The Wollenberg Bunker – Linking East Germany and the USSR

April 21, 2024April 22, 2024 CarloRLeave a comment

	Heading to Berlin or the former GDR? Looking for traces of the Cold War open for a visit?
	A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY Second Edition - 2024
	DON'T LEAVE IT AT HOME! AVAILABLE in PAPERBACK or KINDLE from your national Amazon store!
	amazon.com \| amazon.de \| amazon.co.uk amazon.it \| amazon.fr \| amazon.co.jp

The events taking place on the geopolitical stage during the last decade of the Cold War – the 1980s – gave little indication of the imminent collapse of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc (1989-1991). Correspondingly, looking at the amount of technology developed and deployed in the military field during the late, hi-tech stage of the Cold War, it is easy to notice that opponents on both sides of the Iron Curtain dedicated a significant (and even increasing) budget in preparation for a possible total confrontation. Reading papers and specialized books from the time, the outbreak of an open conflict, such to put a violent and abrupt end to years of opposition between the two opposing systems by recurring to nuclear warfare over the territories of Western Europe (most of them belonging to the NATO alliance, and all being substantially more militarized than today), was not deemed just likely, but more as a matter of time.

The БАРС system – The tropospheric network of the Warsaw Pact

In that era of extreme tension, it is not surprising that one of the most sophisticated and expensive assets developed and deployed jointly by all Nations in the Warsaw Pact, of course led by the USSR, came alive. History would cut its life short though, and as soon as the Warsaw Pact disintegrated, as a result of the opt-out from communist dictatorship of all Countries in Eastern Europe, this asset was decommissioned. This system was the tropospheric communication system ‘БАРС’, a Russian word reading ‘BARS’ and meaning ‘snow leopard’. The name stands as an acronym for four words in Russian, which translate into something like ‘Sheltered autonomous radio communication system’.

The idea put forward by the Soviet top-ranking military staff in the early 1980s (prior to the onset of Gorbachev administration) was that of a system capable of transmitting complex orders (not just simple signals, like for opening a bunker door or silo, but articulated messages) in a safe encrypted way, at a long distance and minimizing the chance of a complete breakdown even in case of an enemy nuclear attack. Despite being not new, the concept of a resilient and reliable system, such to allow exchanging significant amount of data without relying on cables, had been tested in earlier stages of the Cold War only for short-radius operations. Mobile transmitters/receivers, loaded on purpose-designed trucks, allowed for a reduction of the risk of a direct hit from an attacker, and for a quick redeployment in case of need. However, for the amount of data and range required for the coordination of a war scenario, involving many different Countries, and geographically encompassing an entire continent, a different system was required, capable of transmitting more massive data flows on longer distances, with a reduced risk of a sudden or complete interruption.

The БАРС system was based on a certain number of stations, scattered over the territory of the Countries of the Warsaw Pact. Each node was built as a bunkerized, manned military installation, featuring high-power, high-frequency fixed antennas emerging from the ground, and an underground shelter protecting all the technical gear required for manipulating the data to be sent or received, interfacing with the other existing local (i.e. national) networks for military and executive governmental communication, and of course managing the tremendous amount of energy required to pump a long-reaching signal into the ether.

Laying on the front line with the West, hosting a Soviet contingent of some hundred thousands troops (see here and links therein), aircraft (see here), missiles (see here) and nuclear warheads (see here), and being a key-ally of the USSR in case of the outbreak of an open war (at least until late 1989), the German Democratic Republic (or GDR, or DDR in German) was clearly included in the БАРС network from the initial drafting phase. Similarly, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria, and of course the Soviet Union (which included Belarus and the Baltics, and stretched west to Kaliningrad), all had БАРС stations on their territory. Stations were located at a range of a few hundred miles from one another, thus within the range required for each of them to communicate with one or more of the other nodes. Data (e.g. orders, reports or authorizations) input locally could be relayed along the network through intermediate nodes, down to the intended destination node. There were 26 nodes in total, of which four were in the USSR.

The Wollenberg site – Bunker 301 ‘Tushurka’

The GDR in particular had three stations built, all along the border with Poland, and located east of Berlin – namely Station 301 in Wollenberg, at the same latitude of Berlin, Station 302 in Langsdorf, towards the Baltic coast, and Station 303 in Röhrsdorf (near Königsbruck), not far from Dresden in the southeast of the GDR territory. The first among them, the Wollenberg site (codenamed ‘Tushurka’) could communicate with the other two national stations, as well as with Station 207 in Poland, from where data would be transmitted further down the network, towards the USSR.

The site was built by the GDR state, with technical hardware coming from several Countries within the Warsaw Pact, and most of the military hi-tech components manufactured in the USSR. The actual site (similar to its sister sites) was built in the frame of a highly secretive operation. The staff comprised about 60-70 men, the majority of which were military, where about 15% were civil technicians. Maximum security clearance was required, due to the top-secret nature of the installation and of the overall БАРС system. The bunkerized part of the installation was only a component of the larger premises of the base, camouflaged within the trees on the side of low-rising hill.

As pointed out, the immense spending required for setting up this multi-national hi-tech military communication system, which was extensively tested and completely commissioned (as a network) by 1987, did not save it from a quick demise and disappearance. In particular, Station 301 went definitively offline as early as August 1990.

However, the fate of the Wollenberg site was not so sad as that of many former Soviet or NVA (i.e. the East German Army) installations in the GDR. The high-power antennas were torn down, but except from that, little material damage was inflicted to the buildings and bunker on site. The place was basically shut-off and left dormant, until when a society of technically very competent local enthusiasts started a plan to preserve and open it to visitors, as a memorial specimen of the technology of the Cold War years.

A visit to the Wollenberg bunker site reveals a tremendous deal of interesting details, very uncommon to find elsewhere in the panorama of Cold War relics around Europe. Thanks to a careful preservation and restoration work, the bunker has most of its original systems still plugged to the grid and lit-up – some of them are reportedly still working! Even though the communication networks have been severed, the experience in the bunker is really evoking, and the atmosphere – with all the lit-up cabinets, lights, CCTV cameras, 1980-style screens, etc. – closely resembles that of the bygone era when БАРС was operative!

This report and photographs were taken during a private visit to the bunker, carried out in the Summer of 2023.

Sights

A visit to the the installation in Wollenberg starts from the original high-security access gate. As you may quickly notice when passing through it and getting a first view of the site, the state of preservation is exceptional. Except for the lack of military staff around, everything looks mostly like in the years of operation.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

A group of soft-construction service buildings and a reinforced multi-entry garage constitute the first – and visible – nucleus of the installation. All buildings are painted in a camo coat.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

A former building for the on-site staff has been turned into a permanent exhibition, with memorabilia items from the Cold War years, when the Nationale Volksarmee (or NVA, the Armed forces of the GDR) cooperated with the Soviet Red Army and the national Armed forces of other Countries in the Warsaw Pact.

A meeting room, now employed also for small gatherings, is especially rich of interesting and diverse items, including emblems, books, memorial plates and pennants, as well as TV screens, hi-fi systems and and beamers from the era.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Another room has been set-up as a control center for the base, with an original console and regional maps.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Compared to military bases (for aircraft or tanks), the Wollenberg installation is rather compact, with a main road giving access to most of the (not many) buildings on site, as well as the bunker. Actually, the bunkerized part was built under a low-rising hill, with the antennas originally standing on top of it. Access to the bunker is possible either by climbing uphill on the main road, or through a suggestive original pedestrian tunnel. The latter starts from within the service building itself, and – somewhat unexpectedly, for an underground installation – it climbs uphill, while keeping beneath the surface of the hill side slope. The lower end is guarded by an original CCTV camera.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

At the top end of the tunnel you can find the actual access to the bunker. The design and reinforcement level conferred grade ‘D’ protection according to the military standard in use at the time, with grade ‘A’ being the strongest. Access is through an airlock, constituted by two tight doors at the opposite ends of a small vestibule built in concrete. This design allowed protection from the blast of a nuclear device.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Notably, the locking mechanism of the tight doors is Soviet military standard, which can be found in high-value installations like nuclear depots elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc (see for instance here in Poland, and here in Czechoslovakia).

To the visitor with some experience of Cold War installations, it will be apparent from the very start of the tour that the state of conservation of the bunker, including the systems in it, is exceptional, similar to the rest of the Wollenberg site. The original warning lights and the CC-TV camera for identifying people at the entrance are still in place.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Next to the entrance, a control room with technical gear for checking-in can be found – including original dosimeters for radiation and chemicals, mostly Soviet-made. Looking inside these devices is possible, and reveals a great deal of sophistication in the design and realization of the military-grade material from the time.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Showers and sinks for washing, as well as canister for disposing of contaminated clothes, are located in the same area.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Upon getting access to the sealed area of the bunker and passing by the decontamination facility, you find yourself on the top floor of the underground bunker. The high-technology gear required for the transmission/reception of data on the БАРС network, as well as the interface with other national communication systems, required for receiving data, issuing orders, etc. over the territory of the GDR, were located on this floor.

Two symmetrically placed rooms host two twin transmission centers for the БАРС system. A single manned console can be found in each of them, surrounded by electronic cabinets and switches. At a closer look, all the material herein is Soviet made, and labeled in Russian only.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

On the wall ahead of the console station is a set of cables, communicating with the antenna and allowing to set the orientation and monitoring its status.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

The actual signals transmitted to the antenna, or received from it, traveled along special hollow ducts, with an almost rectangular section. Bundles of these ducts can be found in the ‘Sender’ (which means ‘transmitter’ in English) room, immediately next to the room where the manned console is.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

The modulation and demodulation of the signals going out and coming in respectively through the antenna on top of the bunker required some special pieces of electronics, which included the Soviet-designed KY-374 klystron (codenamed ‘Viola’), a component to be found in the cabinets of the ‘Sender’ room.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Following the hollow ducts, it is possible to find where they finally exit the usually manned part of the bunker, bending into receptacles and leading outside. Piping related to other systems, including air conditioning, can be seen as well crossing or running in the same narrow technical corridors.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Beside the consoles monitoring the antenna and the data flowing through it, a kind of operative room for communication can be found, where consoles allowing to receive and forward data and communication to/from all systems are on display. This largely original room features consoles of different levels of technology.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Original explanatory schemes showing the basic features of the БАРС system are on display in that area – in Russian!

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

An adjoining room features the cabinets required for making all these system work. The cabinets are really many, with a significant share of material manufactured in the USSR. The sight of all these cabinets together is really impressive, and tangibly provides the feeling of a high technology, sophisticated and expensive design. It compares well, but in a largely up-scaled fashion, to the electronics to be found in some special communication bunkers on the western side of the Iron Curtain (see here).

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Interspersed with the original arrangement of the cabinets and consoles are some displays of original material. These include specimens of different types of cables for signal transmission – some of them hollow and pressurized, others featuring impressive bundles of thinner wires – the KY-374 klystron, and other once top-secret core components of the БАРС transmission system. Also on display is one of the few remaining parts of the original system of antennas, once on top of the bunker. The antennas were the only part to be physically torn down when the system was decommissioned, upon the demise of the Warsaw Pact and the end of the Cold War.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

The bunker was manned by military and technical staff 24/7. Furthermore, as typical for bunkers from the Cold War era, provision was made at a design level to allow the staff to live isolated within the bunker for an extended period of time, in view of the eventuality to face a nuclear fallout scenario.

On the same floor as the technical rooms, the commander of the station had his own private room. This is still adorned with typical Soviet iconography, as well as everyday material from the age when the bunker was operative.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

A small canteen, with a kitchen and a modest living room, can be found at the same level. An original storage room has been employed to gather examples of everyday products, like soap, skin care cream, etc., as well as canned food, cocoa, and beverages of all sorts.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

This represents a very rich catalog of now largely defunct and forgotten labels, from the age and regions of the Eastern Bloc (and especially from within the GDR). Also on display are bottles of spirits, likely still very good!

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

The visit proceeds then to the lower floor, which can be reached through a flight of metal stairs.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

The lower floor host the plants required for the regular operation of the entire bunker, such to guarantee operational ability even in case of an enemy attack carried out with nuclear, chemical or biological warfare. The air filtering and conditioning system is very modern. Beside typical filtering drums for particles, to be found also in other bunkers (see for instance Podborsko here), you can see a bulky filtering and climate conditioning system, neatly arranged within two parallel square-shaped ducts. Filtering against chemicals as well as biologic agents was carried out employing special active filters.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Sensors for the level of contamination of the bunker air can be found in different rooms. Much material here is standard Soviet-made.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Systems for water pumping and compressed air can be found as well, including compressors, pumps and reservoirs. Looking at the always interesting factory labels in this area, it is easy to find export products of Bulgaria, Romania and other communist dictatorships of the era. Of course, much hardware is also manufactured in the GDR.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Electricity was supplied from the outside grid, yet capability for self-sustaining in case of a grid loss (for instance in case of war) was implemented as well. Three big German-made Diesel generators have been put in place, and are still in an apparently good condition.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Another example of the high technological standard reached in the late Cold War era is represented by the control room for the plants within the bunker. A manned control station, with a console and a direct view of lit-up cabinets, reporting the status of the various systems running in the bunker, compares well with control rooms of large industrial plants in operation today.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Carefully kept in its original status, with many of the electric links and cabinets still working, the sight of this room is especially evoking.

Also on the lower floor are the sleeping rooms for off-duty staff. Typically, this was not employed except for drills, when the bunker could be sealed to simulate operations in case of the outbreak of hostilities.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Back to the upper floor, it is possible to exit the bunker via a stairway and through a side gate. You will find yourself on top of the low-rise hill where the bunker has been dug. Here the concrete base of the crane where the БАРС antenna used to sit are still visible. Notably, these antennas were much smaller than the tropospheric antennas employed for the TROPOSCATTER system of NATO. This was the result of a different bandwidth employed for transmissions. Therefore, even in the days of operation, the antennas on top of the bunker were not as sizable as those of TROPOSCATTER installations (which were enormous in size).

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

Looking closely, in the top area of the installation, the duct for supplying the Diesel oil tank of the bunker can be found, similar to sensors for radiation and other atmospheric parameters (similar to what can be found also in other nuclear-proof bases, for instance here). These allowed to monitor the conditions of the outside air, detect an attack and trigger or manage the sealing of the bunker in case of need, by locking all the tight doors.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

This access to the bunker is fenced by the original electrified fence, severing this area from the rest of the installation through a further layer of security.

Wollenberg БАРС Bunker 301 – GDR vs. USSR communication facility

All in all, a visit to the Wollenberg bunker offers an incredible insight in a fascinating and crucial field of warfare – data and communication exchange – as well as a lively and evocative display of a late Cold War hi-tech installation from the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain!

