One of Hitlers Headquarters, built in Margival, near the town of Soisson, France
During the Second World War, a number of special headquarters were build in Germany and occupied Europe. The headquarters usually were called "Fuhrerhauptquartiere" of "FHQu". The FHQu in Margival was codenamed "Wolfschlucht 2". "Wolfschlucht 1" was near the Belgium town of Bruly de Peche.
The FHQu was build for the invasion of England ("Unternehmen Seelowen", operation sealion). The building activities started round 1941 and really took of in 1942.
In 2 years time the Germans build an enormous complex of large concrete bunkers, large concrete office, regimental headquarters, close combat defense objects along the roads, air defense sites (Flak Stellungen) in Margival and the surrounding villages.
Hitler visited this complex a few times, for a relative short time.
For those who like to know more, the book "Wolfschlucht 2, Autopsie eines Fuhrerhauptquartiers" is an absolute must! The book is only available in the German language.
After the war the complex of the FHQu was used by the NATO as a headquarters complex. After France left the NATO, they turned it into a training camp for French commando troops. The French Army left the site some years ago and most of the building and interior are now decaying.
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The (French) entrance to the complex. | |
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Overview of the northern part of the complex. The buildings you see are for close combat commando training. | |
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Building 1 ("Bau 1"), the Hitler bunker. On the top of the building you see the concrete core of the bunker (gray) which is actually the protective part of the bunker. The rooms around the concrete core are offices. | |
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The interior of the protective bunker nucleus of Building 1 ("Bau 1"), the Hitler bunker | |
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Original German text in Building 5 ("Bau 5"). The text "bei Gasgefahr schliessen", is taken in one of the filterrooms of the bunker. It is an instruction, that the valve should be closed in case of a gas attack. | |
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Original German text in Building 5 ("Bau 5"). The text "Maschinenraum", means "Engine Room". | |
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Overview of Building 5 ("Bau 5"). | |
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Original German text in Building 5 ("Bau 5"). The text "W.C., Starkstromverteiler, Fernsprechvermittler", means "Toilet, power current distributor, Telex devices". | |
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A booby-trap, made of a French practice grenade in Building 5 ("Bau 5"). | |
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Front of Building 6 ("Bau 6"). | |
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The swimming pool | |
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Bunker with the "Hauptumspannwerk". A bunker with transformers. | |
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Overview of Building 16 ("Bau 16"). | |
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Overview of Building 22 ("Bau 22"). The tower on top of the bunker was build by the French after the war for training purposes. | |
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Overview of Building 18 ("Bau 18") (top) and bunker 17 (top). | |
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German bunkernumber of bunker 17. | |
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The "Scharte" of the entrance defense of bunker 17. | |
| Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the pictures. |
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