Bunker SB 5 Hautregard

Bunker SB 5 is located on the edge of two meadows between the villages of Hautregard and Ménobu. The bunker belongs to sector Sougné-Becco (SB) of the 1st line of defense for the city of Liège, la Posistion Fortifiée de Liège 1, (PFL 1).

The bunker is located in small untouched forest plot. It a smaller bunker with one gun opening for a machine gun. The bunker is accessible. Inside, the inner plate that was still present at bunker SB 2 has been removed. This bunker also had a Maxim machine gun. The walls of the bunker are of reinforced concrete, 1,3 meters thick on all sides.

Photo 3 shows a small metal hatch in the upper left corner. This hatch gave access to the grenade gully, for proximity defense. One could drop a hand grenade through this gully. This then fell out through an opening at the outside bottom of the bunker.

The two round holes above the gun opening are ventilation holes. On the one hand for fresh air, but on the other hand for exhaust of fumes due to machine gun salvos. The room would soon be full of smoke gases, which was intoxicating to the soldiers present.

The hooks on the wall were for hanging the soldiers equipment. The shelf supports were meant to put away materials so one could not trip over them. It should be remembered that these (and most bunkers) were not connected to the electrical grid. A storm lamp could be hung from the ceiling, on a hook provided for that purpose. This was the only lighting in the bunker.

As with most bunkers, after the war when the bunkers had lost their strategic value, the metal hatches and doors were removed and sold as scrap metal. There were also instances during the war when the bunkers were stripped of iron by the Germans and melted down for other purposes. If cast-iron observation turrets were present, they were reused at the atlantikwal, among others.

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Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Ed Lewandowski