Getting there & Visiting

The German name of the Wollenberg bunker is ‘Militärhistorisches Sonderobjekt 301 Wollenberg’. It can be reached very easily with a car. It can be found in the open countryside along the regional road 158, driving about 35 miles (about 1 hour) northeast from downtown Berlin towards Poland. The exact location is between the small village of Höhenland (~4 miles) and the more sizable Bad Freienwalde (~6 miles). There is a large parking area immediately next to the road, giving direct pedestrian access to the premises of the former military installation. Despite being placed very conveniently, the site is rather elusive when passing by, since it is hidden in the trees and not directly visible from the road. The address corresponding to the place in Google Maps is Sternkrug 4, 16259 Höhenland. The inconspicuous village of Wollenberg, giving the name to the installation, is just nearby, but it is not crossed by the regional road, and it should not be employed for pointing this destination with a nav.

The Wollenberg bunker is a listed historical installation. It is perfectly maintained, privately managed, and it can be regularly accessed with guided tours. These are offered typically one day per week in the summer, or by prior arrangement. Possibly the best option for getting the most out of your visit is getting in contact with the group of very knowledgeable enthusiasts running the place. The official website is here (do not be discouraged by the ‘static’ appearance of the website, they are very active, and they shall typically answer your inquire).

My visit was planned by initiative of Dr. Reiner Helling (see also here), and we visited in a group of three, including the guide (Dr. Michael Schoeneck, a former engineer, with a profound knowledge of any technical aspects related to this installation), which happened to be a perfect option for touring also the narrowest receptacles of the bunker. Visiting in groups too big may be not advisable, since the rooms and corridors are rather narrow, and the place may turn overcrowded for interacting with the guide and for taking good pictures. I think the visit – including the technical content – may be tailored to the needs of the audience. For technical-minded subjects, historians and former military, a visit may take about 2-3 hours (the latter was my experience). In my case, the guide could understand but not speak fluent English, yet Dr. Helling could translate with ease all the explanations. Of course, if you have at least a basic knowledge of German and of the technical material you are looking at, this may simplify your visit, which is in any case highly advisable for those interested in military technology and the Cold War.

	Heading to Berlin or the former GDR? Looking for traces of the Cold War open for a visit?
	A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY Second Edition - 2024
	DON'T LEAVE IT AT HOME! AVAILABLE in PAPERBACK or KINDLE from your national Amazon store!
	amazon.com \| amazon.de \| amazon.co.uk amazon.it \| amazon.fr \| amazon.co.jp

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – Third Chapter: Pripyat

April 13, 2020April 13, 2020 CarloRLeave a comment

Among all oddities populating the extensive area of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – the immense cordoned area surrounding the ill-fated nuclear power-plant – Pripyat does not need any further presentation.

Pripyat was founded anew in 1970, and mainly intended for workers of the immense ‘Lenin’ power-plant, where the nuclear reactors started operations in the mid 1970s, and which went on being continuously expanded over the years. When tragedy struck on April 26th, 1986, four reactors were active, two were under construction – what remains of the ‘ghost construction works’ can still be seen (have a look to this chapter) – but about as many reactor cores were on the drawing board as the number of those already running.

Such a big and relevant industrial asset was managed and operated by a massive workforce of technicians. As a matter of fact, with a population of slightly less than 50’000 at the time of the accident, Pripyat turned out to be the largest village in an extensive and otherwise eminently rural region around the power-plant. An area with an extension comparable to the metro area of Chicago, IL, was cordoned out and totally evacuated in the days following the accident, forming the ‘Chernobyl Exclusion Zone’, which is still today off-limits without a guide, and where people carrying out technical work around the former power-plant, and related labs and businesses, live under a special regulation. Besides Pripyat, this extensive region includes also the nuclear power-plant, the town of Chernobyl, dozens of smaller villages (see Chapter 2), as well as a one-of-a-kind soviet military installation (see Chapter 1).

Being intended mainly for highly-skilled workers – like engineers and physicists in charge of the power-plant processes – Pripyat was built according to relatively high-level soviet standards. The town had five so-called residential ‘microdistricts’, made of high-rise apartment buildings, and each with a school and some other public services, like a small market, a library, sporting facilities, possibly a small theater, etc.

The geographic center of the town was another multi-functional district, with a kind of community center with a community hall for social meetings, a big hotel, a central market, a post office, a travel agency, a sporting center with a stadium, an amusement park – with the now iconic Ferris wheel… – a green urban park, and of course the local presidium of the Communist Party.

The town also featured a large hospital – ‘Medical Center 126’ – covering alone the size of another microdistrict.

All these services, the above-standard quality of the buildings and urban decor, and the setting in the nice countryside of northern Ukraine, in an area rich of rivers and creeks – Pripyat was built close to the right bank of the homonym and nice ‘river Pripyat’ – and not far from Kiev, made Pripyat a nice place to live. Even the workplace of many, the ‘Lenin’ nuclear power-plant, could be conveniently reached less than 3 miles away… The perfect worker’s life in this prototypical socialist village went on for some thousands workers and their families day by day without any major event for about 15 years.

Suddenly, Pripyat was evacuated in a few hours in the early afternoon of April 27th, 1986, about 36 hours after the explosion of reactor N.4, which had taken place in the first hours of April 26th. Notice of the evacuation was given to the citizens about three hours before the operation started. They were told they would have been taken away for precaution for just three days. The combined effect of the hurry and of the presumed short term of the quarantine was that basically everything was left behind by those leaving the town. As an effect of the cordoning-off and the spread of nuclear radiation, contaminating everything in the area, and making any items unattractive except for the most brave metal-looters, the mid-1980s life of Pripyat soviet citizens was crystallized like in a magic life-size 3D picture that you can even walk in! – the incredible ghost town that today everybody knows.

All villages and installations in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone were evacuated too (more than 100’000 were relocated in total), creating as many incredible time capsules from the Cold War era (see Chapter 1 and Chapter 2). What is unique to Pripyat is the overall size of the town, of the buildings in it, and the ensuing concentration of soviet relics around. Furthermore, being directly struck by radiation, due to the direction of the wind on the night of the explosion, together with the power-plant Pripyat is in the innermost, highly contaminated zone where nobody is allowed to live – unlike Chernobyl town, to the south of the power-plant, where some form of business is still going on this day, and where you are likely to spend the night on a multi-day tour. As a result, it is totally uninhabited – at least at night…

Actually, the successful HBO series of 2019 has increased the interest of the western public for this place even further, making Pripyat a de-facto tourist attraction, with tens of thousands visitors per year. Most of them take the ‘typical’ one-day trip from Kiev, where you spend a few hours in the Exclusion Zone, mostly in Pripyat. The ‘Soviet ghost aura’ around this town is so intense you will surely get impressed even by a visit so short. However, the ‘highlights’ in town may turn crowded to an almost paradoxical extent for a ghost town, so that enjoying the unreal silence and loneliness you would expect in a creepy soviet village contaminated by radiation may turn possible only in less known spots, where you will be taken only by private guides, on tours typically lasting two days or more, and purpose-designed to allow you also to take good pictures.

The latter was my option. You can see in this chapter several unusual photographs of Pripyat, taken during a stay of many hours in this ghost town, during a visit to the Exclusion Zone lasting two (freezing) days in late autumn 2019. Practical info about the visit are provided in a section at the end of another chapter (and links therein).

Sights

Photographs will follow the course of our visit. We started early in the morning from nearby Chernobyl, where we had spent the night. We were in Pripyat before one-day visitors from Kiev came in – possibly the most impressive part of the visit in terms of ‘ghost aura’, thanks to the silence and loneliness of the place at that time.

You may see the light changing over the day, until we finally left in the afternoon for another part of the Zone. You won’t see people in my pics, but this is the result of the ability of our guide, as well as of some effort on my side especially in the central hours of the day and around the central district.

Red Forest, Bridge of Death and Pripyat Access

One of the most severely contaminated areas in the zone, the ‘red forest’ used to cover the area between the power-plant and the town of Pripyat. Exposed to an unprecedented level of radiation, the trees in the forest changed color to an unnatural red soon after the explosion. As a matter of fact, all those trees have been wiped out and buried underground. A completely new blanket of younger trees now covers the area.

The route coming from the power-plant and going north to Pripyat, only less than 3 miles away, is usually covered by car/bus on visits to this sector – a route likely covered every day by workers living in town and working at the nuclear plant. The road goes through the former area of the red forest, where many radiation danger and warning signals can be seen, and where you are unlikely to stop.

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town Red Forest Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Reactor Funnel Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The same road finally points straight into Pripyat, and goes over a railway track. The bridge is a vantage point from where the power-plant could be observed, especially the ill-fated reactor N.4, which lies next to it. On the day of the accident people from nearby Pripyat came to this bridge out of curiosity, to check out the emergency operations taking place around the reactor. Similar to the red forest just ahead of it, the bridge was invested by a massive flow of invisible radioactive debris, also due to the wind direction on the day of the accident. The name ‘Bridge of Death’ given afterwards to this site suggests the epilogue of the story for the most unlucky among those who ventured on the bridge on that fateful day.

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

From the bridge you can spot the tall buildings of Pripyat, and soon reach the entry checkpoint.

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

‘Azure’ Swimming Pool and School (Microdistrict 3)

Accessing in the early morning, despite the very cold temperature, we could enjoy a few hours of a really evoking, silent and lonely visit. Venturing in Pripyat, you soon meet an array of many bulky multi-storey apartment buildings close by each other.

Leaving the car close to a major crossing, and walking between microdistrict 3 and 4 to the first highlight on our visit – the sporting center called ‘Lazurnyy’ – or ‘Azure’ in English – we could appreciate the size of some of these builidings. The silence was really striking! Old road signs can be seen along the road.

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

From the outside, the sporting center must have looked really nice in its heyday. A decorated metal fence can be seen around the complex, which lies in front off School N.3. A giant clock hangs on top of the building. Some soviet decoration can be found in the entrance hall of the complex.

Ghost Town Pool Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town Pool Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Upstairs, a first hall hosts a gym, with a basketball court. The pool is in an adjoining hall. It is modernly designed, with a large window looking on to the next buildings, some hundreds feet away. The roof is inclined, making this hall look somewhat roomier than it actually is.

Ghost Town Pool Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

A clock and a ‘coat of arms’ of a swimming team (?) adorn the wall. The springboard is also still in place.

Ghost Town Pool Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Unfortunately, some total idiot writer felt and urge to add his signature on the side of the pool. Luckily, similar accidents are not typical to Pripyat, which is still today heavily guarded.

Next door, you can find School N.3. A rather big building with an inner courtyard, you can find here many interesting sights, including tons of science-themed posters, a full physics lab with experiments – and items looking like models of heat-exchangers of a power-plant… – and more usual classrooms.

Ghost Town School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

There is also a room where the floor is covered with gas masks. This is an example of a staged post-apocalyptic scenery, which have been prepared for tourists, and is actually not totally original – sure the masks were already stored there for civil protection, but they have been apocryphally scattered on the ground only for photographers.

Ghost Town School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Panoramic View from Rooftop (Microdistrict 5)

Walking from microdistrict 3 to the northwestern corner of microdistrict 5, you get past entire blocks of multi-storey buildings. The tallest in Pripyat are a couple of 16-storeys ‘twin towers’ on two sides of a street on the northern edge of the town – i.e. the farthest from the power-plant.

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Climbing to the roof terrace on top of one of the twins – a nice workout with a heavy full complement of photographic gear, especially useful to warm up on a freezing autumn morning! – you get the chance to enjoy a great panorama view over the entire town of Pripyat. From there you may better appreciate the concentration of high-rise buildings in town, as well as the sharp border between the settlement and the wilderness all around – like many industrial towns in the USSR, Pripyat was built basically in the middle of nowhere!

Ghost Town Rooftop Panorama Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The proximity to the power-plant – with the colossal hangar-like sarcophagus containing what remains of reactor N.4 – is really striking. While convenient for commuting workers, in the event it turned deadly for Pripyat. See Chapter 2 for more on the power-plant.

Ghost Town Rooftop Panorama Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The colossal Duga anti-ICBM early-warning over-the-horizon detection antennas can be clearly spotted from here too, despite being some 7 miles away – they are really big! See Chapter 1 for more on this incredible, one-of-a-kind Cold War relic.

Ghost Town Rooftop Panorama Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Considering the buildings have been in total disrepair from some decades now, they are pretty well conserved, testifying about the overall not-so-bad quality – better than expected especially for soviet standard. Traces of architectural decorations are also to be found on the balconies, definitely unusual for industrial towns (see for instance the depressing northern suburbs of the large port of Murmansk in this post).

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Amusement Park

Likely the most photographed spot in Pripyat, the Ferris wheel is to be found in an amusement park in the central district of the town, close by administrative and service buildings.

Ghost Town Amusement Park Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Considering its age and disrepair, it is not in so bad a shape. The Ferris wheel is not the only item in this small amusement park. There are a bumper car track, a big swing, what appears to be the skeleton of a chairoplane, and a smaller indoor shooting range.

Ghost Town Amusement Park Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The deer painted on the wall of the shooting range appear very well preserved, and it is hard to tell whether they are from the time.

Ghost Town Amusement Park Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Post Office

Again part of the central district, the central post office is home to one of the finest murals in the whole Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. A true protagonist in the iconography of the USSR, a cosmonaut occupies the central scene of the mural, which is centered on the idea of writing, language and communication in history.

Ghost Town Post Office Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

While often kitschy and of poor artistic value, in some cases Soviet murals are more interesting, featuring a unique mix of ingenuity, rhetoric and design skill which most suitably adorn public offices, military halls or front facades.

Ghost Town Post Office Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

This is also the case for the external ceramic frieze on the side the southern side of the same post office. Traces of public phone booths, an original mailbox and the opening timetable of the post office are still there to see!

Central Square

The central square of Pripyat is one of the most crowded places in the whole Exclusion Zone. Not only tourists can be found everywhere in the adjoining buildings, but buses of every size are parked ahead of it, making it look possibly more jammed than in the years before 1986.

Despite that, some highlights of Pripyat are to be found around the square, so it is of course worth a stop. To the west of the square you can find a large restaurant, with its big banner still on top of the building. In an adjoining building, the central shopping mall is an impressive sight, with indications like ‘Fruit’, ‘Vegetables’ and so on still there.

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town City Center Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town City Center Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

One block away still to the west, a big, tall building has the coat of arms of the USSR on top.

To the north of the square, a massive civic center (‘Palace of Culture’) can be found, once hosting a hall for social events, and an adjoining indoor sporting facility.

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town City Center Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The hall features another interesting soviet fresco, and what appears to be a large ballroom.

The sporting facility includes a very big basketball/soccer court, a very small pool, and a boxing ring.

Ghost Town Gym Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town Gym Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

To the east, the square is completed by the Hotel ‘Polissia’, which is joined to the Palace of Culture via a long curved patio.

Ghost Town Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Hospital – Medical Center 126

As said, the hospital occupies a large area, equivalent in size to a microdistrict. This large medical center is composed of many buildings, and on the day of the accident it found itself on the front line, trying to give assistance to the death-bound firefighters, hit by acute radiation syndrome, as well as to many inhabitants of Pripyat, who were exposed to extreme – albeit not immediately lethal – doses of radiation, experiencing physical symptoms in the hours following the accident and preceding evacuation.

