Fort, vesting en -onderdelen, Vossegatsedijk 3

English translation

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Description

Cluster 40.

Introduction

CAST-STEEL CUPOLA CASEMATE TYPE G, added as a component to the existing fort shortly before the Second World War. In 1936, as a supplement to the reinforced concrete casemate, the so-called cast-steel cupola casemate was introduced in the Netherlands, which was based on a system already applied in France in 1917. The armoured cupolas used were small in size (favourable with regard to visibility and hit probability), circular in form (favourable with regard to strength and deflecting hits), relatively simple to produce in series, and they had an 'external' firing port (favourable with regard to gases and sound). 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, more than 700 must have been cast in a short time, but only a few have survived. The cast-steel cupolas, with a diameter of 1.75 m and thicknesses of 10-14 centimetres, were installed in multiple casemate types with resistance classes W 12-15 and W 21-28. Most cupolas were placed in Standard Cupola Casemates Type G. Shortly before the beginning of the Second World War, so-called Cupola Casemates Type G were constructed at various locations in the Dutch lines, notably in the IJssel line, the Maas line, the Grebbe line (each approximately 150) and the New Holland Water Line (approximately 80, in a reinforced version of 14 centimetre thickness). The usual construction of reinforced concrete with one or more fixed firing ports was abandoned in favour of a system that possessed 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. Standard cupola casemates were applied, among other things, to the defence of 'new or improved accesses', that is to say at locations where new (motor) roads or electrification of railways were planned or realised. The front side could be provided with an earth covering and camouflage. Cupola Casemates type G were usually accessible and reachable via trenches; in the vicinity were usually group shelters type P. During the Second World War, the vast majority of cupolas in the interior were demolished by the occupier from the casemates - partly by blowing up - with the aim of recasting them for other steel requirements. On the coast they were partly incorporated into the defence, but were often still demolished after the war. As a result, complete cupola casemates are rare; they are in any case still found at the Fort near Vechten and there is also an example at the Fort near Rijnauwen. The concrete structures in which they were placed occur more frequently - but usually in damaged form. The example at the Fort near Rijnauwen had, among other functions, the defence of the accesses of the Houtense Vlakte and the Kromme Rijn.

Description

CAST-STEEL CUPOLA CASEMATE TYPE G from 1939-1940, on the north-eastern part of the main rampart of the fort, as one of the few surviving examples of this type where the cupola is still present in the concrete block. The cast-steel cupola was damaged in 1945 by shooting practice by Canadian military personnel. The cast-steel cupola casemate type G was built according to a standardised design and consists of a cast-steel cupola which is anchored in a reinforced concrete work. Unlike at virtually all other locations where they were applied in the New Holland Water Line (and elsewhere in the Netherlands), the cupola and the steel closing door of the casemate at the Fort near Rijnauwen were not removed, making this example considerably more complete than most others. The cupolas are man-high, with a diameter of 1.75 metres and a wall thickness of 0.14 metres. On the front side - to protect the weapon - a projecting section around the firing port was cast in, and on the gorge side there is an entrance closable by a steel shutter. In the NHW the armament consisted standardly of a heavy machine gun, which is nowhere present anymore. The concrete work consists of a relatively low rectangular block (approximately 7.00 x 6.50 x 3.00 m; w x d x h), with at the height of the cupola recessed in it a rearward-sloping surface. This bevelled section on the front side was to achieve maximum field of fire and to allow hits from enemy fire to ricochet. The height above ground level is now usually much less than 3 m. At the rear, at the entrance to the cupola, there is a recess in the concrete to allow the cupola to be entered. The firing port and access to the casemate could be sealed from inside in a 'gas-proof' manner.

Valuation

The CAST-STEEL CUPOLA CASEMATE Type G at the Fort near Rijnauwen is of general interest because of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the New Holland Water Line as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially from 1815 realised by him, Jan Blanken and Major-Engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently strengthened and improved by others for approximately 125 years.

* Military-historical values as part of a continuous military defensive line between the former Zuiderzee and the Biesbosch. This consisted mainly of a coherent system of inundation fields and associated inundation facilities and fields of fire. This system was supplemented with various types of constructed or established (defensive) works dating from different periods which served to or contributed to the closure of non-inundatable terrains or other accesses.

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of military-strategic architecture, which is based on the system of: - the system of inundation and access defence (19th and 20th centuries), - the race with increasingly strengthening offensive means (20th century), - the system of 'living' field fortification in depth (20th century).

This concerns a component from the period 1939-1940, namely a completely preserved standard cast-steel cupola casemate.

* Ensemble value and situational values as part of the New Holland Water Line in general and because of the mutual functional, functionally-spatial and physical coherence with the other components of the complex and with the accesses of the Houtense Vlakte and the Kromme Rijn.

* The component is rare because it is one of the few complete examples of this type of work and is representative (characteristic) because it is clearly recognisable as a component added later to the existing fortification system and because it has been clearly recognisably preserved on the fort.

* The component is reasonably well preserved because important physical characteristics, including in particular the cast-steel cupola and the steel door, have remained clearly recognisable and present in situ.