to capture Sevastopol from the point they first fired their guns in anger.

After WW2 the positions were rebuilt and modernized at some point, supposedly remaining operable to this day. The Wikipedia article states that battery 35 was rebuilt and converted into a museum but if you navigate to the location of battery 30 there is a museum there as well.

>"With German tanks shelling command center from the distance just 300 meters situation became inconvenient enough. But then earth trembled and we heard enormous explosion. I climbed out from the trench and couldn't see German tank, which stood in front of us just moments before. Now nothing was there. Only earth and unrecognizable debris were still falling down. Soon we were told that Alexander's battery opened fire".
http://www.allworldwars.com/The%20History%20of%20Maxim%20Gorky-I%20Naval%20Battery.html
Really cool article includes a brief account of the artillery duel between the forts and Karl pieces.
>Despite Karls' well-thought tactics of firing simultaneously with other German batteries, careful positioning in the 30th battery's "dead zone", behind the crest of the hill, and exceptionally good camouflage, they were eventually betrayed by unusually bright muzzle flashes and signature "clearing throat" sound of the firing blast. ...

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Hungary's Southern Border Defense System, early 1950's. Was constructed to support the invasion against Tito's Jugoslavia which would have taken place during the inevitable clash between the evil imperialist/fascist lackeys of Wall Street and the valiant liberators who freed Europe and its suffering working class from the yoke of Hitlerism.

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It was never completed, construction was abandoned after the death of Stalin and the normalization of Soviet-Yugoslavian relations.

>>32716093
Battleship sized cannons in heavily armored turrets and casemates are fucking glorious.

Here's hoping The Wall gets some.

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Przemsyl. The Verdun of the Russian Front.

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The legendary Fort Drum at the mouth of Manila Bay, Philippines.
Surrendered to the Japanese after a four month siege. The American forces in attempting to retake the fort, instead of partaking in a prolonged siege, boarded the fort with infantry and engineers and proceeded to fill it with diesel fuel and gasoline. After igniting the mixture with a bomb fuse the fort burned for five days and interior conditions remained too hostile for a further two weeks before an examination could be performed. The fort's remains currently stand derelict at the entrance to the harbor.

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>>32713218
>Builds massive defensive line
>enemies just fucking go around
>mfw

>>32716312
Hey, Belgium was supposed to have its own line that filled that gap.

Fucking cheap ass Belgians ruining Europe. Some things never change.

>>32716307

>trapped in a concrete building
>being filled with gas and diesel
>they're going to ignite it eventually

how horrifying

>>32716362

Belgium didn't do it because any building of fortifications would have ruined their neutrality position

They ended up building fortifications on both borders because they were concerned about being invaded by France in case France wanted to invade Germany through Belgium

Basically it just sucks to be Belgium

>>32716399
It is but it seems like a far better option than trying to enter and fight for every inch of every room from people who will not surrender it. It's like a small scale version of why the US nuked Japan.

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Here are some websites about the maginot line, with multiple languages available on each.
http://lignemaginot.com (lots of information)
http://www.maginot-hackenberg.com (virtual visit)
http://www.lignemaginot.fr (nice pics of preserved equipment)

Fun fact: Iran has the best fortifications currently. Since it's a very seismic region, they excel at that kind architecture and making solid concrete, resulting in (accoding to military intelligence estimation) stuff that's up to five times more resilientfor equivalent thickness compared to the rest of the world.

>>32714877
That's the point usually. Unless you can have a full defensive belt around all your strategic points, you try to lock as much land as possible with a minimal amount of troops, to force the enemy to fight you elsewhere, if possible ona terrain of your choosing.

>>32715988
I like how well camouflaged they are. Guns emerging from sheds or iron trees, doors undistinguishable from rock...

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>>32716399
>horrifying
Undoubtedly.

>>32716413
>Belgium didn't do it because any building of fortifications would have ruined their neutrality position
Bullshit. They had pretty impressive fortifications at Liège and Eben Emael.
The only reason the Germans could just rush through is that the forts were unprepared for paratroop attack.

>>32716413
Eben-Emael being taken by a handful of pioneers in gliders wasn't Belgium's greatest hour.
But it helps to have a couple secret weapons under your belt when you start a war, like the german did with shaped charges, jerrycans and magnetic mines.

>>32714803
Are there remnants of that wall to see today ? Wife is from that Ungvar town, so it might be a nice visit some time.

>>32717753
Probably. There's all kinds of that shit abandoned in eastern Europe.

>The Soviets built the bunker during the Cold War to store nuclear weapons, sinking it below ground and planting trees on top as camouflage. Eventually a massive colony of wood ants took up residence in the soil over the bunker. There was just one problem: the ants built their nest directly over a vertical ventilation pipe. When the metal covering on the pipe finally rusted away, it left a dangerous, open hole. Every year when the nest expands, thousands of worker ants fall down the pipe and cannot climb back out. The survivors have nevertheless carried on for years underground, building a nest from soil and maintaining it in typical wood ant fashion. Except, of course, that this situation is far from normal.

>The wood-ant ‘colony’ described here – although superficially looking like a functioning colony with workers teeming on the surface of the mound – is rather an example of survival of a large amount of workers trapped within a hostile environment in total darkness, with constantly low temperatures and no ample supply of food. The continued survival of the ‘colony’ through the years is dependent on new workers falling in through the ventilation pipe. The supplement of workers more than compensates for the mortality rate of workers such that through the years the bunker workforce has grown to the level of big, mature natural colonies.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/09/bizarre-ant-colony-discovered-in-an-abandoned-polish-nuclear-weapons-bunker/