Hitler's Teeth (Hitlertennene).

This line of anti-tank defenses was constructed by the German occupiers using POW's and forced labour, to slow a feared Allied invasion. The location was chosen because of the local topography. Folklore has it that the prisoners deliberately mixed low quality concrete which would deteriorate quickly. The line is more than two kilometers in length!







en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brusand

Hitlers Teeth.kmz (1.34 KB)

To seen at Pniewo (Poland), as a part of the Fortified Front Oder-Warthe-Bogen

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Hitlers Teeth Pniewo.kmz (911 B)

The cost of war in effort, time and materials never ceases to amaze me.  

Many years ago, my old squadron was detached to Bodo airbase in Norway, on the coast just north of the Arctic Circle, on a NATO exercise.  Having a chat with some of the Norgie groundcrew, apparently they'd had problems with the airfield infrastructure - concrete taxiways and ramps cracking up, for just that very reason;  forced-labour gangs had sabotaged the concrete when the Germans built/added to the airfield during the Occupation of Norway.  Problem was, it stood up OK during the war and it was only some 30 years later that it started to crack up! 

Similarly, POWs forced to work on the Thai-Burma Railway by the Japanese in WW2 sabotaged the wooden bridges and viaducts by shovelling termites into gaps in the timbers.

In a similar vein - we used to race sports cars on an ex-BCATP airfield.  By the 1970's grass was growing up through the concrete!  All the concrete and asphalt has now returned to the soil.  I suspect that a local contractor cheapened up on the construction for personal profit.