Tankhindernis, Kleizuwe 's-Graveland (Wijdemeren 27)

English translation

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Description

Cluster 14.

NEW HOLLAND WATERLINE Introduction

REMAINS OF TANK BARRIER as a relic of an obstacle erected shortly before the Second World War on and in the Vreelandseweg to hinder (armoured) vehicles. The practice of erecting obstacles to impede or delay the advance of enemy troops has a long history. Important artificial obstacles have long included ditches, waterlines, felled trees and disabled bridges. With the rise of mechanical (such as the steam engine) and motorised (armoured vehicles and tanks) means of transport, even heavier materials were deployed, including steel and (reinforced) concrete barriers. One of the systems employed from the mid-1930s onwards consisted of diagonally upright and pointed steel (H-) profile beams, which not only greatly impeded the passage of such vehicles, but could also cause them heavy damage. Such obstacles were composed of one (Type I) or two rows (Type II) of beams. Tank obstacles were usually constructed from interconnected systems of barriers, in which, besides water (e.g. anti-tank ditches or inundations), concrete and steel structures (the tank barriers) also slowed down progress. On the eve of the Second World War, the Dutch army made use of anti-tank ditches and concrete blocks with steel profile beams in the New Holland Waterline, among other things. The number of tank barriers erected in the New Holland Waterline is not known; around the year 2000 approximately 10 were still recognisably present, of which 1 was complete. The barrier in the Vreelandseweg is only partly visible because the structure partly lies beneath the paving, while the flanking hedgehog obstacles in the verges have been sawn off. In the verge at the bottom of the road embankment, near the block, there is also a paved area and slightly to the west of the block is a concrete staircase.

Description

REMAINS OF TANK BARRIER built according to a design that was standardised in its main outlines. The heavy concrete block, more than half a metre thick, which forms the base of the tank barrier, has a passage width of approximately 3.50 m and blocked the Vreelandseweg over the full road and embankment profile (approximately 35 m). The barrier block originally contained two rows of sleeves in which pointed steel I-profiles could be placed, which in operational condition could be anchored and then pointed diagonally in an easterly direction. In peacetime the sleeves were closed by means of rectangular covers. The barrier is nowadays largely worked into the road surface, but on either side of it the structure is still recognisably present.

Valuation

The REMAINS OF TANK BARRIER in the Vreelandseweg are of general importance because of:

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

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of military-strategic architecture, which is based on:

a. the system of inundation and access defence (19th and 20th centuries),

b. the arms race with increasingly powerful offensive means (19th and 20th centuries)

c. the system of 'living' field fortification in depth (20th century)

This is a component from the period 1935-1940 that is an example of a remnant of a reinforced concrete, cast iron and steel barrier specially erected for defence against assault vehicles and / or tanks, which formed part of a linear obstacle consisting further of an adjacent inundation zone.

* Ensemble value and situational values as part of the New Holland Waterline. Also because of the functional and physical coherence with the other components of the complex.

* The component has become rare and is representative because the barrier has remained recognisably present in its physical context.

* The component has been reasonably well preserved because both the concrete mass and part of the construction and the possible applications in situ have remained observable and recognisable.