For some reason, this area is one of the most contaminated in Pripyat today, and venturing is usually a matter of a few minutes for safety reasons. Adding to the unhealthy aura of this place, rumors support that the uniforms of the firefighters, hastily thrown in the basement when they were given medical assistance, are still there, somewhere beyond a bricked-up door…

We walked inside the largest building in the complex, and kept on the floor of the gynecology and pediatric department. Here you can find baby cots, delivery rooms, medical cabinets and more standard hospital bedrooms as well.

Ghost Town Hospital Gynecology Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Empty cradles, abandoned registers, medical posters and hardware make for a really spooky sight.

Ghost Town Hospital Gynecology Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

To the far end of the building, you can find a kind of conference room, with traces of decoration on the wall.

Ghost Town Hospital Gynecology Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Leaving the main building of the hospital, walking past a water reservoir, we reached the morgue and dissection room. Already pretty horrible in normal life, this is one of the spookiest sights in Pripyat’s post-apocalyptic setting!

Ghost Town Hospital Morgue Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town Hospital Gynecology Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Chemical reactants and a smoky incinerator for medical waste complete the picture – who knows whether they incinerated some used clothes and gauze after the accident… better to avoid touching the soot-covered walls here!

Ghost Town Hospital Morgue Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town Cafe Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Cafe Pripyat, Passenger Port and Floating Pier

Cross the road on the northwestern corner of the hospital district, you find a very peculiar building, appearing like the set for some James Bond movie scene. The assembly is made of two small buildings with large windows, connected by a covered passage.

The eastern end of the complex is Cafe Pripyat.

Ghost Town Cafe Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Besides some sculptures on the outside, the main hall of the cafe features a very nice – and well preserved – example of artistic stained glass windows. The incredible light of the day added to the ensemble – making it for sure the most pleasant sight in Pripyat.

Ghost Town Cafe Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The covered passages features triangular concrete posts.

Ghost Town Cafe Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The complex is on top of a low cliff, on the bank of a backwater of river Pripyat, and a descending stair takes you to a former pier.

Ghost Town Cafe Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town Floating Pier Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The geography of waterways here is not very clear. Today, it appears that the water you access from this complex is basically an isolated pond. However, this may be an artificial result. As a matter of fact, the area around the power-plant, and down to Chernobyl some miles away, used to be served by hydrofoils. It appears unlikely that a pier this big was built without this type of service in mind, so maybe what is now a reservoir, used to be a receptacle of river Pripyat, and a stop in the water transport lines.

An interesting element to be sighted somewhat downstream with respect to the pier is a floating part of the pier, which got detached from the fixed part and got stranded after floating abandoned for a while.

Ghost Town Floating Pier Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

This can be boarded today, a rather sad sight – also giving you a sense of nausea, as it is lying in a somewhat banked attitude which makes you loose the sense of the horizon.

KBO Service Center

Not far from Cafe Pripyat you can spot the original fence put in place immediately after evacuating the village. This old fence is today totally rusty, and largely cut through.

Ghost Town Cafe Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Pointing to the central square, you meet an interesting mall named ‘KBO’, where services offered included a barber shop and other small shops. The barber shop is especially interesting. Despite being in a relatively bad shape, gear including combs, razors, mirrors, soap trays and so on are still there.

Ghost Town Barber Shop Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

In its early life, the mirror could never imagine he would reflect the image of so many westerners one day – some would even be excited to take pictures of their reflection!

Ghost Town Barber Shop Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The building features some decorated glass windows. Timetables and announcements are still painted ahead of some of the shops.

Prometheus Movie Theater and Music School

What makes these two adjoining buildings unique is the elaborate mosaic decoration on the curved facades. Again, an example of architecture from the Cold War era.

Ghost Town Music Academy Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Inside the music school a small theater hall still features a piano on the stage!

Furniture Shop and Home Appliance Shop (AGD)

Not far from the central square in microdistrict 2, you can find a small single-storey building made to host shops. Two shops are particularly interesting.

One is a furniture shop, where you can see several vertical pianos! Most of them bear a ‘Made in the USSR’ sign.

Ghost Town Piano Shop Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

There are also some signs, including some ‘dos and don’ts’ for safety.

Ghost Town TV Shop Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ghost Town Piano Shop Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

An adjoining shop used to sell home appliances, and on the scaffolds you can still find a set of cathode ray tube old TV sets!

Ghost Town TV Shop Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Ahead of this shops, you can find a disturbing abandoned playground and an outdoor basketball court, possibly once part of the nearby School N.2.

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

School N.2 (Microdistrict 2)

This big multi-storey school building offers an incredible quantity of memorabilia to be photographed, and even taken alone it would already make for a valid reason to come to Pripyat, for a committed hunter of Soviet relics!

Entering the hall, you soon meet interesting posters, based on standard soviet iconography.

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Everything is in total disorder, so you literally walk on books sometimes, and you may find notebooks, school reports, diplomas and other handwritten stuff scattered over any flat surface!

The common areas and corridors are decorated with murals, some of them really nice.

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

A geography classroom features folded maps, textbooks on the geography of the USSR, and even models of some mountains.

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

An intriguing room is a linguistic lab – where they apparently taught English. As observed (see this chapter), this sounds strange, considering the poor level of English penetration even in today’s former USSR Countries, and the fact that English was the idiom of the ‘western enemy’. Maybe the relatively privileged status of the inhabitants of Pripyat included a special level of education.

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The chemistry lab is very ‘lively’, with complicate molecular models and bottles of reactants on the desks.

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

There are archive rooms packed with diplomas and hand written paperworks.

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Some posters in the corridors are really funny, including some related to sport, some explaining good practices for preserving your teeth, and others displaying encouraging numbers related to Soviet industrial production – they are updated to 1985, and the trends do not appear to show any indication of what would happen to the USSR and the whole communist bloc in less than 6 years…

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The biology lab is packed with models describing the anatomy of fishes, birds, and humans as well!

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

More and more classrooms are full of interesting items to check out!

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

An example of a rather interesting iconography style, not far from some Japanese manga, can be found on a few posters close to the main entrance, with lyrics including the anthem of the USSR.

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

In the library on the ground floor you can find interesting textbooks on many subjects. On a particular book left open by chance, we could see a portrait of the massive monument to the Soviet Army in Treptower Park, Berlin (see this post).

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

The school building used to feature a canteen, which can be easily recognized – with a menu board still hanging on a wall!

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

In another wing you can find a music room, and the unmissable gym!

Ghost Town Abandoned School Pripyat Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone

Visiting

Together with a friend, we arranged a two-days visit to the zone with the very competent guide Mikhailo Teslenko (website here). For a curious visitor, one-day trips are really just a quick starter. I could notice the difference between that options and ours when visiting School N.2. We spent 45 minutes there, and despite collecting hundreds of good pics and exploring all the floors, we left with the sensation of having left behind millions of photo opportunities and unchecked items. A group of around ten people on a day trip spent there – literally – 5 minutes. They could not venture beyond the ground floor.

So, if you need to multiply photo opportunities, you will need to go on a private tour. Furthermore, do not underestimate the problem of crowds, which may obstruct your camera scope and spoil your pics of any mystery aura. A small party and a guide with a knowledge of peak hours and crowded hot-spots may help much in avoiding disappointment.

Choose the season accurately, for in summer it gets very warm and humid, and you are not allowed to wear sleeveless shirts, plus the trees obstruct the view more than in winter. Winter of course can be extremely cold. Despite the freezing temperature, we got two perfect days for pictures in late November.

Pripyat is big, and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is immense, so simply forget to see everything even on a multi-day trip. Yet most highlights will be covered decently on a two-days tour – three chapters on this website are from photographic material collected on such a trip!

More suggestions and practical info can be found in this dedicated section.

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – Second Chapter: Nuclear Power-Plant & Nearby Villages

March 6, 2020March 7, 2020 CarloRLeave a comment

The nuclear power-plant of Chernobyl took its name from an early medieval village – actually one of the oldest settlements in the Ukrainian region – not far from the right bank of river Dnepr. Following the construction of the plant in the early 1970s, the village of Chernobyl changed appearance, turning into a modern town (for the soviet standard of the 1970s…) for workers of the plant.

Actually, an entire new village was eventually built anew closer to the power station, the ill-famed Pripyat. The proximity to the place of the accident, as well as the north-bound air stream on that fateful day on April 1986, meant that Chernobyl town was hit much less by contamination than more modern and populated Pripyat.

As a matter of fact, today Pripyat is included in the inner ‘high-contamination’ sector of the exclusion zone, whereas Chernobyl town to the south has been spared a contamination so severe, and albeit to a much more limited extent than before the accident, it is still partly inhabited today. You are even likely to spend the night there, if you elect to embark on a multi-day tour of the zone!

Maybe less known to the general public is how large the (relatively) ‘low-contamination’ belt of the exclusion zone is. Considering only the Ukrainian part of the cordoned territory, the limited-access area extends roughly as Greater London, i.e. the whole area inside the Orbital! Clearly, on a territory so big – basically an entire province! – there used to be many villages, in most cases rural settlements, existing before the power-plant was erected. Unlike Chernobyl town, some of these smaller villages had retained their early-soviet, or even pre-soviet appearance.

Another relevant item in the area was the huge military plant centered around the ‘Duga’-type early warning system, installed in the 1970s together with a small secluded military village, Chernobyl-2 – see this dedicated post.

When tragedy struck in 1986, the government of the USSR had the area evacuated very fast, in some cases almost overnight. Where Chernobyl town and the power-plant area soon turned into a nest of new activities, mainly connected with the sealing, monitoring and recover of the leaking plant, most of the villages in the isolated zone turned into ghost towns.

Due to its large size and to the drama investing the families of the workers of the power-plant living there, Pripyat is for sure the most famous of all ghost towns of the zone, and probably also of the world. Yet scattered over the Chernobyl exclusion zone are many other smaller ghost villages, crystallized in time. Scattered over the Ukrainian countryside, immersed in the overgrown vegetation, these places offer an authentic and unique view of the rural life in the Soviet Union in the decades before the 1980s, deep in the Cold War era. Abandoned schools, kindergartens, private housing, public offices, patriotic monuments, etc. are abundant there, and make for mysterious sights, in some cases more intriguing to relic-hunters and urban explorers than what you may find in Pripyat – where the atmosphere may turn a bit too touristic even in a freezing weekend of late November, due to the hundreds of one-day trippers from Kiev, Ukraine’s capital city.

This post from a multi-day private photographic tour to the zone (see details and suggestion for the organization of the trip here) covers Chernobyl town and power-plant, plus many less-known and highly-mysterious villages and locations scattered over the exclusion zone. Photographs were taken in November 2019.

Sights

Chernobyl Town

The town of Chernobyl, originally a settlement in the countryside on the left bank of Pripyat river, about 70 miles north of Kiev, and dating from the 12th century, found itself located roughly six miles south of the ‘Lenin’ nuclear power-plant since the 1970s. This fact changed the shape of the town, which was largely expanded with blocks of typical multi-storey soviet monolithic apartment buildings. The population rose quickly from some hundreds to some thousands. A new welcome sign was erected, with some symbolism recalling the industrial vocation of the town.

Chernobyl Chornobyl Monument Ghost Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The town was also an administrative center, with an unmissable KGB building, a justice court, a big communication center and many services for the local population.

Following the accident, the population decreased again to some hundreds, as the town is since then basically in the geographical center of the exclusion zone, albeit being by a small distance out of the inner ‘high-contamination’ sector. According to the rules of the exclusion zone, residents are not allowed to spend all the time there, so there is basically no permanent population.

Today, Chernobyl town may be not the most interesting center in the zone for tourists and explorers, but it is still one of the most active administrative and logistic centers in the cordoned area. It is located on the only major road serving the exclusion zone, going from the southern access point of Dytyatky to the power-plant and Pripyat. It is likely in this ill-famed village that you are going to spend the night, if you are on a multi-day trip!

Chernobyl Chornobyl Monument Ghost Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Despite being there for the night, on our visit we could not tour the town extensively – there is a curfew at night, plus you are not allowed to move away from the hotel without a guide, who will likely leave you at the hotel to pick you up the next morning. Here are a few pics of the hotel ’10’ (this is the name of the hotel, probably linked to its address…).

Food Visit Canteen Hotel 10 Ten Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

One of the highlight of the tour was the visit to the memorial to the victims of the accident, including the deported populations of the villages in the zone. This monument features the names of all the many villages forcibly evacuated following the accident. As said, many of these villages dated from much earlier ages, so people living there for generations were forced to pack up and move away – all of the sudden and forever.

Chernobyl Chornobyl Monument Ghost Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The names are reported on entrance signs aligned along an alley climbing uphill. On top of the hill, a concrete platform reproduces the profile of the exclusion zone, distinguishing between the innermost and outer parts. Each village is represented here by a metal stud planted in this kind of map. Finally, a modern statue of an angel with a trumpet has been placed in a position overlooking the map.

Chernobyl Chornobyl Monument Ghost Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The angel is there for a precise reason. As a matter of fact, the name ‘Chernobyl’ in the local idiom corresponds to ‘Wormwood’. From the Book of Revelation, one of the angels of the Apocalypse let a star fall upon the Earth, causing the extinction of a portion of mankind. The name of the star was – guess – ‘Wormwood’! The cold weather, the fading evening light, the dark silhouette of the angel and the ghost appearance of the nearby housing created an ideal setting for listening to this story from our guide – you too would have been deeply impressed!

Not far from the monument, you can find the local courthouse, where the technicians found responsible for the disaster were trialed. Just cross the road from that building, you can find a statue of Lenin, and close by a big communication center from soviet times, still featuring its huge metal antenna.

Chernobyl Chornobyl Monument Ghost Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Cooling Towers of the Nuclear Power-Plant

Moving north from Chernobyl town, you soon get into the innermost part of the zone, centered around the former nuclear power-plant. You realize you are getting closer as you start seeing a huge funnel emerging from the top of the trees in the distance.

Road Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Reactor Funnel Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

This funnel is one of a couple, and they were never finished. This is actually one of the parts of the power-plant which is easier to visit. Access is cross an artificial channel for the cooling of the plant. You will need to walk along a modern and active railway track, leading to the power-plant some miles further. It is only when you are close to the funnels that you realize how monster-size they are. One of the funnels is largely unfinished, whereas the second one is much higher, and close to completion. We also accessed the latter.

Reactor Funnel Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

For me, this was the first time ever I walked close to such a plant, and the appearance – a mix of its actual size and shape – made this item really impressive! Furthermore, it may look surprising but the walls of the funnels are suspended on a tubular structure all around the base, so that the walls are not planted in the ground. This is in accordance with the working principle of the funnel, which is basically a heat exchanging surface. The wind blowing through the tubular structure at the base increases air circulation.

Reactor Funnel Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Walking past the concrete tubes supporting the funnel, you can even better appreciate its size.

The inner surface of the funnel should have been covered with heat-exchangers. As a matter of fact, at the time of the accident work on this highly contaminated part of the plant was immediately suspended, and never resumed. Only a little part of the heat-exchangers is in place – the scaffolds for masons and plumbers working at the construction of the funnel and of the exchangers are still in place close to the top rim!

Reactor Funnel Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

An oversized pipe emerges from the ground inside the funnel, likely the primary duct of hot cooling water coming from the plant. It is surrounded by a complex concrete structure. An artistic mural from a famous photograph, portraying a doctor assisting the victims of the nuclear emergency, has been authorized on the base of this concrete structure.

