Kazemat, Batterij a/d Overeindseweg met inundatiekanaal/annexe werken Nieuwegein

English translation

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Description

Cluster 52. Cast-steel domed casemate type G with waiting room.

NEW HOLLANDIC WATERLINE

Introduction

CAST-STEEL DOMED CASEMATE TYPE G WITH WAITING ROOM as an accessory defence component added during the Interbellum period, with trench systems, group shelters and the like, of which only a few specimens remain. The specimen at the Battery on the Overeindseweg north served to defend the inundated terrain in front of it. The casemate was stripped of its cast-steel dome during the occupation; only a concrete block remains in which the dome was mounted. In 1936, as a supplement to the reinforced concrete casemate, the so-called cast-steel domed casemate was introduced in the Netherlands, which was based on a system already applied in France in 1917. The armoured domes used were small in size (favourable regarding visibility and hit probability), round in shape (favourable regarding strength and deflection of hits), relatively simple to produce in series, and they had an 'external' firing opening (favourable regarding gases and sound). Moreover, they could be manufactured in the Netherlands, which significantly reduced dependence on foreign countries. An initial order of 100 units in the Netherlands (from DEMKA) was followed by a second order of 50 units from the Belgian Soc. Anonyme John Cockerill. In total, over 700 must have been cast in a short time, but only a few of these remain. The cast-steel domes, 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 domes were placed in standard Domed Casemates Type G. Shortly before the beginning of the Second World War, so-called Domed Casemates Type G were erected at various locations in the Dutch lines, particularly in the IJssel line, the Maas line, the Grebbe line (each approximately 150) and the New Hollandic Waterline (approximately 80, in a reinforced version of 14 centimetre thickness). The usual construction of reinforced concrete with one or more fixed firing ports was hereby abandoned in favour of a system that possessed a variable firing direction (up to 270°) within a cast-steel cylinder with domed roof. Standard Domed Casemates in the NHW were equipped with a heavy machine gun as armament. Standard domed casemates were employed, among other uses, to defend 'new or improved accesses', that is to say at locations where new (motor)roads or electrification of railways had been planned or realised. The front side could be provided with an earth covering and camouflage. Domed Casemates type G were usually approachable and accessible via trenches; in the vicinity group shelters type P usually lay. During the Second World War, the vast majority of domes inland were dismantled from the casemates by the occupier - partly by demolition - with the aim of recasting them for other steel requirements. At the coast they were partly incorporated into the defences, but were often still dismantled after the war. As a result, complete domed casemates are rare; they are certainly still to be found at the Fort at Vechten and there is also a specimen at the Fort at Rijnauwen. The concrete structures in which they were placed are more frequently found - but usually in damaged form.

Description

CAST-STEEL DOMED CASEMATE TYPE G WITH WAITING ROOM of a type of which specimens were built at various locations in the Dutch lines shortly before the beginning of the Second World War. The usual construction of reinforced concrete with one or more fixed firing ports was hereby abandoned in favour of a system that possessed a firing direction variable within certain limits (up to 270°), within a cast-steel cylinder with domed roof. Cast-steel Domed Casemates could, among other things, be equipped with a heavy machine gun as armament. The casemate was stripped of its cast-steel dome during the occupation; only a concrete block remains in which the dome was mounted, with - as a very rarely occurring addition - a waiting room. What remains of the Cast-steel Domed Casemate type G is a relatively low, almost square, concrete base approximately 17.80 x 10.80 x 5.25 m (w x d x h), with at the level of the space hollowed out in it for the dome a surface sloping backwards. At the rear an indentation in the concrete with access and narrow passage around the waiting room, a large, transversely placed, steel cylinder with behind it the dome to be able to be entered.

Valuation

The CAST-STEEL DOMED CASEMATE TYPE G WITH WAITING ROOM at the Battery on the Overeindseweg North is of general interest by reason of:

* Cultural-historical values as a component of the New Hollandic Waterline 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 over approximately 125 years.

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of military-strategic building practices, which are based on the system of: a. the system of inundation and access defence (19th and 20th centuries), b. the competition with increasingly strengthened offensive means (20th century), c. the system of 'living' field fortification in depth (20th century).

This concerns here a very rare component from the period 1939-1940, namely a reinforced concrete remainder of a standard Cast-steel Domed Casemate Type G with waiting room.

* Ensemble value and situational values as a component of the New Hollandic Waterline in general and by reason of the mutual functional, functionally-spatial and physical coherence with the other components of the complex and with the access of the Overeindseweg.

* The component is representative (characteristic) because it is recognisable as a component of a dispersed defence line and as defence of an inundated terrain added to the existing defence system.

* The component is reasonably well preserved because multiple physical characteristics, despite deliberate, partial dismantling of the casemates, have remained recognisably present.