In our time, speaking of armaments, the issues of architecture somehow recede into the background. Yes, the third millennium, the times of fortresses, both floating and flying, have sunk into oblivion. We are simply silent about the ground fortresses. Ended up.
Nevertheless, a few words should be said about the last representatives of the ground fortresses.
It is debatable, of course, but it seems to me that flakturms (German Flakturm), air defense towers built in Germany and Austria during World War II, are quite suitable for the role of the last fortresses. Advanced readers will say that there were buildings later, but - I will object. Bunkers. And like that, on a grand scale … However, it's up to you to judge.
So, flakturms.
Multipurpose buildings that were part of the structure of the Luftwaffe. They were intended to accommodate groups of anti-aircraft guns in order to protect strategically important cities from aerial bombardments. They were also used to coordinate air defense and served as bomb shelters and warehouses.
The idea of building arose at the very beginning of the war. Even when the Germans were bombing London with might and main, and the British tried to respond in kind. The Germans won, because in September 1940, 7,320 tons of bombs were dropped on England, and only 390 tons fell on German territory.
However, after the first bombing of Berlin, it became clear that the capital's air defense could do little to oppose the attacking planes of the British Air Force. And then, in 1941, the Russians were added to the company of those wishing to bomb the capital of the Reich.
There is a need for a serious strengthening of the air defense of Berlin. And it was difficult to solve the problem by simply increasing the number of anti-aircraft guns. Anti-aircraft guns require a wide firing sector and a sufficient barrel lift angle. The minimum is 30-40 degrees.
However, air defense batteries can only be placed in fairly open areas, such as stadiums, city squares, wastelands. And there are not so many of them in any city.
In addition, for the reliable operation of radars (well, as far as possible for radars of the 1939 model), it was required that there were no objects between the antenna and the target, especially near.
On the other hand, the presence of radars in general greatly facilitated the life of the Germans. It is worth talking about the detection system of the German air defense separately, but here I will say that it consisted (simplified) of two zones. Far and near.
The far zone is FuMo-51 (Mammoth) locators, which were usually located outside the cities and had a detection range of up to 300 km with an accuracy of determining the distance - 300 m, azimuth - 0.5 °. Antenna height - 10 m, width - 30 m, weight - 22 tons. Everything is clear here. Early detection system.
Radar FuMO-51 "Mammoth"
Radar command post "Mammoth"
However, the anti-aircraft gunners needed to receive data for firing (azimuth and elevation of the target, from which it was possible to determine the course, speed, and altitude of the target) at ranges from 30 kilometers to the moment of fire contact. These data could be issued by FuMG-39 "Würzburg" and "Freya" radars. Again, provided that the antenna is above city roofs and trees.
Radar FuMG-39G "Freya"
Radar FuMG-39T "Würzburg"
Radar FuMG-62-S (Würzburg-S)
For anti-aircraft searchlights and sound direction finders, the presence of a free zone is also a prerequisite, especially for the latter, since the sound of the engines of enemy aircraft reflected from high local objects led to errors in the target azimuth (direction to the flying aircraft) up to 180 degrees. And optical rangefinders, on which the main stake was made in clear weather conditions, telescopes, binoculars also require a fairly open space.
Initially, it was planned to build towers in the parks Humboldthain, Friedrichshain and Hasenheide (one each), three more towers were planned to be built in the Tiergarten.
According to the plan, the towers were to be armed with twin ship anti-aircraft guns with a caliber of 105 mm and several 37-mm and 20-mm cannons of direct cover.
For personnel inside the towers, it was supposed to equip well-protected premises.
The design of the anti-aircraft towers was entrusted to the department of the General Construction Inspector Speer, and their construction was assigned to the military construction organization Todt. Todt was responsible for design and technical execution, Speer was responsible for park selection, architectural decoration and classification.
It was decided together that each air defense tower would consist of four separate gun positions connected to each other, in the middle of which, with a distance of 35 meters, there is a fire control point (command post II). At the same time, the outer dimensions of the tower are approximately 60 x 60 meters, the height must be at least 25 meters.
The structures were supposed to provide protection for personnel, including from chemical weapons, full autonomy of the supply of electricity, water, sewage, medical care, and food.
The use of towers as shelters for the population was not thought of at that time.
Hitler himself, they say, came to this idea, deciding that these structures would be approved by the population only if civilians could get shelter in them during the bombing.
It's funny, but in a country where there was already a war on two fronts, the construction of these towers was accompanied by many problems. For example, the places of their construction must be coordinated with the general development plan of Berlin! The towers were not supposed to violate the monumental unity of the architectural appearance of the city and maximally combine with buildings or street axes …
In general, during the development and implementation of the plan for the construction of the towers, many issues were resolved. Which, to a certain extent, does credit to the Germans.