Reactor Funnel Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

A particular making this part of the visit especially disturbing is that this is one of the radiation hot-spots of the exclusion zone! The guide will let you go in for a limited time, while waiting for you at a distance – going there more frequently, it would turn dangerous for him on the long run. Your guide’s Geiger counter will emit a worrying whistle close to the funnel, which despite other visited places in the zone, was never seriously decontaminated. On top of the cake, the ground at the center of the funnel is covered in moss, reportedly a natural collector of radiation contaminated powder! Our guide recommended not to step over moss, something we took very seriously – as you see, there are no pictures from the center of the funnel…

The freezing wind blowing through the slot at the base made the visit of the funnel particularly uncomfortable – where in most places of the zone we would have liked to stay days instead of hours, here we were glad our guide gave us only ten minutes!

Nuclear Power-Plant

The centerpiece of the exclusion zone is clearly the plant, officially named after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, but known to the general public through the name of the ancient village nearby – Chernobyl.

Construction of the plant was started in 1970, and the first reactor (N.1) was commissioned in 1977, followed by N.2 in 1978. A second couple of a slightly modified model were commissioned in 1981 (N.3) and 1983 (N.4) respectively. The latter – the youngest – was the one that failed on April 26th, 1986.

The four running reactors at the time of the accident constituted the first unit of the overall design for the power-plant. They physically shared room in a single, enormously long building, where they were arranged in a row, with N.4 at the western end.

The catastrophic failure of N.4 did not mean the immediate cease of operations for the power-plant, as the other reactors went on producing power until they were gradually deactivated (N.2 in 1991, N.1 in 1996 and finally N.3 in 2000). Following the 1986 accident, N.4 was encapsulated by the Soviets in an emergency containment structure, which despite generally doing its job was affected by significant leaking problems. Only in 2016-17 the so-called ‘New Safe Containment’, a huge hangar-like structure capable of more effectively containing radiation, was placed over N.4, immediately showing its effectiveness through a stark reduction of the measured emission, now at much more acceptable levels even in the close vicinity of the plant.

The size of the building can be better appreciated from the distance.

Road Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Contaminated Power Plant View Monument Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Reactors N.1 and N.2 can be spotted beneath the cubic domes to the end of the building opposite to the New Safe Containment.

Contaminated Power Plant View Monument Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Close by the plant, a large node of the Ukrainian distribution grid, with cables, capacitors and connectors, is still active today.

Contaminated Power Plant View Monument Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Road Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

For some reason, the plant cannot be photographed – there are clear signs all around its perimeter. This may be due to the fact this is still an active plant – the power-plant is off, but decommissioning activities are making this area one of the busiest and ‘lively’ in the exclusion zone. There is only one position where you can take a picture, and which is actually very close to the place of the disaster. This observation point is close to the containment structure of reactor N.4, where you can find also a monument to the heroes of the accident.

Contaminated Power Plant View Monument Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

From here you can appreciate the top-ranking size of this structure. Besides the immense financial cost, this item will need replacement in less than a century, due to natural loss of its containment function.

As said, this first block of four reactors was just part of the intended design. A second block of two further reactors (N.5 & 6) was already under construction at the time of the accident. This was cross an artificial channel, and closer to the cooling funnels portrayed above. Similar to the funnels, construction work on the new reactors ended abruptly on the very day of the accident.

Today, you can spot the concrete casing of N.5 & 6, with many cranes and scaffolds still suspended around, just like construction of the new building was still going on! A rather strange sight…

Contaminated Power Plant View Monument Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Road Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Further six reactors had been envisaged on the drawing board, but they never materialized.

Kopachi Village Kindergarten

Less than two miles south of the funnels, deep into the ‘highly-contaminated’ sector, you meet what remains of the former village of Kopachi, one of the many pre-existent settlements totally abandoned due to the accident. Kopachi used to be a village of wooden houses. Wooden houses close to the plant had adsorbed much radioactive powder soon after the accident. With the passing of time, the naturally disintegrating wood had started to spread radiation in the air, so the administration of the exclusion zone had the village literally wiped out and buried. Only a few non-wooden buildings are still standing.

Among them is listed most notably a kindergarten. Despite being close to the main road and much visited, this place is rather eerie. Despite the relatively high level of radiation especially close to the ground, you can get access for a few minutes.

Contaminated Kindergarten Monument Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Inside the classrooms, music sheets, dolls and children’s toys can be seen everywhere. Hangers with funny symbols for the children’s small coats make for a disturbing sight, similar to the sleeping room with small beds aligned in rows, and even some blanket still there. There is also a ‘Menu’ board still hanging on the wall…

Contaminated Kindergarten Monument Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Ahead of the kindergarten, a Soviet war memorial has been inherited by the Ukrainian government, and adorned with the national blue and yellow flag.

Contaminated Kindergarten Monument Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Zalissya Village

The abandoned village of Zalissya is located about 1.5 miles southwest of Chernobyl town, and is conveniently reachable along the main road from there to the Dytyatky entry point.

Likely dating from the years of the Tzar, this village is a prototypical example of a rural settlement in pre-Soviet and early-Soviet times. The only noticeable construction from the main road is a Soviet war memorial, pretty plain in design, yet not small.

Chernobyl Chornobyl Monument Ghost Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Zalissya Abandoned Village Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

To the left side of the monument you can take an unpaved alley leading into the trees. You soon meet an array of small buildings, once hosting public services – a post office, a market. Soon after, you come across the most conspicuous of the buildings in the village – a meeting hall. This is rather disproportionate to the size of the private houses you will see later. The front facade of the building carries a huge communist emblem, and the construction year, 1959.

Zalissya Abandoned Village Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Similar meeting halls were not uncommon in Soviet villages, and were intended for meetings of cultural-political kind, where local people got brainwashed by communist politicians. There are at least three adjoining halls in the building. The larger of the three features a stage with a soviet slogan still hanging from the ceiling!

Zalissya Abandoned Village Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The decor of the halls is in stark contrast to the simple make of the houses nearby. As you proceed further into the trees, you finally find the village of Zalissya – a group of old wooden chalets. Similar – maybe more – than in Pripyat, you find much hardware left behind by the evacuated population – bottles, pans, pots, cans, baskets, cutlery, clothes, candles, toys,…

Zalissya Abandoned Village Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Among the strange items to be found here, you will see an abandoned car – cars were left behind during the evacuation, which was carried out by public transport. As a result, the personnel in charge of the decontamination and survey operations after the accident had at their disposal plenty of abandoned cars! When one broke, it was simply left for another, and used for spare parts. This apparently was the fate of the one you see here…

Zalissya Abandoned Village Town Contaminated Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Accessing the houses maybe tricky, as some are badly damaged due to the years spent in disrepair. Nonetheless, this village provokes an incredible time-capsule effect, offering a hands-on glimpse into the everyday life of common soviet people from a rural setting in the years of the Cold War!

Isolated School & Kindergarten

As previously said, the exclusion zone features a quantity of larger and smaller villages. All of them have been abandoned, and some, originally close to the roads once forming a network in the countryside, are today hard to reach except with a walk in the trees – they are not accessible by car.

An inconvenient location has spared some of the spots in the exclusion zone from being battered by day-trippers. You can reach them only with a guide. As a result, these places are especially exciting to visit, as they feature an intense ghost aura – just like inhabitants had just left!

Over our trip, we visited one such village, and in particular we were directed by our guide to spend some time in the school and kindergarten, put on the side of a former small sporting ground, now invaded by vegetation. The evening light and the loneliness played a part in making this one of the eeriest parts of the overall visit to the exclusion zone!

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Starting from the school, by the entrance hall you soon meet tons of posters and notice-boards, with quotes from Lenin speeches, flags and emblems.

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Adjacent to the hall are two smaller rooms, with literally thousands of letters, copybooks, books, boards, postcards,… most of them hand written! You could easily spend one day taking an inventory of what is in there!

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The long building features only one floor, and the classrooms are organized mostly based on themes like geography, biology, language, physics,…

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Especially interesting is the language classroom. Most apparently, they used to teach English there! Considering the very low penetration of English in today’s ex-USSR countries – except maybe in the most touristic towns – and the fact that this was the language of the ‘western enemies’, it is surprising to find this level of commitment in teaching this idiom, especially in this small peripheral school.

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

A very intriguing lab is that devoted to chemistry and biology. Here you can find models of molecules, microscope specimens, collections of plants and seeds, minerals, etc. The silence, the evening light filtering through the windows on a cold autumn day completed the picture at the time of our visit..

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Similarly interesting are the geography classroom, stacked with boards, similar to the main corridor of the building.

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

To the far end of the school, you can find what appears to be a kind of ‘propaganda lab’ – a relatively large room with tons of purely-Soviet items – history books, portraits of heroes, bombastic propaganda posters, and so on. It is apparent that teachers started pouring in some ideas in the minds of soviet children already from an early age…

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Close by, the physics lab makes for another interesting sight, with kinematics and thermodynamics small-scale experiments bolted to the desks.

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Compared to the school, the kindergarten is somewhat more morbid.

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Puppets, toy trucks, dolls and even baby-size slippers make for a few sights that speak by themselves.

Isolated School Kindergarten Abandoned Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Children’s Camp ‘Emerald’

Not far north of Chernobyl town and close to the main road going to the plant, you can find another unique sight – a summer camp made for children from the large area around Chernobyl, before the nuclear disaster changed everything forever.

The location is not far from river Pripyat. It is today immersed in a tall forest, which makes contributes to the dim and shady aura of this place. Of course, some trees used to be there also before the accident, but today some have grown also in unusual places. The summer camp is made of pretty log cabins, placed on the side of a hill, gently descending towards the river. Nice place, except for a nuclear plant a few miles apart.

Abandoned Ghost Summer Camp Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The cabins are basic and today generally empty, but they feature original wall paintings with animals and some popular characters from fairy tales.

Abandoned Ghost Summer Camp Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

In between some of the cabins, grouped in small clusters, you can find a playground, as well as some notice-boards and water fountains.

Abandoned Ghost Summer Camp Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

There are also some service buildings – a small market and an administration cabin.

Abandoned Ghost Summer Camp Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Abandoned Barges on Pripyat River

The famous ghost town of Pripyat took its name from a nice river, a tributary of the majestic Dnepr, which flows from Russia all across Ukraine (via Kiev) and to the Black Sea. The Pripyat river features a meandering path, and thanks to its slow stream, it is ideal for water transportation of people and goods. As a matter of fact, hydrofoils were used by the locals for commuting before the accident, and barges were used for supplies of any kind, both for the local companies and people. Hydrofoils were especially characteristic of the area – you can find an image of a hydrofoil in the welcome sign entering Chernobyl town (see above).

Following the accident to the power-plant, most barges in the vicinity were contaminated, and also lost any use due to the escape of the population from the badly contaminated area. As a result, most of these ships turned into floating wrecks, slowly descending downstream and finally stranding somewhere on the banks of the river and its smaller tributaries.

A concentration of these relics can be found very close to Chernobyl town, descending to the bank of a receptacle of river Pripyat from the town.

Drifting Barges Stranded Boats Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The rusty, partly sunken barges make for a rather dramatic sight. The evening light of a freezing late-November day made this visit even more impressive.

Drifting Barges Stranded Boats Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Visiting

The sites you see portrayed in this and other chapters (see here) were visited on a personalized two-days photographic tour to the Chernobyl exclusion zone with a guide. To make the most of your time in the zone, and especially if you are looking for good photo sets (including the correct timing over the day accounting for sunlight), I suggest considering this type of tour instead of more common and cheaper day-trips from Kiev. The exclusion zone is simply too extensive and rich of photo opportunities for a one-day visit, plus some places might get (somewhat surprisingly) very crowded at some point during the day, spoiling most scenes of their mystery aura.

We visited in a party of two, with the very competent guide Mikhailo Teslenko. Find in this dedicated section from another post rather complete indications for a visit, and the link to Mr. Teslenko’s website here.

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – First Chapter: Duga Radar and Military Village

February 1, 2020March 7, 2020 CarloRLeave a comment

Especially after the acclaimed HBO series of 2019, the events of the Chernobyl accident, as well as the drama of the local population and emergency staff, are at least basically known to the general public.

Since the nuclear disaster, a large area, comparing well in size with Greater London (but somewhat larger), has been severed from the rest of the world by means of a security cordon, forming the so-called ‘exclusion zone’, on the border between Ukraine and Belarus.

Access to the zone is strictly regulated. You have to carry a radiation dosimeter. Nobody can spend more than some days in a month in it, and no more than four days in a row. Some areas should not be accessed at all, and inside the exclusion zone are two sub-regions, an outer one where also Chernobyl town is, and an inner one, more severely contaminated. The latter is closer around the power-plant, and includes world-famous Pripyat – the mother of all ghost towns. To access this inner zone you are checked further, and stricter permanence restrictions apply.

Despite that, and the obvious – but not so dramatic – unhealthiness of the area, there are many businesses still going on, mainly around the power-plant – decommissioning the whole plant and monitoring the ill-fated reactor 4 is still producing a constant flow of work man-hours – but also in the agencies devoted to studying and monitoring the natural reaction to a never otherwise reached level of scattered radiation. As a matter of fact, huge parts in and around the exclusion zone have been turned into a special natural preserve. There are also services in several centers scattered over the zone, like canteens, hotels, transport companies, ranger stations, etc.

Not least, the Ukrainian Government is somewhat promoting visits to the area by the general public, and following the 30 years anniversary of the accident in 2016, touristic flows have literally exploded, with tens of thousands visitors per year. Clearly, you are not allowed to enter or move around on your own. There are two basic philosophies for visiting.

For those who just like the thrill of being in a contaminated place, an eerie ghost town or in proximity to a damaged nuclear plant for a while, there are quite a few options to get to the zone from Kiev on a one-day guided trip. You won’t see much more than the very basic highlights of the show, but you will be entitled to say ‘I’ve been there’. For those with an interest in taking great pictures, urban explorers, Soviet fans (?) or people with an interest in the history of the accident, private custom-designed multiple-day tours are available, managed by competent authorized guides. Considering the size of the exclusion zone, it is going to be a rush anyway, and you will leave with the sensation of having missed at least as much as what you have seen, but you will definitely see more than on a one-day trip, and not only the most obvious highlights. This was my option when I visited in November 2019 (more practical info at the end of the chapter – scroll down for this), and photographs in this post and related posts on this site (see here for chapter two) cover this incredible experience.

Soviet Over-the-Horizon Anti-ICBM Early Warning System ‘Duga’

Among the highlights most typically overlooked on a short visit to the zone is a one-of-a-kind relic of the Cold War. The Soviet early-warning radar Duga-3, aka ‘the Russian Woodpecker’ (or the ‘Steel Works’ or ‘Steel Yards’ to Western intelligence), started the testing phase in 1976, well into the electronic age. This system was intended to counteract the American intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) threat, by detecting a single or more missiles soon after launch from the continental US. This implied detection beyond the line of the horizon, hence the name of this class of defense system – OTH, ‘over the horizon’ back-scatter radar. The physical effect exploited by this device was an alteration of the ionosphere by missile exhaust plumes, studied since the late 1940s, and such to be detectable by the back scatter of a purpose-designed radar beam.

