Fort, vesting en -onderdelen, Betonnen werken en sluis Lekkanaal Nieuwegein

English translation

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Description

Cluster 53. Cast steel dome casemate.

NEW HOLLANDIC WATERLINE

Introduction

CAST STEEL DOME CASEMATE TYPE G WITH WAITING CHAMBER as an Interbellum addition to the linear and access defence, with trench systems, group shelters and the like. The specimen at the Lek Canal served as defence of the inundation terrain in front, the eastern Lek Canal dike and the sluice works. The casemate was stripped of the cast steel dome during the occupation; only a concrete block remains in which the dome was mounted. The concrete block is entirely worked into a soil layer.

In 1936, the so-called cast steel dome casemate was introduced in the Netherlands as a supplement to the reinforced concrete casemate, which was based on a system already applied in France in 1917. The armour domes used were small in size (favourable with regard to visibility and hit probability), round in shape (favourable with regard to strength and deflecting hits), relatively simple to produce in series and they had an 'external' gun opening (favourable with regard to gases and sound). Moreover, they could be manufactured in the Netherlands, which greatly reduced dependence on foreign countries. A first order of 100 pieces in the Netherlands (at DEMKA) was followed by a second of 50 pieces at 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 domes, with a diameter of 1.75 m and thicknesses of 10-17 centimetres, were installed in multiple casemate types with resistance classes W 12-15 and W 21-28. Most domes were placed in Standard Dome Casemates Type G. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, so-called Dome Casemates Type G were built at various locations in the Dutch lines, in particular 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 centimetres thickness). The usual construction of reinforced concrete with one or more fixed gun ports was abandoned in favour of a system that had a firing direction to be projected within variable limits (up to 270°), within a cast steel cylinder with dome roof. Standard Dome Casemates in the NHW were equipped with a heavy machine gun as armament. Standard dome casemates were applied inter alia to defend 'new or improved access routes', 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 cover and camouflage. Dome Casemates Type G were usually approachable and accessible via trenches; in the vicinity there were usually group shelters Type P. During the Second World War, the vast majority of domes in the interior were dismantled by the occupier from the casemates - partly by blowing up - with the aim of recasting them for other steel requirements. At the coast they were partly incorporated into the defence, but were often demolished again after the war. As a result, complete dome casemates are rare; they are in any case still found at the Fort at Vechten and there is also a specimen at the Fort at Rijnauwen. The concrete constructions in which they were placed are more common - but usually in damaged form.

Description

CAST STEEL DOME CASEMATE TYPE G WITH WAITING CHAMBER of a type of which specimens were built at various locations in the Dutch lines shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. The usual construction of reinforced concrete with one or more fixed gun openings was abandoned in favour of a system that had a firing direction to be projected within variable limits (up to 270°), within a cast steel cylinder with dome roof. Cast Steel Dome Casemates could be equipped inter alia with a heavy machine gun as armament. The casemate was stripped of the cast steel dome during the occupation; What remains of the Cast Steel Dome Casemate Type G is a relatively low, concrete base approximately 17.80 x 10.80 x 5.25 m (w x d x h), with at the height of the space excavated in it for the dome a backward sloping surface. At the rear an excavation in the concrete with access and narrow corridor around the waiting chamber, a large, transversely placed, steel cylinder with the dome behind it to be able to enter. The casemate is, in accordance with the design, completely incorporated in the dike body of the eastern Lek Canal dike.

Valuation

The CAST STEEL DOME CASEMATE TYPE G WITH WAITING CHAMBER along the Lek Canal north of the sluice of the Schalkwijkse Wetering is 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 realised by him, Jan Blanken and major-engineer Willem Offerhaus and thereafter strengthened and improved by others for approximately 125 years.

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

This is a rare component from the period 1939-1940, namely a reinforced concrete remnant of a standard Cast Steel Dome Casemate Type G with waiting chamber.

* Ensemble value and situational values as part of the New Hollandic Waterline in general and because of the mutual functional, functionally-spatial and physical coherence with the other components of the complex and with the access of the Lek Canal.

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