Bucharest defence.

[mihnea]

The 57mm gun emplacement covering the access road.




Air vent, there is one in each room.




Recently this fort was used as a film set for a movie probably with a medieval theme and some of the additions were not removed.


The 150mm emplacement.


The stairs leading to the ground floor.


Door leading to the top of the fort, the door is not original.


A small tunnel with two air vents and an opening on the right that covers the stairs.


The tunnel going round the 15mm emplacement, probably used as storage.

[dan3]

Hello, it appears i have found this by pure chance and i'm very glad i did...i am very interested in the forts. So far the only one i have explored is Bateria 9-10. It's totally deserted, except for traces of human presence (someone apparently had a picnic there). Also, reportedly on weekends the local kids play there, and also, apparently, at least one loving couple...Some friends of mine, during a photoshoot had trouble with some gypsies, but it is an isolated incident. Every time i have been there, including at night, it was totally deserted. Some photos. If your monitor isn't well calibrated or you are looking in bright daylight you will miss a lot of details in the darker areas.

Circular corridor arount the main gun emplacement, i think the 150, correct me if i'm wrong:


Corridor leading to the 53 turrets. Do you know what the small, approximately 0.5X0.5 m tunnel at the floor level is? There are several around the fort, apparently parallel to the main corridors. Could be air vents? I thought about ammunition conveyor tunels, but the fort is too old for that, probably...any ideas?


Room under one of the two secondary emplacements


Main corridor. The walls have big holes in them, and they are pretty thick. Intresting to note that all the debris in the smaller holes are thrown from the outer rooms into the corridor, so whatever made the holes was not in the coridor but in the rooms. There are also burn marks on the walls. This corroborates with other evidence that special troops trained there, and perhaps blew the holes in those walls. The "other evidence" is remains of rubber crowd control (tear gas?) grenades and some 9mm casings with a strange plastic device instead of the bullet. Training rounds maybe?


Corridor bifurcation to the upper and lower room of secondary emplacement, also leading to the 53 turret


Outer view, open door...


The main emplacement through a hole in the cupolla.


One of the 53mm emplacements. Another possible entrance.


later edit: Oh, and i forgot, if anyone goes exploring around the forts, please let me know

This post has been edited by dan3 on July 18, 2006 09:26 am

[mihnea]

Very nice pictures, although they aren't my favorite type, artistic, with a flash there would have been more detailed.

The 9mm cartridges you found are gas pistol cartridges 9mm PA, used for self defense, non-lethal.

Bateria 9-10 is type 3 with one 150mm cupola in the center, two 210mm cupola, three 57mm turrets and three 57mm guns for close defense.

Do you know why is that big hole near the 150mm emplacement, in the first picture?

I also noticed the tunnels but I have no idea what role they had, here is another picture of one in Bateria 1-2.


With a bit of adobe I have “enlightened” this picture to reveal more details, hope you don't mind.

[dan3]

The "hole" is a small shaft, about 30 cm diameter, lined with metal, that leads to the circular balcony in the main room. It is just off the edge of picture 7, the one with the main room. You cannot reach that balcony except by climbing, so i couldn't look closely...
From your picture i remembered that the small tunnels had metal door frames, so they could probably be sealed. Would make sense if they were ventilation tunnels, in case of a gas attack...
And about the pictures, most of the interior ones *are* lit with flash, the green glow in the photo you edited, and the red one are flashes with colored filters. And, yes, they aren't that informative I didn't think of that aspect when i took them

[C-2]

Guys Guys,now when it is dry ,lets get together and make an expedition!

[horia]

I'll come too!

[dan3]

I suppose you are talking about the Otopeni - Philip Morris fort? Count me in

[C-2]

Guys,get a target in the north part of the city and let's go Sunday morning!

[C-2]

I met today,Mr Iancu,from Otopeni.
He's 75 and his father had a large restaurant in front of Bateria 3-4 with 200 places and worked mainly with the army.
He told me that there used to be sort of a subway train under the forts.Possible for aproviz.

I also heard that the Russian p[lanes that bombed Otopeni at night had very strange bombs:
None of them exploded.When army engeniers "opeded" them ,they found sand inside.
Any explenation?

