Forests, wood and bunkers.

[Anderson]

A great collection of photos Santi. Worthy of book publication I would think.

[MAP]

Awesome

[Adrian Stevenson]

Great thread. Thank you.

[Woolgar]

An excellent thread

A very unnerving terrain to fight in, a soldier would need all his wits about him to stay alive

Nick

[paulscoot]

Great narrative, Great photographs well done Santi regards, Paul

[CBH]

Wonderful thread of seldom seen images, thanks for sharing.

[TabsTabs1964]

When the front stabilizes, the troop housing also. This allows more permanent constructions.

An example may be that of a quadrangular structure formed with wooden logs and covered with the typical zeltbahn.





In the Volkhov front once again and the mosquito nets too.



The door of this other refuge seems more conventional. Although we appreciate how there are several rows of logs at the bottom and that the small log path (Knüppeldamm) leading to it ends in a one-step staircase to enter. All of wood, covered with branches and the forest in the background.

Another variety of wooden bunker (holz bunker) is the one we see in these three images (the last two are from the Bundesarchiv). It is a square base construction with horizontal log walls. The roof, also of logs, covered with dirt on which the grass will grow, so that from the air the bunker will camouflage itself with the ground.







But the safest bunker is totally or partially dug in the ground and covered with wood and more dirt.





And it is certainly the hottest place when Russian winter comes.

[frostjs]

What a excellent thread, great idea.

[TabsTabs1964]

But if we leave the plains of Ukraine and go back to the forests further north, we will see how to build a fully wooden bunker.

Although it is not excavated in the ground, its floor is square or rectangular to be able to form its walls with rows of horizontal logs, although they are supported by other logs nailed to the ground.


TABSTABS collection





The thicker the trunks of the walls and ceiling, the greater the protection against a mortar impact

[TabsTabs1964]

But there is another bunker that can hold up even longer.

It begins by digging a hole about four meters deep and rectangular in shape.



Then six strong columns made of thick wooden logs are placed: one in each corner and the other two in the middle of the sides of the rectangle.


TABSTABS collection

And the six columns are held together by five thick wooden beams.



Here we can see two other different examples:





The next step is to cover the walls with logs. We can see that there are two different types: with the logs of the walls placed vertically; and in other cases placed horizontally



We can also see that the bunker door is planned from the beginning, to later excavate and prepare the entrance to the fortification.

The end of this hard work will be to place the logs that will form the roof of the bunker. On them will be placed all the dirt of the excavation.




TABSTABS collection


TABSTABS collection


TABSTABS collection


TABSTABS collection


TABSTABS collection


TABSTABS collection








TABSTABS collection



Well, it looks like our squad is going to have a safe place to spend the winter.