The radar was made of a couple of two gigantic receiver antennas, one a little bigger than the other, and of a set of emitters. The couple of receivers make for a staggering total length of about 2’200 ft! The two antennas worked on two different frequency ranges. The bigger one was the low-frequency antenna, about 450 ft tall, whereas the smaller high frequency one was ‘only’ about 270 ft tall! As a matter of fact, they can be spotted from quite a distance, for example from the taller buildings of Pripyat.

The receivers were built about 7 miles in a straight line northwest of Chernobyl town – and they found themselves about the same distance southwest of the power-plant, today in the inner, highly contaminated circle within the exclusion zone. A segregated residential area for military technical staff and their families, known as Chernobyl-2, was built nearby. A large and sophisticated control center, as well as a training academy for the technical staff, was installed on site too.

The emitter antenna was located some tens of miles to the northeast of the receiver, closer to the village of Rozsudiv (aka Rasudovo), out of the exclusion zone. Nothing of the original antenna remains there today.

Building this radar system close to a Gigawatt-size nuclear power-plant might have been done in purpose, for the system needed an outraging electric power supply to work (in the order of some tens of Megawatts). By the way, the system reportedly cost to the USSR about twice the money needed for building the nuclear power-plant…

Historical Overview

The Duga system was built in only two operational examples. A set of smaller-scale prototype installations had been originally completed as Duga-N and Duga-2, both located in the village of Kalynivka, near Mykolaiv (aka Nikolayev), southern Ukraine. These systems were successfully tested in the early 1970s, detecting simultaneous launches of four missiles from Baikonur, some 1’600 miles away. As a result of the success, it was decided to deploy two full-scale Duga-3 installations, capable of covering the North American sector. The two selected locations were Chernobyl, Ukraine, and Bolshaya Kartel, in the easternmost part of Russia. As said, these were completed around 1976.

In the event, the whole OTH detection system never went fully operative. Major technical issues related to the instability of the ionosphere in the polar region – an effect that inland-looking testing with the experimental small-scale Duga systems had not highlighted – made the north-pointed Duga-3 largely unreliable. The Soviets military finally accepted the Bolshaya Kartel installation in 1980, whereas testing went on for years in the Chernobyl installation, until it was hastily shut off following the power-plant accident in 1986. Parts of the Chernobyl system were transferred to the twin site in Bolshaya Kartel. The latter ceased operations in 1989, even before the end of the USSR, without having been fully commissioned ever.

The contamination of the plant in Chernobyl-2 made its disassembly economically disadvantageous. As a result, this humongous witness of the Cold War is still standing today, notably the last of the group of OTH early warning radars deployed by the USSR in the years of the confrontation with the West, now totally or partly demolished – for sure, this is the only surviving ‘Steel Works’ antenna.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Access and Radar Antennas
Control Center and Technical Buildings
Training Center
Chernobyl-2 – Firefighters Station and Village
Chernobyl-2 – School
Chernobyl-2 – Entertainment Center
Visiting

Sights

Similar to all villages in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the military town of Chernobyl-2 was evacuated and abandoned following the nuclear accident in 1986. It had been built anew for the 1’500 staff of the Duga classified radar station and their families, and as such it was a segregated, secret military town, sufficiently small and far from larger Chernobyl and Pripyat to attract little attention. The local firefighters station was reportedly the only one from the area not taking part in the emergency operations connected with the 1986 accident – it had to devote itself completely to the local military installation and village. This illustrates how serious the concepts of ‘secret’ and ‘segregated’ were for the Soviet military staff!

There are three main focuses in the exploration of this site – the monster antennas, the radar control center & training academy, and the Chernobyl-2 village. In my view, the mixture of a secret Cold War military past, unique Star-Wars-like vintage hi-tech, a history of forced abandonment and nuclear contamination, together with the general ‘something wrong’ atmosphere of the exclusion zone, makes this area one of the most intriguing on the ‘Chernobyl-menu’ of weird sights!

Access and Radar Antennas

You get access to the area after leaving the main road connecting Chernobyl town to the power-plant soon after the inner-zone checkpoint. You drive some miles deep in the trees along a typical Soviet military road, made of prefabricated concrete slabs. The evergreen trees effectively hide the giant antennas, which you spot only when basically at a walking distance from the target.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

You may stop immediately ahead of the original fence of the segregated area – the gate still bolsters the Red Star Soviet military markings! A likely apocryphal huge head of Lenin has been placed besides the entrance. From there on, you must go by foot. By the way, there are a few guards living (at least on shifts, in accordance with contamination limiting regulations) in the original checkpoint by the gate!

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Walking to the bigger low-frequency antenna – the taller one, located closer to the site entrance – you pass by a nice Soviet military-themed mural.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Walking closer to the antenna, and going past an abandoned inner control booth, you start to realize the abnormal size of this item – as well as its rather complicated make.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The overall shape is roughly rectangular. To the far ends you can find two pylons, as tall as the central part of the antenna, and holding an array of horizontal cables.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The most visible part of the antenna is composed of an incredible tubular structure, apparently made of several pod-like substructures. Seen together in the pics, these pods may deceive their actual size – their diameter compares to the height of an adult man!

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The pods are connected by cables and pipes. The arrangement make for impressive pattern geometries – almost a nice design object!

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Walking along the base of this thing, you will notice it changes shape depending on your point of view. Taking the whole larger antenna in a single photo frame is not an easy task, even with a wide lens – it is really big!

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Right besides the taller and longer low-frequency antenna, you find another cable-holding pylon, as well as the ‘smaller twin’, i.e. the high-frequency antenna.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Our visit was rather early in the morning of a very cold late November day, and the sight of this monster antennas was made even weirder by the unreal silence of the area, broken only by the low metallic clacking sound of this mega-structure, dilating after catching the first beams of the morning light… Visiting later in the day would have not been the same – when we left, some other small groups of visitors could be seen around, somewhat breaking the mystery atmosphere.

Past the antenna, you find a concrete technical building running all along it, with a very long corridor.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Control Center and Technical Buildings

The major building in the technical area to the back of the antenna hosts the radar operation and control center. Originally, this sheltered arrays of signal-conditioning electronics, computers and related technical stuff, as well as control rooms much similar to NASA space mission control centers you can see in Houston, TX or Cape Canaveral, FL.

Accessing the building, you will be overwhelmed by the number of photo opportunities. A pinnacle for Soviet vintage fanatics is a couple of fine murals – despite most of Soviet military-related artistic works are really naive, there exist exceptions, and these two murals are among them. One of the paintings is fancy-space themed, whereas the other is science-themed.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

A highlight is of course the huge control room. Original control stations for the subsystems can still be seen, with plenty of vintage cathode tubes. The main report panel, once occupying the entire end wall of the room, has been largely dismantled, but traces of electronics can clearly be seen.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

In the same building, you can find dark rooms with arrays of cabinets once holding electronic boards or electric material.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Another highlight is a kind of propaganda room – not uncommon in Soviet military towns, see this post. Here you can find quotes of Lenin, articles from the Soviet law, as well as photographs and descriptions of US and NATO military assets. A stained glass board portrays the might of the Red Army, whereas another poster denigrates the ‘Yankees’…

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

From the top of the control building, you can enjoy a nice mid-height view of the antennas.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Back inside, you find another interesting room, with a scale model of the Darth, the Duga radar system and its function. In the same room you can find many control panels. Also interesting are the decorated glass windows, with military-themed stained glasses.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Training Center

Walking back to where you had started your exploration of the antennas, you find a flat building, originally hosting a training center for the technical staff operating the Duga. A training room is a major highlight of the show. Here you can find descriptions of the working principles of the OTH antennas, as well as a sample list of the US/NATO strategic missile and anti-missile assets! This is really interesting, also because portraits are made by hand and complemented by basic technical data.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

There are also technical schemes, and some further purely decorative portraits in naive style.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Military buffs – like myself – would easily loose track of time in this ‘didactic area’! Among the interesting things carelessly left on ground, tons of original Soviet radio and signal conditioning material!

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Chernobyl-2 – Firefighters Station and Village

Leaving the innermost technical area, you may then walk to Chernobyl-2, the segregated military village. A rather interesting place here is the firefighters station. Very well preserved, you can find in it an incredible scale model of the Duga and of the village, i.e. the area in the range covered by this station. In the same room, you can find tons of technical posters, and a nice epic mural dedicated to firefighters.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Chernobyl-2 is a ghost town in its own respect. Made of large prefabricated blocks, it is not even one-tenth of Pripyat in size, but it resembles similar military towns in former Soviet-occupied areas of Europe (see for instance this post). Not much visited and very quiet, it makes for a really mysterious sight.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Moving around the deserted blocks, you come across a small playground – basically intact, as if children had left the day before, a really impressive time-capsule effect!

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Chernobyl-2 – School

But the time-machine effect reaches its top in a visit of the local school. Similar to other schools in villages of the exclusion zone, this is really in good shape, and offers tons of interesting sights for explorers. In the music room you can see portraits of Russian and European composers – strangely enough, including Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff, which left the USSR for the West… – a vertical piano, and tons of didactic stuff in the cabinets.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

A very Soviet room features a kind of celebration of youth service.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

There is also a math/science room, with books, models, portraits.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Most surprisingly to Westerners, you can find a language teaching room, where apparently English was taught. Considering the limited penetration of English in today’s Russia, and the fact that this was the language of enemy propaganda from the Soviet standpoint, this room makes for a rather puzzling sight!

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Other rooms include a biology lab – with some botanical specimens still in place! – and much more.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

There is also the unmissable school gym, rather well preserved.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Chernobyl-2 – Entertainment Center

A final highlight of the village of Chernobyl-2 is the entertainment center. This offered a theater and a large gym, together in the same building. Both are still in a relatively good shape. A nostalgic quote on a red banner is still hanging from the ceiling in the large theater.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

The gym is decorated with naive sport-themed paintings, as well as Russian bears on stained glasses.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Going back to the entrance, you meet more service buildings, which have been converted to deposits of scrap material.

Radar Duga Woodpecker Early Warning Soviet Military Red Army Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

All in all, the Duga radar and Chernobyl-2 military village are for sure an unmissable sight for technically-minded people and Cold War historians!

Visiting

As said in the introduction, this site is often overlooked on one-day trips. However, if you are interested in something more than just being in the exclusion zone, and especially if you want to take good pictures, you will definitely need to take a longer tour. The Duga radar and annexed village are often a part of multiple-day tours.

Depending on the type of tour, you may customize the experience, and ask for a bit longer time here. If you are a technically-minded person, a Cold War historian, or interested in military history, this is among the most most interesting sites you will find in the exclusion zone – and by chance, in the world, since the majority of the BMEW (ballistic missiles early warning) system of the USSR have been demolished today (see for instance Skrunda, Latvia, in this post).

Personally I chose to take a private custom two-days tour to the zone in a party of two (me and a friend of mine, plus the guide). We spent a full morning in the area of the Duga. For serious explorers, I totally suggest to choose at least this option, or better a longer tour, as so long a stay in the Duga (or other similarly interesting) area, while still barely sufficient to satisfy your appetite, is simply not possible on a short and pre-programmed 1-day trip.

General Data and Advice for a Trip to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Type of Trip

You can see this advice in any serious travel account from Chernobyl area, and I can confirm it – just forget to see everything on a single (even multi-day) trip to the exclusion zone, it is simply too extensive and dense of interesting sights. Yet a private two-days tour is surely already ok for a satisfying photographic trip. Of course, personally I am planning to go back for checking out other places in the zone.

Generally speaking, my first two-days visiting experience was extremely positive, largely thanks to two factors – a great travel-mate, my friend Paolo, sharing my passions and most of my crazy exploration ideas, and a great guide, Misha, who owns and operates a guided tour service in Kiev, now totally dedicated to the exclusion zone. Together with Paolo we arranged this trip two and a half months in advance, with a focus on taking pics of some specific highlights of the exclusion zone. We agreed on a schedule with Misha before being there, specifying the Duga among the highlights. Misha totally understood the spirit of our visit, and drove us to unique places, including some not often included in most trips, concentrating on photo opportunities. He took extraordinary care of avoiding the crowds. We felt safe at every time, and I must say the organization of the visit prepared by our guide was virtually flawless – no wasted time, only interesting sights, millions of photo opportunities. The only thing I regret is not having had more time!

Albeit you will be driven in a comfortable sedan around the zone, be prepared to walk a lot and quick even on bad terrain – in many instances there is no way to avoid that. If you want to take good pictures inside, you will need to take a tripod and/or a powerful flash. On top of this, go there with a very good familiarity of your photographic gear. It is essential you can take pictures reasonably fast even with a tripod, or you will not be able to get much of your time in the zone. As I work with a massive Canon reflex camera, I have multiple lenses and gear. I suggest having them in pods around your belt, to be able to switch lenses fast. Let us add that in the freezing air of late November (about 14°F in sunlight during our stay), you will need warm clothes and suitable gloves to both protect your hands from cold air and allowing operation of your camera. So, it maybe obvious to professionals, but a trip to the exclusion zone should not be your first experience with urban exploration or with your camera either, otherwise you will get disappointed very easily.

Time of the Visit

Something you may not think necessary if this is your first time to the zone – arrange your schedule to take countermeasures against the crowds! Listen to your guide’s advice in this respect, and get prepared to start your day out early, have lunch late and finish at sunset, especially if you want to get good pictures without somebody in the frame. This may not be the case in less visited Chernobyl-2 and Duga area, but the central square of Pripyat may turn as busy as in its pre-1986 heyday around noon, with several tourist buses parked side by side, and flocks of 1-day visitors everywhere with their guides – ok, it is not like Venice in the summer, but enough to strip the place of its mysterious aura, and such to severely disturb many potential photographic sets. This was in late November, our guide reported in summer is by far worse.

The best time of the year for the climate is the mid-season. Summer can be very hot and humid, winter can be really cold (well below freezing). In the cold season, the trees hide the buildings to a less extend, and this may be and advantage for pictures. Abandoned places are often invaded by vegetation, to the point you get disoriented, and perspectives tend to be obstructed.

Radiation/Safety

Concerning the radiation/safety aspect, you can be sure you will not be driven by any guide in any dangerous places. Everybody is given a personal dosimeter when entering the zone. This item works in principle like a gas meter – its internal reading runs up every time you are exposed to radiation. The more intense the radiation, the faster it runs up. It will be checked by the local Authority when you leave, and based on the time frame of your stay, the final reading must stay under an assigned threshold. If it is over, your guide will be questioned. For this simple reason, guides are very careful and arrange the visit so that the total dose is below the threshold.