Also ,after 23.8.44 ,when USAF bombed the airfield,the acualy missed and bombed the village.You could see dead cows hanging on trees after the bombardment.
Also an AA german batery,who had only 2 soldiers others were on permision,held very well for two days.

The AA gun,was "colected " by one of the locals,and found by the police in his barn 6-7 years later.

[dragos03]

King Carol I was very proud of these forts and, in his will, he wanted the forts' artillery to fire at the moment of his death:

"I want the guns to fire from all the forts in Bucharest, Focsani and Galati, forts that i built to shield the Romanian lands in desperate times, of which I pray to God the country will be spared".

[Wings_of_wrath]

I'm starting to get the hang of how the batteries worked.
After extensively exploring some of them (mainly 1-2, 3-4 & 9-10), I am now pretty sure I can correctly identify the way the main systems of the forts (ventilation, ammunition supply, etc) functioned, including the use for the "mysterious flooded tunnel" from the 1-2 Battery and the little side-tunnels found in all batteries.
I don't have the time right now for an elaborate post, but I have prepared a detailed sketch of the "standard" interior, and I will add it as soon as I get it scanned, with ample explaination as to what was where and why.
Please bear with me a little while longer.

PS: A prospecting trip to the 10-11 Battery on the South-Eastern part of Bucharest ended dissapointingly a few weeks ago, when we stumbled onto construction works at the site of the battery. Apparently, a couple of months ago somebody actually purchasd the place, and they are now converting it into...well, something. In the good tradition of Romanian secrecy, we were only told to "scram" because we were trespassing on private property, and were refused even such details as the current owner and the plans in store for the fort. A pity really, especially since 10-11, along with 11-12, (now sealed inside the compound of a new housing project) were a whole lot different from all the others, being much smaller, with only 2 main and 2 secondary cuppolas instead of the full complement of six.

This post has been edited by Wings_of_wrath on October 24, 2006 12:22 am

[Mezekouw]

I have been reading this topic, and I am very excited about it.

I first read about the fortifications of Bucarest through a study I was doing on the defence line of Amsterdam. Dutch engineers actually visited Romania to be present at some experiments on targeting concrete with heavy explosives.

I have searched for information for a long time before I stumbled upon this webpage. The people I know in Bucharest also could not tell me more.

I will share some of my insights with you at the end of the week. When I have more time. I and I will post some reactions.

I hope somebody is still reading this forum chapter.

Yours sincerely,

Mezekouw
Maastricht, the Netherlands

[Mezekouw]

well a week turned into months, but here's my comment.


It was mentioned that the defence line was under equiped. The fortresses did not have enough canons, etc.

From my experience with the Amsterdam defence line I can say that this was actually normal.

National reduits, like the bucharest defense line, were last resorts.

The main strategy ( for the dutch at least) was to minimize all the guns in the fortresses. It was thought that if the guns were kept in the fortresses or batteries, they were useless. The guns could not be used in battle. That's why in the Netherlands, most guns were transferred to the field army. Then if it had to retreat in to the line, it was thought (they were ordered) to bring the guns with them. Then they were installed in the fortresses and batteries in between.

Does anybody have a general ground plan of the fortresses by the way?

This post has been edited by Mezekouw on August 01, 2007 12:19 pm

[madalinfocsa]

Hello, I discovered the forts not long time ago.
Making a serious research, I noticed that between the 9-10'th Battery and Fort X "Leurdeni" there is a huge space, like in no other place... What's with this space here ?, I said.
But last week I found out that somewhere in the middle of this distance it could be a battery ! COULD IT BE ??? The 19'th battery ??? Or I'm wrong ?
Please help !
Here you cand see it > http://wikimapia.org/#lat=44.394404&lon=26...17&l=29&m=a&v=2

What do you think about it ??? I knew there were built only 18 forts and 18 batteries ! Coul it be possible to exist another "secret" battery here ???

Please go there, which of you are in the area, and tell us what do you know about this place.

[Mezekouw]

I have also marked that spot on google maps.

I think it is a battery/ fortress too.

compare it with this other fortress/ battery around bucarest: http://maps.google.nl/maps?f=q&hl=nl&geoco...007231&t=h&z=17