Carol II fortified line, Photos from casemates-today

[21 inf]

This post has been edited by 21 inf on March 31, 2007 04:11 am

[21 inf]

[21 inf]

[21 inf]

[21 inf]

[21 inf]

[mihnea]

Interesting pictures but I wonder why you haven't posted more info on there location, any plans or sketches of the structures, if there are any battle scars, how thick are the walls, the roof etc etc.

[21 inf]

Well, i didn't cared about detalils like the thickness of the walls, or the interior plans of the buildings. I was more interested on how did they used the firing slits etc., above all, i have 2 left hands when it comes about drawings

I didnt post the history of the fortified line by 2 reasons:
- i posted some months ago a request, asking for informations regarding this fortified line, request asked on this very forum. It went no reply since then, meaning only 2 things: people from this forum dont know anything about this little piece of romanian history or they didnt care at all about it. It was several months, after all.
- second reason: i posted some real informations on this forum, based on real evidences, wich i posses, and i was atacked by my fellow romanian, wich were sustaining the point of view of another nation. Giving the fact that this casemates was directed to west against a certain nation, i want to avoid discussion with fellow romanians who forget their history.

And a solid argument not post any info, is because i found NO info on romanian sites over Internet about this casemates, despite the fact that there are 320 of them, scattered along the entire western border of Romania.
The only info available i found it on hungarian or other foreign sites.
It seems that my fellow romanians are interested only on the line Focsani-Namoloasa-Galati.

Even so, if someone is really interested, I know a little part of the history of this fortified line, so I can post the infos.



This post has been edited by 21 inf on June 11, 2007 04:04 pm

[Dan Po]

21inf, I wonder why you cannot be a little bit more "professional". take the pics, make a plan, came here with certain informations and don t scream like a pubbbbbbssy about the hungarian threat. no offence is just a friendly advice.

here we talk about military facts. I think we cand have just a littke more "military" atitude than another persons. what do you think ?

certain informations, with photos and plans are more effective in matter of historical truth or anything else, are more effective I say, than any speech.

This post has been edited by Dan Po on April 01, 2007 06:51 am

[mihnea]

I was asking for more information regarding the fortification/s (you haven't said how many you have visited), were are they located North, South, East, West of witch village/city, can you pin point there location on Google Erath?. And more info about those fortifications how many MG emplacements, cannons, observation posts maybe turrets, etc.
I hoped you would make a presentation like wings made here: http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=41&st=105

Unfortunately there are no books or articles on the Carol II line, as far as I know.

[21 inf]

Legenda:

-linia rosie: soseaua Oradea-Arad
-linia albastra: drumul de acces din Nojorid, prin sat, peste pasune pina la cazemata, pe linga padure
-linia galbena: traseul santului antitanc care deservea cazematele in 1940



On the bottom of the pic, on the right side of the yellow line (antitank ditch) one could see 3 black dots in a row.
Those 3 black dots are the casemates that i visited and wich photos one could see above, on previous posts.

This post has been edited by 21 inf on April 01, 2007 04:50 am

[21 inf]

I visited 4 casemates in the day that my friend made the photos and yesterday i entered in one more casemate, the one indicated on the map above, wich is situated now in the wood.

The situation of the fortified line in Oradea area is from north to south:
west of Oradea, following a line in south-east direction going to Nojorid village in a manner that the line is going east of Nojorid.

I personally have seen 11 casemates (2 of them beeing situated in the wood), from north to south, in time. One of the casemates is only 5 meters from the present days Oradea-Arad road, on the left hand on that direction.

Also, the antitank ditch can be seen from that very road. It is partially filled with water on some portions. On other sectors it is dry.
It have aproximatelly 5 meters deep and probably 15 meters wide (eye measurement).

Some of the casemates are situated 30 meters from the antitank ditch, while others are situated some hundred of meters (100-300 m) from it.

This post has been edited by 21 inf on April 01, 2007 05:00 am

[21 inf]

The casemates have 2 levels: one ground level and one underground level.
Because of the high degree of destruction, few of them allow acces to the underground level, actually i could see only one underground level, even that beeing flooded with water and obturated with concrete debrids.

It seems that those who blew up the casemates have previously recuperated the iron reinforcement (fierul-beton).
All casemates have the iron extracted, some of them only from the interior, some of them both from interior and exterior. It can be clearly seen from the photos that one of them have o lot of squares (patrate) on the exterior; those are the places where the iron reinforcement was depleted.


It seems that before the recuperation of iron they have to broke the concrete, because near the firing slits it can be seen the thickness of the concrete wich was torn away to reach the iron. It was about 4 centimeters of concrete wich was broke to reach the iron.
All the concrete debrids resulted from this operations seems to be transported to the undergound level, since there i found the underground filled with debrids and the interior of the casemates, the floor i mean, is clean, giving the fact that otherwise the quantity of concrete debrids have to be tons and cannot be in the surounding of the buildings.



This is the flooded underground level, partially blocked with concrete debrids.
View from the door.


Acces to the right side of the underground level, view from the door.


Acces to the left side of the underground level, view from the door.

This post has been edited by 21 inf on April 01, 2007 05:32 am

[21 inf]

The firing slits are in number of 6 for each casemate.
3 on the left side, 3 on the right side.
They look like this seen from the exterior.



They are firing slits for machine guns.


This is the interior view of the same firing slits from above.
Between the firing slits one can see a pipe in concrete, at a 45 degree angle.
It served to evacuate the used cartridges at the exterior of the casemate.
In front of each firing slit there it is a concrete ditch 3 meters wide and 2 meters deep where the used cartridges where evacuated and collected, allowing more space to the defenders inside.

There i found no signs of firing slits used for antitank guns.
There are no cupolas or observation points.

It can be seen clearly the ventilation sistem made from iron pipes, sometimes with diameters about 0.5 meters.

Also, it can be seen the comunication of the ground level with the underground level, consisting in concret pipes on the ground level floor, about 1 meter in diameter. Probably this comunication was used to elevate ammo from the underground level.

I found no sign of main door, probably the main iron door was removed and the area around main door was blown up. I couldn found not even the frame of the main door, even giving the fact i visited so many casemates.

[21 inf]

These pillboxes were manned by the 2nd Fortification Infantry Regiment, from the 1st Fortification Brigade.
This regiment was formed on 27 June 1939, by transforming the 86th Infantry Regiment into a fortification regiment. It was formed at Oradea.
On 15 November 1939 the 2nd Fortification Regiment was deployed near Oradea. The tragic month of August 1949 found the regiment on the Romanian Western border and in September 1940 it was forced to abandon the fortified line, following the Vienna Diktat.

Also in Oradea was formed the 1st Fortification Artillery Regiment from the 4th Mountain Howitzer Battalion. It was disbanded in 1943, when it was used to rebuild the 16th Artillery Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division.

Up until this moment I do not know if the 2nd Fortification Infantry Regiment served together with the 1st Fortification Artillery Regiment, although this is highly possible, because they were both part of the 1st Fortification Brigade.

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