Food Visit Canteen Hotel 10 Ten Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Dress Code

I went with military surplus clothes and undergarments for thermal protection. The only item I did not take back home was a pair of boots, purchased from a made in China shop for 18 dollars just for this trip. As I had imagined, they got covered in dust, and considering their value, I elected not to risk carrying them home. By the law, you should not go around with exposed legs or arms, but visiting in winter will make this rule not difficult to comply with…

Souvenirs

As obvious, you will not be leaving with any unauthorized token, for two reasons – 1) you are checked in dedicated booths when leaving the zone or when accessing the canteen (there is only one central canteen for all tourists), hence if you have sources of radioactive emission with you, you will be stopped, and 2) you need to be a real idiot to dare to take away with you and installing at home something contaminated by radiation! Of course, you will be tempted, but of course you need to resist. This is what make the exclusion zone the world’s best time-capsule from the Soviet era – more than anywhere else, everything is, and is destined to remain, largely as it used to be in 1986.

There are of course souvenir shops, at the entrance of the exclusion zone – where you will stop anyway – in the canteen and in the hotel ’10’.

Canteen

Services include the central canteen and at least a hotel. The canteen is close to the power-plant, inside the highly contaminated area but far from hot-spots. It is modern, clean, and you are given good Ukrainian food. This was included in the guided tour, so I can’t say what instrument of payment they are accepting (cash, credit, …).

Food Visit Canteen Hotel 10 Ten Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Except for the canteen and hotel, we were shown a convenience shop in Chernobyl town, but of course you are not to find much in terms of food services around. You may better carry something with you from the ‘outside world’ (water, snacks,…) if needed.

Hotel

The hotel where we stayed is located in Chernobyl town, and is called ’10’ (‘Desyat’, meaning ‘ten’ in Russian). Facilities are totally ok. We got a twin room with shared toilet services (showers and service are separated from each other, very clean and ensuring privacy – totally ok, just not one for each room). The atmosphere is friendly despite not much English spoken, and they serve dinner and breakfast at pre-determined times with a fixed menu (tasty Ukrainian food), plus there is a bar service running all the evening. Free fully working WiFi. The hotel was reserved and payed for by the guide, we only paid for bar service (water, tea, beer, …).

Our guide left us there after dark, and picked us early the next morning.

Food Visit Canteen Hotel 10 Ten Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

There is a curfew after dark, and you are locked in the building during the night – but you are never allowed to move around without a guide, so the only difference when the curfew is active is you can’t move around in the hotel parking… That said, the sight of Chernobyl at night would easily fit in a post-apocalyptic video-game or horror movie, especially in the cold season – silence, big dark Soviet-style apartment buildings with a couple of lighted windows, nobody around, a chilling wind and some dog barking in the distance… you will definitely better appreciate a cup of tea in the bar than being free to move around!

Food Visit Canteen Hotel 10 Ten Cold War Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone Pripyat

Guided Tour Suggestion

From the website of our guide Mikhailo Teslenko you will get practical info for setting up your trip to the zone. I can definitely suggest to come in contact with this guide, who is always friendly and answers professionally, very fast and with detailed info.

Base Tuono – Cold War Surface-To-Air Missiles in Italy

December 24, 2018February 5, 2019 CarloRLeave a comment

Just like West Germany, post-WWII Italy found itself on the border with a communist dictatorship, Marshal Tito’s Yugoslavia. Even though Tito and the government of the USSR were never close friends, from the viewpoint of the western alliances Yugoslavia represented a potential threat.

This mistrust was also a result of the aggressive policy Yugoslavia had adopted against Italy after WWII, imposing the cession of a piece of traditionally Italian territory in the northeast part of the country as a war compensation. This had triggered a significant migration of the local population, who was trying to escape from communism to mainland Italy and abroad. This added to the bitterness of the Italian-Yugoslavian relationship, to the point that the new border was not formally settled until the 1970s.

Italy was among the founding members of anti-communist NATO in 1949. This meant the chance to take part in a coordinated defense effort against the eastern bloc. Among the tangible results of this cooperation was the adoption of American war material, including aircraft and, as soon as they became a reliable war asset, missiles.

Considering air defense, besides a number of manned aircraft, the airspace of western Europe was protected by two defensive lines of surface-to-air missiles (SAM) extending roughly from the North Sea to the area around Venice on the Mediterranean. This was studied especially to counteract bombing raids carried out by a great number of enemy bombers simultaneously attacking from the east. This huge defense system was based on the US-designed Nike and Hawk missile platforms, and deployment started in the late 1950s.

SAM installations in Italy comprised the low to intermediate altitude Hawks, with a quick reaction capacity against low-level intruders. These were managed by the local Army. High altitude Nike-Ajax and later Nike-Hercules missiles were operated by the Italian Air Force against high-altitude targets, typically bombers. New dedicated groups were established since 1959, trained in the US to work with the new missile platform. At its height, the Nike force in Italy counted on 16 such groups, apparently corresponding to as many launch bases.

Concerning the effectiveness of the Nike defense line, it soon became obsolete, in the sense that a significant part of the strategic deterrent was transferred to ICBMs by both the NATO countries and the USSR. As a result, SAM defensive lines conceived against aircraft intrusion and low-level attacks would turn out more useful than the high-altitude and high-yield Nike-Hercules. As a matter of fact, all Nike platforms were deactivated in Italy and everywhere in Europe by the early 1980s, well before the end of communism in Europe.

Following deactivation, most bases, stripped of all hardware of any value, were simply locked up and abandoned. In Germany very few traces of this extensive system remain to this day (see this post). Together with the US, Italy is possibly the only country where this fragment of military history is documented through the active preservation of one of the former SAM launch bases.

The Nike-Hercules base preserved in Italy is called ‘Base Tuono’ – ‘tuono’ meaning ‘thunder’ in Italian language – and was operated between 1966 and 1977. It is in a gorgeous mountainous setting in the northeastern Alps, about an hour from the little town of Trento. After years of disrepair, a part of it has been refurbished with original material and opened as a beautiful, partly open-air museum, where you can get a lively impression of how the base would have looked like in the years of operations.

The following photographs are from a visit to ‘Base Tuono’ in Autumn 2018.

Sights

Nike batteries were composed of two connected but geographically separated areas, an integrated fire control area (IFC) and a launch control area (LCA). In the first resided the electronic aiming part, comprising all the antennas and electronic gear necessary to collimate the target, compute the expected kill point of the missile, and to track and guide the missile to that point. The launch area was composed of an array of three flat concrete pads, each supplied with a hangar for storing the missiles, gantries for putting typically three missiles at a time (per pad) in launch position, and a concrete shelter to oversee and trigger the launch sequence. An extensive description of the Nike SAM system can be found on this excellent dedicated resource website.

Due to the features of the radar guidance system, the IFC had to stay in line of sight from the LCA, and at a higher – but not excessively higher – elevation. At ‘Base Tuono’, due to the mountainous setting, the two areas are not far, yet they are not easily accessible from one another. Furthermore, what remains today of the former base is all concentrated in the launch area. One of the three original pads – ‘Alpha’ – has been preserved, where the other two – ‘Bravo’ and ‘Charlie’ – and other ancillary buildings as well, have been completely demolished, and a water basin can be found in their place. All installations and housing in the former control area on top of a local peak – Mount Toraro – have been wiped out, but you can get an impression of the original plan of this part of the base walking around on your own.

Launch Control Area

The launch pad ‘Alpha’ is the focus of the museum. Approaching from the parking, which is located close to the site of the former barracks and canteen, you can spot from the distance three Nike-Hercules missiles aligned in vertical launch position. A water basin covers a large part of the former base, as you can see from historical pictures. Launch pads ‘Bravo’ and ‘Charlie’ are totally gone, similarly to the original outer fence delimiting the large perimeter of the installation.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

Getting closer to the launch pad ‘Alpha’ you can notice an array of radar antennas, which were originally in the IFC area on top of Mount Toraro. The area of the launch pad features a reconstructed inner fence, which was in place around each pad in the original base.

The pad is basically rectangular in shape, with a hangar on one side, a protection rim and the launch control bunker on two opposing sides and a free side where today you can find the ticket office.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

Three missiles are placed on top of their launch gantries. The gantries are part of a sophisticated rail system, designed to allow an easy side motion of the missiles from inside the hangar to their respective launch positions outside. The missiles were stored horizontally in the hangar to the far top of the rail on trolleys. When being readied for launch, the trolleys were pushed along the rail to the launch position, where the trolley was joined to the gantry. The missiles were raised to a vertical attitude together with the trolley with the help of a lift, which was a movable part of the gantry.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

While the pavement is covered in asphalt, you can see the gantries and the rail system are staying on hard concrete foundations. These are among the few remains you see in the German Nike site covered in this post.

Inside the hangar you can spot a Nike Hercules missile, with lateral cutouts to expose the inner structure. These reveal the four-canister solid-propellant booster stage, which was ignited first and was separated from the bullet-shaped second stage when exhausted. The latter features the warhead, the electromechanical rigs of the guidance system, and a single solid-propellant sustainer rocket engine. The rocket had a range of about 25 miles, and a top speed over Mach 3, making it a really remarkable piece of technology especially compared to the soviet counterparts of the time.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

All around the missile in the hangar you can see inner parts of the missile itself and of the ground fire control system as well. There are also panels with the history of the base, and original warning signs and instructions painted on the inner walls of the hangar – and similarly on other walls of the base. These writings are in double language, both in Italian and English. While the base was managed by the Italian Air Force, such installations were integrated in the NATO defense line, so many procedures of the Italian Air Force were in English. Furthermore, US military staff was required on site ‘by design’ in case of operations with nuclear warheads, which the Hercules could optionally carry. Nuclear warheads were never deployed to this base though.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

Further items on display around the three missiles on the open apron include an old Nike-Ajax missile, a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter – the Italian Air Force was the last in the world to retire this model from service, as late as 2004 – and two trailers aligned in a row. The trailers are the battery control trailer, or BCT, and the radar control trailer, or RCT. Both trailers were originally in the IFC area of the base, and were operated by the staff responsible for offensive operations. In the days of operation, there was always somebody on duty in the trailers.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

The BCT is, roughly speaking, where targets were designated, the kill point computed and the launch sequence triggered. The most notable feature are the two computerized plotting boards used to identify the target and to define the flight trajectory of the missile. The LOPAR detection radar and the identification friend-or-foe (IFF) radar reported information to this trailer, which coordinated the attack.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

In the RCT stood the operators of the TTR and TRR radars, which were responsible for keeping trace of the target and for monitoring the missile during the flight towards the designated kill point.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

To the back of the two trailers, it is possible to spot the rectangular shapes of the LOPAR radar and of the smaller IFF radar. The two round-shaped antennas are the TTR and TRR radars. In many pictures they are portrayed inside a bulbous cover, conferring them a distinctive spherical shape.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

The concrete bunker to the opposite side of the launch pad with respect to the trailers is a protected room for the launch section panel, which is a kind of control panel for triggering the launch sequence of the missiles. The bunker served as a shelter for the operators of the launch section, for remaining on the outside in the vicinity of the missiles during launch operations was extremely dangerous.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

During the guided visit, you are given a demonstration of the launch sequence from inside the control room, which is insulated from the outside with double tight doors. The firing procedure was quite complicated. Actually, it was a direct signal traveling along a cable connection from the battery trailer that gave the go to the missiles. Yet there were redundancies for increased safety, and it was possible to trigger the entire launch sequence from within the firing section, in case communication with the BCT was lost. During normal operations, the OK from the operator of the control panel in the bunker had the function of a further go/no go safety layer for the launch.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

A trailer with a panel similar to that in the bunker can be found outside. This likely represented a further redundancy, or like the F-104 it is a piece coming from somewhere else.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

To the back of the bunker with the fire section panel you can find an original watchtower from a US base in northern Italy, similar to the towers originally in place around the missile base. Close by, there is a nice example of the canisters used to the transport the stages of the Nike-Hercules, as well as the crane used to assemble it. There is also a further example of the second stage of the missile.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

Getting there and moving around

The ‘Alpha’ battery of the launch control area is open as a museum, called ‘Base Tuono’. It is located on the road SP143, which departs from Folgaria, a small town about 12 miles south of the regional capital town Trento. You can find clear roadsigns leading to the site from Folgaria.

The museum has opening times, visiting is generally possible on a self-guided basis. Access to the bunker and the trailers is possible only on guided tours. All information on their website (in English). Large free parking about 0.2 miles away from the entrance.

There is much to see for technically minded subjects, but the visit will be surely appealing for children too. I would recommend to allocate at least 45 minutes for the visit, and up to 2 hours if you want to take a guided tour and take all the pictures on your own. The scenery around is gorgeous, so it will be easy to combine this destination with a nature trail or with other tourist destination in the area.

Integrated Fire Control Area

This is where the radars and trailers used to stay, together with barracks and service buildings. It can be found about 2 miles south east direct line of sight from the launch pad, on top of Mount Toraro. Differently from the launch control area, this area has been demolished and sanitized. No buildings remain in place, yet some of the former foundations and platforms to anchor the trailers can still be seen.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

Reaching to the top of the peak is interesting to appreciate the view of the launch site from here. Unfortunately, at the time of my visit low clouds obstructed the sight.

Base Tuono Nike Hercules Italy

Getting there and moving around

Even though the wide original road to reach this part of the base still exists, for some reason access to the top of the mountain is not allowed by car. In order to get to the trailhead from the museum, you can take your car and keep going southeast along the SP143 for about 1.5 miles. As you go ahead, the road will change the name to SP92 on your nav. Soon after the road starts descending, you will find the trailhead to your right, with a horizontal obstacle and a prohibition sign for cars. You may park there. It is likely the trail to the top of Mount Toraro will be on your nav too, for it is basically a normal road. The distance to walk to the top is about 1 mile, along the former service road to the base – covered in asphalt, gently ascending, no risk of any kind.

Hitler’s Mystery Mega-Structures in Central Europe

November 1, 2018September 28, 2019 CarloRLeave a comment

During the last two years of WWII, the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany was slowly retreating from the eastern front, pushed back by the mighty blows of the Red Army. The bombing runs carried out by the western Allies from airfields in Britain were systematically hitting most urban centers in mainland Germany and over the territory occupied by the Nazis. It is hard to imagine, but it was in the year 1944, when the destiny of Germany was almost sealed, that industrial production in Hitler’s Third Reich reached an all-time record.

At that time the Germans were desperately short of fuel, raw materials and troops, and their production efforts would not spare them from a complete defeat in 1945. Yet it was in the last stages of the war that some of the most ambitious industrial facilities were designed, built and in some cases made operative before the end of the war.

The driver of the design was in most cases the need to move production lines to secluded and well protected areas, difficult to spot and to destroy through air bombing. As a result, these sites were placed far from urban centers. They were also designed to withstand bombing, by putting them underground, or building them with substantial reinforcement, making large use of one of Nazi Germany’s favorite materials – reinforced concrete.

In this chapter two major sites of this kind are described. One is in southwestern Poland, a region which had been part of the German Empire for long before WWII. The second is in eastern Bayern, today one of Federal Germany’s most prosperous states, close to the border with the Czech Republic. Photographs were taken in late summer 2018.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Project ‘Riese’, Poland
- Osowka
- Rzeczka
‘Weingut I’ Aviation Industry Complex, Germany

Sights

Project ‘Riese’, Poland

Construction around this cluster of underground sites started in late 1943, and reportedly lasted until the closing stages of WWII, just days before the Soviets entered the region. The name ‘Riese’ means ‘giant’ in German, and it is surely well suited for this complex, which while far from finished is really striking in size. It was actually composed of at least six major construction sites, which in the intention of their designers should have been developed deeper in the mountains, until a link could be established between them forming a formidable network of tunnels and large halls.