For example, the firing of guns is usually accompanied by smoke in the area above the combat tower, which negates the possibility of visual detection of targets. In the dark, flashes of shots blind observers, interfering with guidance. Well, even the shells flying out of the trunks could interfere with the delicate locators of that time.
The Germans acted simply and wisely to avoid these problems. We divided the towers into the combat Gefechtsturm, aka the G-tower and the leading Leitturm, aka the L-tower. Leading, she is a control tower, served as a command post. The control tower was supposed to be at a distance of at least 300 meters from the combat tower.
In general, the Germans got an air defense complex.
In 1941, a tower was built on a hill near Tremmen, 40 km west of Berlin, on which the Mammoth radar station was installed. This tower was intended for early detection of enemy aircraft and transmission of results via direct communication to the command post of the 1st anti-aircraft division of the Luftwaffe Air Defense of Berlin, which was located in the control tower in the Tiergarten. So, in fact, you can say that the complex at the Tiergarten consisted of three towers.
In 1942, a FuMG 403 "Panorama" panoramic radar with a detection range of 120 km was installed on this tower.
Short-range radars were located on the control towers.
The control tower with the "Würzburg" antenna is just visible in the background.
As the towers were built, a very useful innovation was made to the project. The command post on the control tower was designated as KP-1, and on each combat tower, in the center of it, a place was allocated for KP-2, the command post for direct fire control. This was done to work in situations of loss of communication and the like.
As a result, the following tasks were formulated for the air defense towers:
- detection and determination of coordinates of air targets;
- issuing data for firing anti-aircraft guns, both own and ground batteries of the sector;
- command of all air defense assets of the sector and coordination of actions of all air defense assets;
- destruction of air targets caught in the zone of reach of the guns of the combat tower;
- with the help of light anti-aircraft guns, to provide protection of the tower itself from low-flying targets and to support the Luftwaffe in the fight against enemy fighters;
- shelter of the civilian population from bombing.
At the same time, one of the towers in the Tiergarten led the air defense of the entire city and coordinated the actions of anti-aircraft batteries with fighter aircraft.
Friedrich Tamms, tower constructor and architect
In October 1940, the laying of the towers began. At the same time, the project continued to be improved.
On October 25, Tamms presented detailed plans and the first models of the final design of the combat tower and control tower. According to his plan, the towers were supposed to have a representative facade and at the same time look like the majestic monuments of the Luftwaffe.
In March 1941, Tamms introduced new large turret models. The finished models were presented to Hitler for his birthday on April 20, 1941. The responsible Minister Speer presented the entire project to Hitler in detail. The Fuhrer was impressed by the project, and he wished that on all four sides "over the entrances to the anti-aircraft tower large plaques were provided to perpetuate the names of the Luftwaffe aces."
According to the original plans, the first flakturm complexes were planned to be built in Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna. Later - in Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, Kiel, Cologne, Königsberg. However, very soon, serious adjustments had to be made to the plans.
As a result, Berlin received three complexes, Hamburg two, Vienna three.
The construction of each tower, with its full six stories, required huge masses of reinforced concrete. The first battle tower in the Tiergarten was filled with 80,000 cubic meters of concrete, while the control tower required another 20,000 cubic meters.
In Friedrichshain, 120,000 cubic meters of concrete were needed to build the towers, whose walls and ceilings were even more powerful. Almost 80% of this volume of concrete was used for the construction of the battle tower. To this should be added about 10,000 tons of high-quality structural steel.
The first Berlin tower was built exclusively by the hands of German construction workers, but later they began to attract first unskilled German citizens (as part of labor service), and then foreign workers and prisoners of war.
The outer dimensions of the towers built were impressive. The dimensions of the main combat platform were 70.5 x 70.5 m with a height of about 42 m (for gun turrets), slightly smaller leading towers with the same height had an area of 56 x 26.5 m.
The thickness of the upper ceiling reached 3.5 m, the walls were 2.5 m thick on the first and 2 m on the other floors. Windows and doors had steel shields 5-10 cm thick with massive locking mechanisms.
Until now, no documents have been found, according to which it would be possible to accurately establish the real costs of the construction of flakturms. Available sources are contradictory. In one of the letters from the Luftwaffe administration, dated 1944, it is indicated that 210 million Reichsmarks were spent on the construction of flakturms in Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna.
In total, three projects of anti-aircraft towers were developed and implemented (respectively Bauart 1, Bauart 2 and Bauart 3).
In the basements of the towers, spare barrels and other spare parts and repair materials for guns were stored. In the basement there was a storehouse of shells for heavy anti-aircraft guns, as well as entrances from three sides of the tower with dimensions of 4 x 6 meters (in the northern, western and eastern facades). They were intended for the import of a stock of shells, the export of spent cartridges and the reception of civilians hiding in the tower.
