Tankhindernis, Werk aan het Spoel Culemborg

English translation

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Description

Cluster 503.

NEW HOLLAND WATERLINE

Introduction

CONCRETE BLOCK OF TANK BARRIER as part of access defence in the Zuidelijke Lekdijk / Goilberdingerdijk, east of the Werk aan het Spoel. The erection of obstacles to hinder or delay the advance of enemy troops has a long history. Important artificial obstacles were traditionally among others ditches, water lines, felled trees and disabled bridges. With the rise of mechanical (such as the steam train) and motorised (armoured vehicles and tanks) means of transport, even heavier material was deployed, including steel and (reinforced) concrete barriers. One of the systems applied from the middle of the 1930s onwards consisted of obliquely upright and pointed, steel (H-) section beams, which not only greatly hampered the passage of such vehicles, but could also cause heavy damage to them. Such obstacles could be assembled from one (Type I) or two rows (Type II) of section beams. Tank obstacles were usually constructed from interconnected systems of barriers, in which besides water (including in particular anti-tank ditches) concrete and steel constructions (the actual tank barriers) also slowed progress. Another well-known obstacle was the tetrahedron - a moveable triangular concrete block (also a steel construction), which could be applied in groups at control posts and bridges. The Dutch army made use of anti-tank ditches and concrete blocks with steel section beams in the New Holland Waterline on the eve of the Second World War. The number of tank barriers installed in the Holland Waterline is unknown; around the year 2000 there were still 9 recognisable ones present, of which 1 complete. In the following years a few (again) were found and added to this number. Within the complex Werk aan het Spoel, one exemplar is recognisable more than 200 m east of the Werk. The most clearly visible remains lie on the south side of the Goilberdingerdijk at approximately 100 m west of no. 39. The barrier also extends under adjoining grassland, where it manifests itself among other things through discolourations in the grass.

Description

CONCRETE BLOCK OF TANK BARRIER which between the inundation zone of the polder in front and the southern outer embankment of the Lek, not or scarcely accessible to heavy traffic, was placed in the road surface on the Lek dike. The barrier dates from shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. The barrier consists of a (going with the slope and continuing into the meadow) cast concrete block in which (the traces and / or remains of) rectangular, cast-iron covers occur. Because of later asphalting of the road surface, a part is now not visible; the block probably also extends to the north side of the dike, but is less clearly visible there.

Valuation

The CONCRETE BLOCK OF TANK BARRIER east of the Werk aan het Spoel is of general interest 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 over approximately 125 years.

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

This concerns a component from the period 1935-1940 which is an example of a remainder of a reinforced concrete, cast-iron and steel barrier specially laid out for defence against assault vehicles and / or tanks, which formed part of a linear obstacle consisting further of an 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 relatively rare and is representative because the barrier has remained recognisable in its physical context.

* The component is reasonably well preserved because both the concrete mass and an (important) part of the construction and of the application possibilities are observable and recognisable in situ.