Kazemat, Budapestlaan bij 17

English translation

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Description

Cluster 39.

Introduction

CAST STEEL CUPOLA CASEMATES TYPE G, as a component added to the existing fort shortly before the Second World War. Only concrete remains are still present. In 1936, the so-called cast steel cupola casemate was introduced in the Netherlands as a supplement to the reinforced concrete casemate, which was based on a system already applied in France in 1917. The armour cupolas used were small in size (favourable in relation to visibility and hit probability), circular in form (favourable in relation to strength and deflection of hits), relatively simple to produce in series and they had an 'external' firing opening (favourable in relation to gases and noise). Moreover, they could be manufactured in the Netherlands, which significantly reduced dependence on foreign countries. A first order of 100 pieces in the Netherlands (from DEMKA) was followed by a second of 50 pieces from the Belgian Soc. Anonyme John Cockerill. In total, over 700 must have been cast in a short time, but only a few remain. The cast steel cupolas, with a diameter of 1.75 metres and thicknesses of 10-14 centimetres, were installed in multiple casemate types with resistance classes W 12-15 to W 21-28. Shortly before the start of the Second World War, so-called Cupola Casemates Type G were constructed at various places in the Dutch lines, in particular in the IJssellinie, the Maaslinie, the Grebbelinie (each approximately 150) and the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie (approximately 80) in a heavy design. The usual construction of reinforced concrete with one or more fixed gun openings was thereby abandoned in favour of a system that had a firing direction projectable within variable limits (up to 270°), within a cast steel cylinder with cupola roof. Standard Cupola Casemates in the NHW were equipped with a heavy machine gun as armament. Most cupolas were placed in Standard Cupola Casemates Type G. Standard cupola casemates were applied among other things to the defence of 'new or improved accesses', that is to say at places where new (motor) roads or electrification of railways were planned or realised. The front side could be provided with an earth covering and camouflage. The cupola casemates type G were usually accessible and approachable via communication trenches; in the vicinity usually lay group shelters type P. During the Second World War, the vast majority of cupolas in the interior were dismantled from the casemates by the occupier - partly by blasting - with the aim of recasting them for other steel needs. On the coast they were partly incorporated into the defence, but were often demolished after the war. As a result, complete cupola casemates are rare; they are in any case still found at Fort Vechten. The concrete structures in which they were placed occur more frequently - but usually in damaged form.

Description

CAST-IRON CUPOLA CASEMATE Type G from 1939-1940, on the southeastern part of the rampart of the work. The specimen on the Werk aan de Hoofddijk was blown up during the Second World War and stripped of its cast-iron cupola and other metal components. The gun opening in the cupola formed a rounded rectangular 'eyebrow' of 14 centimetres thickness, which protruded some decimetres beyond the cupola and provided protection for the heavy machine gun installed inside it. On the Werk aan de Hoofddijk, only a concrete platform or socle remains on which the cupola was fixed. The remainder of the standard cast-iron cupola casemate type G is a relatively low, nearly square concrete socle (approximately 7.00 x 6.50 x 3.00 metres; w x d x h), with at the level of the recessed cupola a surface sloping backwards which was intended, among other things, to deflect any enemy direct hits. The height above ground level is often much less than 3 metres. On the rear side, at the entrance to the cupola, a recess in the concrete was made to allow the cupola to be entered. Both the gun opening and the access to the casemate, which was located in a recess behind the cupola, could be sealed 'gas-tight' from inside, but this door is no longer present.

Valuation

CAST-IRON CUPOLA CASEMATE TYPE G is of general interest on account of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially realised from 1815 onwards by him, Jan Blanken and Major-engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently strengthened and improved by others over approximately 125 years.

* Military-historical values as part of a continuous military defence line between the former Zuiderzee and the Biesbosch. This consisted principally of an interconnected system of inundation fields and associated inundation works and of shooting fields. This system was supplemented with various types of built or constructed (defence) works dating from different periods which served or contributed to the closure of terrain unsuitable for inundation or other accesses.

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of military-strategic building construction, which is based - on the system of inundation and access defence (nineteenth and twentieth centuries), - on the competition with increasingly powerful offensive means (twentieth century) - and on the system of 'living' field fortification in depth (twentieth century).

This concerns a component from the period 1939-1940, namely the reinforced concrete remnant of a standard cast-iron cupola casemate.

Ensemble value and situational values as part of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie in general and on account of the mutual functional, functionally-spatial and physical coherence with the remaining components of the complex.

The component is representative (characteristic) because it is clearly recognisable as a component added later to the existing fortification system and because it has also remained clearly recognisable as such on the fort.

The component is reasonably well-preserved because important physical characteristics have remained recognisable despite deliberate partial dismantling.