This small pillbox, designed for two heavy machine guns, is nicely integrated into a small hill Local farmers has found the hill to be a good source of sand and apparently helped themselves to a sizeable portion of the hill, giving us a nice cross-section of the pillbox.
This gives a clue to the depth at which the concrete slab was nested in the ground, making it a very difficult target to destroy..
The loophole is just above the ground level, and the entryway is practically below the ground level. A communication trench would be dug there to give a safe access to the entrace. There are also two metal pipes protruding from the wall almost at the very bottom of the pillbox. They were supposed to house telephone lines which would connect all the pillboxes in the area. They had never been installed.
There are still traces of black tar smeared on the side of the pillbox which served as a protection agains moisture which could inevitably creep in once the slab was covered with its protective earth embankments.
Metal bars above the loophole are still mysteriously there – a camouflage net was supposed to be attached to them.
In 1941 the Soviet-German border was just 4,2 km away from this place and the German steamroller overwhelmed the defences so quickly that not even a single shot was fired from this pillbox.

This photo is Best on black at Fluidr

Loading comments...

Loading contexts...

Make:	PENTAX
Model:	PENTAX K200D
Exposure:	0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture:	f/4.0
ISO Speed:	400
Focal Length:	28.1 mm
Lens:	smc PENTAX-DA 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL II