Fort, vesting en -onderdelen, Batterij a/d Overeindseweg met inundatiekanaal/annexe werken Nieuwegein

English translation

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Description

Cluster 52. Group shelters type P, foundation slabs.

NEW HOLLANDIC WATERLINE

Introduction

INCOMPLETE GROUP SHELTERS TYPE P as 20th-century, series-built, but only partly realized additions to the existing defence. Group shelters Type P were built according to more or less uniform or standard designs (especially) in the years 1939-1940 at multiple locations in the Netherlands. The total number of built examples is approximately 700, of which in the New Hollandic Waterline approximately 570; the majority (circa 400) of these still exist. The building programme of the group shelters Type P was not completed at the outbreak of the Second World War and a number of examples are known to have never been finished. Type P (also called 'the pyramid' because of its distinctive shape) is presumably the most well-known type of concrete defensive structure in the Netherlands. The type originated from the so-called VIS 77 (Voorschrift Inrichten Stellingen no. 77) of 1928 and had among other purposes the aim of forming part of the defence of a number of existing and newly created accesses, including particularly (motor)ways. The group shelter Type P usually came into being in the immediate vicinity of already existing or contemporaneously realized casemates, gun emplacements, fortifications or trenches. Because the trenches and other (earthwork) structures were later almost everywhere levelled or demolished, the concrete shelters nowadays sometimes lie partly below ground level. The from ancient times completely closed front or face side of the group shelters Type P was in many cases covered by earthworks which could form part of a glacis for the protection of the trench or a covered way. These earthworks are now mostly no longer present or scarcely recognizable, but particularly on forts or in otherwise undulating terrain they are sometimes still present. Numerous examples of Type P were built in inundatable areas, in a number of cases with a still visible pile foundation; in others a projecting foundation slab all around or also a trough against inundation water is visible. Within the complex Battery aan de Overeindseweg group shelters Type P were also envisaged, but these were never completed / realized. Thus along the inundation canal there lie two foundation slabs of group shelters Type P.

Description

The two INCOMPLETE GROUP SHELTERS TYPE P both consist of rectangular, reinforced concrete blocks of approximately 6 x 7.50 m. The characteristic concrete covering which gave such structures the nickname pyramid is not yet applied. The concrete blocks lie due west of the Inundation Canal along the east side of the Battery aan de Overeindseweg.

Valuation

The two INCOMPLETE GROUP SHELTERS TYPE P at the Battery aan de Overeindseweg are of general importance because of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the New Hollandic Waterline as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially from 1815 realized 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 building technique, which is based on: a. the system of inundation and access defence (20th century), b. the race with increasingly strengthening offensive means (20th century), c. the system of 'living' field fortification in depth (20th century).

This concerns incomplete components from the period 1939-1940, namely ground slabs for reinforced concrete group shelters (Type P / Pyramid).

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

* The components are representative (characteristic) because they are clearly recognizable as incomplete components of a deconcentrated defence line added to the existing fortification system.

* The components as incomplete elements are reasonably well preserved and can be recognized relatively well as built components in the field.