Besides the size and historical meaning of these sites, what makes project ‘Riese’ so fascinating is also the actual purpose of this incredible complex is far from established. Three major theories exist in this respect. The complex might have been intended to be an underground industrial city, a kind of Noah’s Ark for the ‘superior race’ embodied by the top-ranking military and governmental staff of the Reich, or a gigantic secret laboratory for innovative technologies.

What is sure is that the construction was carried out by forced labor, mainly by prisoners of Gross-Rosen concentration camp, just a few miles north of the complex. For the scope, the Nazis created a number of satellite camps next to the entrance of the construction sites. Rather incredibly, only very scant traces of the project remain in the written records of key figures of Nazi Germany – Albert Speer’s personal diary notably reports some millions marks allocated for project ‘Riese’, and at some point after the war he cited the item resulting from the completion of the construction works, whatever its purpose, as sized to be capable of hosting some tens of thousands people.

Today, six construction sites have been discovered, of which two – Osowka and Rzeczka, the most conspicuous – have been opened to the public, whereas the other are visitable basically for speleologists only.

Osowka

The first visitable site is in the town of Osowka. This site is composed of two parts, one underground with access from the side of a hill, the other close to the top of the same hill.

The underground part can be visited only with a guide. The plant of the completed construction features two accesses, and you will be driven in using the first and out using the other. Between the entrances, the site is mainly composed of an array of parallel tunnels pointing towards the mountain, connected by long halls.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Close to the entrance you can spot a concrete guardhouse with loopholes for machine guns. Some wooden structures like in a mine have been put in place to give an idea of the appearance of the working technique at the time of construction.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Most tunnels have been dug but not reinforced with concrete walls, whereas others are almost complete, showing a peculiar two-level design. The lower level features a smaller section, and the top one a taller, round shaped section.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

A feature of the ‘Riese’ complex is a special technique for building the inner concrete coat of the rocky tunnels, producing the distinctive ‘church-ceiling-like’ appearance of some of the halls, with a round shape and frames close to one another.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

The Osowka site features also a collection of smaller artifacts, collected from the ground and dating from the construction years, i.e. from late WWII.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Life-size silhouettes of some WWII tanks are on display, to show how the size of these items was totally compatible with the size of the tunnels, in support of a potential use of the site for weapon manufacture.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

The outside part, which can be accessed freely, is the most mysterious. At the base of the trail leading uphill you can spot a strange concrete platform, with provision for – possibly – interred pipelines.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Close to the top of the hill you can find a huge concrete platform, with an apparently chaotic ensemble of slots, pipes, handles, stairs and pools. This item has been deemed close in shape to the base of a service building for the valves and pipelines of a power-plant. Theories have flourished in support of the use of this item as a prototype control system for a nuclear power-plant.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

The nuclear program of the Nazis, which indeed existed and is even documented to some extent, is shrouded in mystery for what concerns the actual findings obtained during the war. These dark spots are also due to the destruction of most of the hardware connected with the program everywhere in Germany, and with the inherent secret nature of the program itself. No evidence exists of the Osowka site in the public papers about the nuclear studies of the Reich, so the true purpose of this object is likely to remain an unsolved riddle.

Close by this platform, you can find an original concrete building, part of the same construction plan. It is pretty long, with large windows, and likely intended for troops or technical staff.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Rzeczka

Compared to Osowka, this site is more centered on the inside part. Again, there are two entrances, close by a creek on the side of a hill, providing access to a network of tunnels. Similar to Osowka, close by the entrance you can find guard-houses in concrete. These were built soon, possibly for keeping a watch on the forced workers.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

The construction works in Rzeczka were less advanced than those in Osowka. Yet thanks to the lack of the concrete coat, you can appreciate the size of the tunnels, some of which are really tall.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

There are small collections of artifacts found in the tunnels, and an original concrete room offers a description of all discovered sites of the ‘Riese’ project.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

A 1:1 copy of a V-1 German flying bomb has been placed in one of the tunnels, to show the compatibility of the size of this weapon with the tunnel. Such weapons were reportedly assembled in underground facilities elsewhere in Germany.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

Visiting is again possible only with a guide. Some multi-media experiences with sounds, lights and voices are included in the tour, but these are not so impressive for those who don’t understand Polish.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

On the outside, you can spot some relics from construction years, including trolleys, and concrete slabs watermarked with symbols of the local construction companies tasked with the practical realization of the site. There is also a copy of a V-2 rocket, operative in the last months of WWII but little effective in changing the fate of Nazi Germany.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

Getting there and moving around

As pointed out, the sites connected with project ‘Riese’ are many, but most of them are not visitable unless to specialists and with the help of a speleologist. On the other hand, the two sites of Osowka and Rzeczka are professionally operated as primary tourist attractions. The distance from these two sites is about 20 minutes by car, so you can surely arrange the tour of both sites on the same day, with much spare time in your daily schedule.

At Osowka you can find a large parking and a fully equipped visitor center, where you can book a guided tour, or join a departing one – the only way to get inside. Please note that the number of people admitted on each tour is relatively small, so I would suggest booking at least one day in advance through their website (partly also in English) to be sure to get a place at the time you like. They offer several different tours. The most complete include a visit to a part of the underground site which can only be accessed by boat. This is given only on some days by reservation, and only for groups. The standard tour of the inside is offered several times a day.

The guided may turn out really boring, cause you are provided an audio-guide in English with explanations lasting a couple of minutes for each of the circa ten stops, in face of the Polish-speaking guide talking about 5 minutes per site. You may try to spend your spare time taking good pictures, but even though groups are relatively small, they tend to obstruct the view inside, leaving poor chances for acceptable shots. Furthermore, lighting is not very good, so a tripod would be recommended, except you don’t have the time and chance for undisturbed long poses. Therefore, if you are interested in top-level pictures, you would better arrange a dedicated tour out of the normal touristic offer. Otherwise, you’d better go prepared to a difficult visit.

The outside part of the site is less frequented and more rewarding. It can be reached in about ten minutes following a pretty steep, unpaved trail in the trees. This part is unfenced and unguarded.

The Rzeczka site has only an inside part, which can be visited only on a guided tour. You can join one of the frequent tours they provide even without reservation. There is a small visitor center and plenty of parking space. Similar to Osowka, the guide will speak in Polish, and you are provided an audio-guide in English. The visit lasts less than in the case of Osowka, and the audio-guide explanations are more proportionate to the speech of the Polish-speaking guide, making for a more enjoyable visit. The multi-media experiences are of little relevance for non Polish-speaking people. Outside you can find also some panels with explanations on the history of the site in both Polish and English. Website with some info in English here.

The tunnels in Rzeczka are poorly lighted too, so photographing will be difficult unless with a tripod, but the conditions are not very favorable for operating with a tripod – many people around and short times between stops along the tour.

‘Weingut I’ Aviation Industry Complex, Germany

The giant complex known as ‘Weingut I’, the original codename attributed by the Nazi staff at the time of its design and construction, is the direct result of a plan to relocate all major industrial production lines of the Reich to protected areas, far from the line of the front and from any major urban center. In this particular case, the new factory was intended to shelter the production line of the new Junkers Jumo 004 jet engines for the ‘Schwalbe’ – also known as Messerschmitt Me-262, this was the first jet fighter in the world to be pushed into service, back in 1944.

The huge factory was designed based on a basic module made of a reinforced concrete arch, some 250 ft open, 100 ft tall and 10 to 15 ft thick. This item was to be built on site and partly buried under ground level. Twelve such modules were needed for the complete hangar, with a total intended length of the factory of around 1.200 ft. Of the planned twelve sections, seven were actually built between mid-1944 and the end of the war.

Despite the intended scope was that of hiding the factory to protect it from aerial reconnaissance, due to the size of the construction works the object was reportedly spotted by US aircraft, but not attacked. Actually, the special construction was tested against explosives by the US Army after the war, resulting in the collapse of all modules except one, which is still standing today besides the pretty sizable relics of the others.

The site is not actively guarded, but it is located in a regional nature preserve, so access is through a nice walk in the trees. Once next to the hangar you can find multiple access points.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

Close to the main arch, the only one still standing, it is possible to find an explanatory panel in German only. It commemorates also the forced laborers from the nearby concentration camps, who had to take part substantially in the construction works.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

Walking under the arch is at your own risk, cause despite the bulky appearance of the structure, smaller pieces of concrete are hanging from from the ceiling. However, a walk inside will give you the most striking impression of the size of the hangar.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

Just nearby the remaining module to the west you can find a walkable, half interred bunker, likely with a technical function which is today hard to imagine.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

The module still standing today is the westernmost of the hangar, so walking east you will have the chance to step on the roof of the demolished modules. A number of thick iron rods can be spot at ground level.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

Walking along the former southern side of the hangar, you can spot a deep well, probably part of the construction strategy. It may have been used to take out the gravel from beneath the base of the arches to lower them to a rest position on more compact ground.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

Along the same side you can find a way to walk below the fallen structure. You can also get a view of the edge of one of the modules.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

The eastern end of the complex is probably the most hazardous, cause you find an unprotected concrete cliff a good 10 ft high, constituted by the edge of a fallen module.

All in all, the place is a nice example of the undeniable structural design abilities of the German military, really interesting to visit both from a technical viewpoint and as a witness of the utopian visions of the Nazis, which unfortunately cost the lives of many.

Getting there and moving around

Reaching the trail-head is very easy by car. Leaving Mühldorf am Inn for Waldkraiburg along the road St2352, about 0.5 miles south of the crossing with St2550 you will find a sizable gravel factory to your right, preceded by an unpaved road taking west in the trees. You can park on the unpaved road on the northern side of the factory – probably a heir of the original factory built to feed the construction works of the hangar.

From there, you should take the unpaved trail into the trees, closed to vehicle traffic. It is another 0.5 miles to the site, on a flat and easy trail. A quick scan of the Google map will allow you to plan the trip. The place is not remote, cell phones work and you may use a virtual map to get oriented on site. Visiting might take about 2 hours for a very interested subject, including the trip from the parking and back, plus all time needed for pictures .

Traces of the Cold War in Southwest Germany

May 12, 2018June 3, 2023 CarloRLeave a comment

Between the end of WWII and the collapse of the USSR in the early Nineties, Germany was caught in the middle of the confrontation between the West and the Soviet bloc. An unnatural and heavily guarded new border was established between the two adversaries, which crossed the extensive territory of todays Germany. Thanks to the presence of American, British and French military forces over the western territory of the Country, and of the Red Army to the east, with the start of the Cold War the German ‘inner border’ became a modern line of the front for this new type of confrontation (see this post).

All armies stationed there benefited from substantial resources poured by the respective governments in the setup of permanent military detachments and infrastructures. The aim for the nations involved was that of having on the spot a credible force, capable of effectively fighting an enemy army – as well as hitting the populations of neighbor Countries – in case a new war was started in Europe. In the end, an open war was never fought, yet for decades it was deemed possible, and in some crisis moments even likely (see this post).

This chapter presents pictures from five Cold-War-themed sites in southwest Germany. Photographs were taken in April 2018, and in the summer of 2020 and 2021.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Nike Missile Battery, Wurmberg
Pershing Warhead Storage Bunker, Waldstetten
Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum, Villingen-Schwenningen
Military History Museum, Stammheim am Main
Former US Airbase, Giebelstadt

Sights

With the end of the game for the communist empire and following German reunification, Russian forces withdrew from all bases in Germany – as well as from many other Countries in Europe – and so did the foreign NATO allies, with a very few exceptions. Most former military bases and military infrastructures fell in a state of disrepair, and by the years the majority were either completely wiped out or converted into something else. Nonetheless, especially in the less crowded territories of the former communist East Germany, visible traces remain from the period, in the form of – sometimes immense – abandoned airports and military bases (see this post and links therein).

Comparatively less traces of the once substantial presence of NATO forces are to be found in todays western ‘Länder’ – i.e. administrative regions – which used to be part of West Germany. Yet something of interest for Cold War ‘archaeologists’ can be found also here.

A long chain of anti-aircraft missile batteries was implemented based on the Nike missile system designed in the US, and implemented by the US Army as well as other NATO armies in West Germany. The defensive line was established in the 1950s and updated over the years, running almost parallel to the border with the communist DDR, but located pretty far from it and well within the territory of West Germany. It stretched from the North Sea to the Bodensee, on the border with Switzerland. There are some very extensive references on the web providing a complete description of the Nike defensive barrier both in the US and abroad, a very rich one here (the link should point directly to the German section).

In this chapter you can find some pictures from an exploration of an abandoned Nike Hercules site next to the town of Wurmberg, just out of Pforzheim, between Stuttgart and the French border. It used to be run directly by the US Army.

Intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) were part of the tactical plans of both the US and the Soviets in Europe. The Pershing platform, based on the homonym theater-level nuclear missile, was deployed in Germany, and placed in the inventory of both the US Army and the West German Luftwaffe. The missile was updated in several instances in the decades of the Cold War, until it was banned by the INF treaty in 1988, agreed upon by the administrations of Gorbachev and Reagan.

Among the strongpoints of the Pershing missile deployment in Europe, a huge warhead deposit was built close to the town of Waldstetten, next to Schwäbisch Gmund in southern Germany. In this chapter you will find photographs from an exploration of this mysterious site.

Furthermore, a nice collection of aircraft from both sides of the Iron Curtain can be found in the southwestern corner of the Country, next to the town of Villingen-Schwenningen – one of the few air museums in this part of Germany. Similarly, the large collections of the military museum in Stammheim, next to the town of Schweinfurt in northwestern Bavaria, and once close to the ‘Inner Border’ with the GDR, has on display substantial specimens from the Cold War era.

Finally, a special feature presented in this chapter is a group of pictures from the former airbase in Giebelstadt, south of Würzburg, Bavaria. Today a privately owned general aviation airport, this former military airbase gained a special historical significance when it was selected for the departure of secret overflights of the communist territory beyond the Iron Curtain, performed with the Lockheed U-2 in the late Fifties, by decision of president Eisenhower.

Nike Missile Battery – Wurmberg

The site in Wurmberg, east of Pforzheim, was actually Battery ‘Delta’ – i.e. the fourth – of the four missile forces managed by the the 3rd Battalion of the 71st Air Defense Artillery (ADA) regiment.

Typical Nike missile batteries were composed of two geographically separated areas. The largest was the ‘Launch area’, with missile storage facilities – sometimes reinforced underground bunkers, sometimes more usual ‘soft’ hangars – and launch pads. The other was the ‘Integrated Fire Control area’ or ‘IFC’, where all antennas and electronic equipment for target detection and missile guidance were placed. Due to the limited speed of motion of the missile guidance antennas, the distance between the launch site and the IFC had to be greater than a threshold, while the elevation of the IFC had to be somewhat above the the launch pads. These technological constraints led the choice of the sites suitable for the installation of the Nike batteries.

