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Decoy Airfield with Command Bunker WWII

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Antwerp

Decoy Airfield with Command Bunker WWII

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Location: Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium

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🇧🇪 Herwig Aertbeliën

October 16, 2021

In the middle of the field you can spot a command bunker.

This was once a small German mock airfield during World War 2.

Historical interpretation: Target for diversion bombing during World War II.

The concrete bunker in the field is a last reminder of a special chapter of the Second World War in Wilrijk. In the run-up to this conflict, the surrounding meadow was used as an airport by the Belgian army. Hardened, sown and equipped with light beacons, it had to offer the Belgian Air Force an alternative during a military conflict. After the capitulation on May 28, 1940, Belgian soldiers made the landing strip useless with explosives.

In 1940, the Germans restored the Wilrijk landing strip and, in anticipation of the Battle of Britain, expanded the site into a full-fledged airfield. Plans were changed while the works were being carried out. The Wilrijk airport would henceforth function as a mock airfield for the airport of Deurne, which was much more important to the Germans.

With fake wooden planes, lighting beacons and the construction of the same concrete bunker as the command bunker on Deurne, they tried to deceive the Allies and thus provoke a diversion bombardment on Wilrijk. however, it did not come to that. As the liberation of Antwerp neared, the Germans placed another series of poles in strategic places, including the mock airfield. these poles, popularly referred to as 'Rommelasparagus', were supposed to make landing from the air impossible.

The command bunker now stands here as a silent witness in the field.

Translated by Google •

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Elevation 50 m

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Location: Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium

Decoy Airfield with Command Bunker WWII

1. Benedenvliet - Schelle – Frateur Brickworks loop from Antwerpen-Zuid

2. Scheldt Promenade – Het Steen loop from Groenplaats

3. Middelheimmuseum – Misconceivable by Erwin Wurm loop from Van Eeden

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