Bunker SB 9 La Reid

Bunker SB 9 is located in a pasture where goats and donkeys graze. It is on private plot but is visitable. 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).

It a smaller bunker with one gun opening for a machine gun. The bunker is accessible and still has the original interior and exterior door. Somewhat oddly, this outer door is of the barred type. This allowed an enemy to quickly gain access to the bunker. The walls of the bunker are of reinforced concrete, 1,3 meters thick on all sides.

Inside, the mount on which the machine gun could be moved from left to right is still present. Interestingly, there are no small metal hatches present as in most other bunkers, see for example bunker SB 5.

These hatches gave access to the grenadegully, for proximity defense. One could drop a hand grenade out through this gully. This then fell out through an opening at the bottom outside of the bunker.

Also the two round holes above the gun opening for ventilation are not present. Again, this is probably because the bunker had "open doors". Both the inner lamella door and the barred door, were smoke-gas permeable. The fumes generated when the machine gun was fired could escape that way.

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

This bunker was only stripped of its shutters after the war.

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Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Ed Lewandowski