In order to command the German land forces, in the war against the USSR, the headquarters of the High Command of the Wehrmacht was built on an area of approx. 3 km2 - from the reconnaissance in September 1940 to the end of April 1941. In such a short time (only 8 months), despite harsh winter, the main facilities of the German bunkers in Mamerki in Masuria were built.
The bunkers are in very good condition to this day.
The forest town with 200 buildings was built thanks to the slave organization Todt, which engaged some 2,000 workers, fully convinced that they were building some secret chemical factory. The workers did not participate in the full cycle of construction of one object - after some works were completed, they were transferred to another project and to another area. They were also forbidden to move outside the designated small area of work.
All objects were perfectly masked against reconnaissance from the air, incl. the walls were plastered with a mixture of cement, wood shavings and seagrass, giving them the texture of tree bark. Additionally, the plaster layer was supposed to absorb the energy of the explosion. Artificial trees were erected around the quarters with masking nets creating a play of shadows and blurring the sharp contours of the solids. Grass, shrubs and trees were planted on the roofs under the supervision of garden specialists from Stuttgart. The landscape architect supervised the entire composition of the quarters. The internal roads illuminated with purple light were invisible from the air (interestingly, the glow of a glowing cigarette can be seen from a height of 1 km). Even the cars inside the headquarters at night must have purple lights.
https:// Klimatyzacjacje.mazury.pl/mamerki/