Both in the combat towers and in the control towers, two or three floors were set aside for bomb shelters for the civilian population. Part of the premises on the second floor of all the towers was set aside for storing museum values. In premises with a total area of 1500 sq. m in July-August 1941, the most valuable exhibits of Berlin museums were placed. In particular, Priam's gold treasure, the numismatic collection of Emperor Wilhelm, a bust of Nefertiti, the Pergamon altar. In March 1945, museum values began to be taken out for storage in mines.
The third floor of the bunker in the Tiergarten was occupied by the Luftwaffe hospital, which was considered the best in the entire Reich and therefore prominent figures were willingly treated here. The wounded and sick were transported by elevators, of which there were three. The hospital had an X-ray room and wards with 95 beds. The hospital employed 6 doctors, 20 nurses and 30 auxiliary workers.
The fourth floor housed all the military personnel of the anti-aircraft tower. At the level of the fifth floor around the tower there was a lower combat platform encircling the entire tower for light anti-aircraft guns. This platform at the corners around the turrets for heavy anti-aircraft guns had barbets for quad 20mm and twin 37mm automatic cannons.
The rooms on the fifth floor housed shells for light anti-aircraft guns and shelters for personnel of all anti-aircraft guns.
But the Flakzwilling 40/2 installations, with a caliber of 128 mm, became the main weapon of the Flakturms. Four twin anti-aircraft guns, each firing up to 28 shells weighing 26 kg per minute at a range of up to 12.5 km in height and up to 20 km in range.
The supply of ammunition to the guns was carried out using special electric chain hoists (of the ship type), which delivered shots from the artillery cellars of the basement floor directly to the gun platforms. The lifts were protected from direct hit by armored domes weighing 72 tons each.
In one cycle, 450 shells could be lifted up.
According to the plan, the defensive fire of heavy anti-aircraft guns was intended to force the Allied aircraft to attack the capital of the empire from a great height, as a result of which the accuracy of bombing would be greatly reduced, or to decrease, being exposed to fire from artillery of a smaller caliber.
Each battle tower had its own water well and a fully autonomous water supply. In one of the rooms there was a diesel generating set with a large supply of fuel. On a combat alert, the tower was disconnected from the city network and switched to autonomous power supply. The towers also had their own kitchen and bakery.
The combat towers and control towers were located at a distance of 160 to 500 meters from each other. The towers were interconnected by underground communication lines and electrical cables, and all lines were duplicated. Also, backup water lines were laid.
As already mentioned, the air defense command post in the Tiergarten controlled the entire air defense of Berlin. To control the fire of the anti-aircraft complex, this tower had its own separate command post.
The command post of the 1st anti-aircraft division, as it began to be called in 1942, in addition to its direct duties, was for the civilian population an air situation alert center. From here, through the radio broadcasting network, reports were received about which cities were approaching the formations of Anglo-American bombers. Since the fall of 1944, the tower also housed 121 anti-aircraft observation battalions.
It remains to talk about the following topic: have the air defense towers justified the hopes placed on them?
Definitely not.
They cost Germany a huge amount of money, materials and man-hours. And to build so many complexes to cover the skies of all of Germany, of course, was unrealistic.
Yes, some sources claim that during the raids on Berlin and Hamburg, the Allied aircraft were forced to operate at much higher altitudes due to the work of the turret crews.
However, it is common knowledge that the Allies did not bomb specific targets in these cities, but simply Berlin and Hamburg themselves. And in carpet bombing, flight altitude does not matter. Something will fall somewhere, here you can take the amount.
And no one particularly bombed Vienna.
So the effectiveness of the flakturms turned out to be as low as the lines of the fortified areas of Maginot, Siegfried, Stalin.
But the ideological significance of the towers significantly exceeded their military value. The author of the projects of anti-aircraft towers, Friedrich Tamms, called them "shooting cathedrals", hinting that the main role of flakturms is to a certain extent similar to the purpose of cathedrals and churches - to bring peace, hope and faith in a better outcome to the souls of Germans. Another "miracle weapon", but not mythical, but embodied in concrete.
In general, man is inherently inherent in a craving for security. Especially during the war. Especially when bombs are falling every day. And here the towers had a significant impact on the spirit of the Germans. Although neither Berlin nor Hamburg was saved from destruction.
The Berlin towers were all destroyed. The remaining fragments are still available for visiting.
Two G-towers have survived in Hamburg. One is partially damaged, the other has been rebuilt: it houses a television station, a recording studio, a nightclub and shops.
All three complexes have survived in Vienna. One tower is seriously damaged and is not used, one is located on the territory of a military unit. The other two have museums. But the most interesting thing is the fate of the L-tower in Esterhazy Park. It is used as an aquarium ("Haus des Meeres") and a climbing wall (on the facade).
The twentieth century has gone and taken with it the notion that a person can feel protected. Atomic and nuclear weapons finally killed any fortress, as something solid and capable of protecting. The age of fortresses, ground, floating and air, ended finally and irrevocably.