The site was deactivated in the Eighties, and both areas were sanitized in more instances, basically demolishing any buildings. The ‘final stage’ of the operation is likely to be underway at the time of my visit, as you can see from the pictures, where piles of gravel and moved land can be spotted all around the launch site.

Surprisingly, a feature that has come to our days virtually without any alteration is the external fence of the launch site, which runs all around the launch area and is still particularly impenetrable. Also the rounds of barbed wire on top are still there.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The exploration of the launch area is pretty straightforward. It is rectangular, basically flat and aligned along an east-western direction. Close to the eastern end, you meet a flat area with a concrete pavement – now partly demolished – and a curved road nearby. This is where the missiles and warheads were assembled. Nike missiles could mount nuclear warheads, but apparently this was a rarely adopted option.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The next notable item to the west is a water basin, still in a very good shape. There used to be a water system all around the base. Remains of demolished buildings can be spotted around here too.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

A mystery electric cable comes out of the ground on a spot. It is noteworthy that the launch area and IFC were connected by an underground cable, but I don’t think this is the one you see in the pics.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

This battery had three launch sectors, bearing the little imaginative names of ‘Alpha’, ‘Bravo’ and ‘Charlie’. You can find them in a sequence, walking towards the west end of the site.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The pads of the Alpha sector, while now greatly damaged by the demolition work, are still in place with their metal covers.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

There were three launch pads on each sector. The area of each sector appears unnecessarily large, but actually the missile storage hangar used to stay beyond the launch pads, occupying about half the area of each sector. Today these soft constructions have disappeared.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

To the west of each sector there is a small bunker, intended for the protection of the troops working around the launch pads, in case of an attack to the battery. These bunkers are not very damaged, so they constitute a very interesting part of the site today.

The protection bunkers have two exits on the two opposite sides – so the Alpha bunker connects the Alpha and Bravo sectors, the Bravo bunker the Bravo and Charlie sectors, while the Charlie bunker connects the Charlie sector to the logistic storage area to the west end of the launch site.

The Alpha bunker is well conserved – except for some spoiling by some idiot writer. There is no camouflage paint coat outside, just some plain green paint, and the walls inside are painted in a bright crimson color. The bunker has two opposite entrances, and two corresponding corridors leading to two massive tight doors, which give access to a central protected room, insulated from the outside.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

Writings in English are still there in the central room of bunker Alpha.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The launch sectors Bravo and Charlie are more damaged than Alpha.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The Bravo bunker is camouflaged, and differently from Alpha the walls inside are painted in water green. It is possible to notice how the central room was separated from the rest of the structure for blast insulation, similar to other missile sites (see this post). There is a wide slot at the level of the doors.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

Further writings in English and some original linoleum pavement are still perfectly visible.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The Charlie bunker is different from the other two. The facade is wider, it is coated in a camo paint, and bears the name ‘Charlie’ above the eastern door. Inside it is very dark, possibly as a result of a fire. In the insulated room it is possible to see an original air conditioning system.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The three launch sectors are connected to the south by a wide road, from where you can appreciate the extension and state of conservation of the original fence.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The IFC area is located just north of the small town of Wurmberg, on top of a hill. Unfortunately, the former military site has been wiped out and a nothing less than a waste disposal facility has taken its place! Anyway, from this vantage point you can clearly see the launch area, roughly two miles to the west.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

Getting there and moving around

Getting to the launch area is very easy. Leave the highway N.8 close to Pforzheim (the exit is 45b Pforzheim-Süd) and take for Pforzheim on Wurmberger Strasse. Take the very first road to the right and park your car there. You will see a gate open since ages and an almost unmaintained road taking straight north and climbing gently uphill. This road will take you to the official gate of the launch area in 0.4 miles. Getting in is probably prohibited, but the area is pretty remote and secluded, and I didn’t see a person around during all my stay.

The site is geographically compact, so touring may take about 2 to 2.5 hours taking all pictures, if you have planned your movements in advance. A tripod is strictly necessary for taking decent pictures inside the very dark bunkers.

The IFC area can be reached going to Wurmberg, leaving the same exit but taking the direction opposite to Pforzheim. You will soon reach central Wurmberg. Cimb along Gollmerstrasse, then along Oschelbronnerstrasse. Where the village ends and the road stops climbing you will see a field to your left and a waste disposal facility to your right – this used to be the area occupied by the IFC area. Looking west you can see the launch area and the taller buildings of Pforzheim further in the distance.

Pershing Warhead Storage Bunkers – Waldstetten

The site in Waldstetten is basically an array of warhead storage bunkers, built between 1954 and 1958 by the US Army. In 1972 these bunkers became a part of a Quick Reaction Alert site, managed by the 1st Battalion of the 41st Field Artillery Regiment, tasked with supplying the nearby storage site of the Pershing missile in Mutlangen, just north of Schwäbisch Gmund. The site saw major action in 1982, when 36 Pershing II missiles were installed in Mutlangen as an answer to the deployment by the USSR of an updated version of the excellent SS-20 Saber IRBM system.

During the Eighties the 1st Bn 41st FA was reformed more than once, until it became 2nd Bn 9th FA in 1986, only to be disbanded in 1991, following the dismantlement of the Pershing system as a consequence of the INF Treaty between the US and USSR.

It should be mentioned that whether the nuclear warheads of the Pershing missile ever made their way to this storage site is a matter of discussion. As a matter of fact, the missiles were in the nearby Mutlangen site, and their installation triggered well documented protests by the usual pacifist folks, who encountered difficulties in understanding the moves of the Reagan administration, which helped with successfully putting an end to the Cold War and to many communist dictatorships in Europe. What the bunkers in the Waldstetten site were used for is not totally evident, and it should be recalled they were built in the Fifties, before the deployment of the Pershing system.

Of the 28 bunkers originally built, 25 exist today while three have been demolished in a landslide. The site is located in the trees along two broad circular roads, once service roads. Today it is in the heart of a natural preserve, and the roads are used by MTBs and hikers, whereas the Mutlangen site has been converted into a solar power plant.

The local administration has prepared a placard with a map and a short history of the place (in German only), which I spotted only by the first bunker you meet climbing uphill along the road approaching the site from north. You can see the placard in the pics below, with the corresponding map. The position indicated with ‘Standort’ on the map is where the placard is. I suggest starting you exploration from there.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

About half of the bunkers can be accessed. Except a few, they are basically indistinguishable.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

Inside they are empty and very basic in shape, with just one large storage room. Other bunkers are inaccessible, and some have been converted into bat shelters.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

A notable bunker is 870 (see the map in the pic), which bears on the front facade graffiti from US troops, probably veterans visiting the place in recent times after it was closed up. Today it is a bat shelter.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

In 869 you can find some naive paintings, including one portraying a truck probably dating from the years of operation.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

A mystery bunker is 856, which is very different from all others. It has two small entrances, apparently for humans only, and a group of small chambers ahead of the larger storage area. This has no wide entrances, suggesting it was not used for warheads nor anything similar, and a blind room to the back. Unfortunately, this bunker is also covered in indecent graffiti.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

Another interesting sight, especially visible to the west of the bunker area, is the original fence of the storage site, with a number of aligned concrete posts and traces of barbed wire. The line of the fence is shown also on the map.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

Getting there and moving around

The storage bunkers are located on top of a hill, and some climbing is required to reach the bunker area. The place is not fenced, and there are multiple access points from all directions. I personally parked at the end of Dreifaltigkeitsstrasse in Waldstetten and accessed the site from the west. After touring it, I came back passing by the placard mentioned above. The road is steeper on that side of the hill, but starting from the placard may ease your exploration.

Please note that the on most part of the site the cell phone coverage was very weak, with no access to internet data. I strongly suggest downloading your maps before being on site.

The place is secluded and the bunkers are much overlooked by the locals, who keep on the main track and just cross the area – you will probably move around undisturbed if you walk in and around the bunkers.

Due to some amount of mild hiking required, a complete tour of all bunkers may take about 3 hours, including time for pictures.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum – Villingen-Schwenningen

This small air museum is composed of three parts.

The first is a single hangar, stacked with smaller aircraft and a helicopter, plus memorabilia and parts of aircraft of diverse proveniences and ages, including German machines from WWII, and later from both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

The main part is a grassy apron with an open air collection. Here you can see aircraft of American make in the colors of the West German Luftwaffe, including an F-86 Sabre and F-104 Starfighter.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

British aircraft are represented by an English Electric Canberra and a DeHavilland Vampire of the Swiss Air Force.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

Other models from western Countries include an Italian Fiat G-91 reconnaissance aircraft and a German Dornier Alpha Jet trainer.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

Models from the Soviet world include an Antonov An-2 biplane, which can also be boarded, and a Yakovlev Yak-18, bearing a post-Soviet Russian flag and registration markings.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

Probably the star of the show, a well restored Polish-built MiG-15 is presented in the markings of the Red Army.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

The third part of the museum is a series of restoration hangars, where a number of aircraft are being restored, whereas some replicas are being assembled, possibly partly from original parts. These include a Messerschmitt Me-262 Schwalbe, and a Dornier Do-335 Pfiel, of which only one original exemplar exists in Washingtong, DC – definitely a rare sight.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

Getting there and moving around

The museum, located on the side of a local touristic airport, is easily reachable in Spittelbronner Weg 78, 78056 Villingen-Schwenningen, just on the eastern border of the beautiful Schwarzwald region. Website with full information here.

Military History Museum, Stammheim am Main

	Heading to Berlin or the former GDR? Looking for traces of the Cold War open for a visit?
	A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY Second Edition - 2024
	DON'T LEAVE IT AT HOME! AVAILABLE in PAPERBACK or KINDLE from your national Amazon store!
	amazon.com \| amazon.de \| amazon.co.uk amazon.it \| amazon.fr \| amazon.co.jp

The museum in Stammheim, northwestern Bavaria, stands out as one of the largest and best preserved military collections in Germany, especially concerning the two World Wars and the Cold War. The museum is composed of a set of large adjoining hangars, and an open-air part. The hangars are rich in dioramas, built around real weapons (both heavy and light), tanks, as well as rigs, uniforms and dresses from the corresponding ages.

The first hangar is centered on WWII. Here a large central diorama represents a scene from the advance of US forces on German territory. A group of civilians reacts welcoming the American forces with white flags, whereas some armed civilian guards and some German soldiers keep a more cautious attitude.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Among the original US vehicles is a light tank, starring in the movie ‘The Monuments Men’ besides actor George Clooney. A German Goliath self-propelled drone-tank is on display in this scene.

Two house facades imitating traditional German architecture complete this central diorama.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

In the same hall, more dioramas show for instance a German anti-aircraft battery, with a four-barrel gun and a searchlight. Range-finding rigs are also on display.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

To the far end of the same hall, a Soviet T-34 and a Sherman can be found, besides self-propelled cannons and more vehicles set in smaller scenes.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

In a lateral passage, scenes from the African theater of WWII are displayed. These include vehicles and weapons with a distinctive desert camo coat. Another diorama displays a school in Germany from the same period, with young men involved in light anti-aircraft defense.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Scenes from pre-WWII and from WWI are presented in yet another, smaller hall. Field artillery pieces from WWI are clearly discernible from more modern ones. A field kitchenette from the time is also on display.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Classical display cases feature many interesting items, including military uniforms from WWI and WWII, military decorations, air navigation charts and flight instruments.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

The Cold War is covered in the last two hangars. Here field guns, mortars and armored vehicles mainly from the Federal Republic and from the German Democratic Republic – some of them still working – are put on display, side by side.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

The exhibition in this part is complimented by numerous flags and smaller pieces of military material, including communication gear, water mines, transport vehicles, a military Trabant.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Part of the show is an ex-DDR early MiG-21. This can be climbed (not boarded), providing a nice view of the ensemble.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

The museum is close to Schweinfurt, geographically next to the border with the former GDR. A reconstruction of the Inner Border impenetrable fence (see this post), with original signs and plaques, is duly on display.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

The outside part of the museum displays a few heavy armored vehicles from WWI, WWII and the Cold War. They include a rusty, US-made M26 Pershing tank from WWII, a Federal Germany Gepard anti-aircraft self-propelled battery from the Cold War, and more.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Visible from a distance are a set of US-made surface-to-air missiles, distinctive silhouettes from the Cold War age. These include a Nike Hercules surface to air missile. Surface-to-surface platforms include a venerable and pretty rare Matador early cruise missile. This grandparent of modern cruise missiles features a distinctive swept-back wing, and a booster underneath the fuselage to the back.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

The nose cone of a Pershing (possibly) is on display, together with a rare Lance missile, a surface-to-surface missile from the 1960s-70s, in the inventory of the Federal Republic in those years. The plaque on the launcher witnesses the Canadian origin of the single-missile wheeled rack, built by Orenda.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Behind the missiles, aircraft on display are a Soviet designed Antonov An-2 biplane, and a US designed Republic F-84 Thunderstreak, in the colors of the Luftwaffe of Federal Germany.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

All in all, this wonderful collection has much to offer for everybody with an interest in the military history of Germany since WWI to the Cold War era. The museum sets up reunions of enthusiasts, and special days with tank movements and live displays.

Getting there and moving around

The Stammheim am Main museum is located 7 miles south of Schweinfurt, a major center in the area, and about 12 miles northeast of beautiful Würzburg. It can be conveniently reached when traveling between the two, right on the bank of the Main river. The exact location is along the intercity road SW1, on the crossing with Maintalstrasse in the village of Kolitzheim. Parking right ahead of the entrance. Small restaurant on site. Since the museum is stuffed with tons of interesting items, even though compact in size, visiting may easily take more than 2 hours for an interested subject.

Former US Airbase, Giebelstadt

The now sleepy general aviation airfield in Giebelstadt has been a rather active military airbase for many decades. A Luftwaffe fighter base in WWII, it was among the first airbases to host the new Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter. In 1945 it fell in the hands of American forces, who intermittently used it for various temporary deployments and flight operations over the immediate post-WWII years. The early Cold War era and the 1950s were a new period of intensive use. The runway was lengthened, and more modern facilities for stationing troops and aircraft were built anew, in place of older and damaged German ones from the Nazi era. Powerful, cutting-edge radar installations were put in place, due to the proximity with the East German border. With the transition to fast jets, the proximity of the airfield to the border was actually too much, so that interceptors could not scramble in time from Giebelstadt, in case of an enemy attack from beyond the Iron Curtain. However, this would be an advantage for reconnaissance missions, launched during the Eisenhower administration, starting in 1956.

Giebelstadt was one of the few bases for the balloons of Project Genetrix. That was a first, partly successful attempt to gather intelligence through unmanned overflights of the USSR. In the same years, Giebelstadt was intended as the main operative base for the CIA Lockheed U-2s, to be used for a more risky – since manned – but much more effective way to collect photo and signal intelligence.

The actual deployment started in 1956, with some delay due to the need to prepare the airfield for operation of the one-of-a-kind Lockheed U-2. The latter flew in the meanwhile from Wiesbaden, where the headquarter of US military in Germany was at that time. This was not much liked by the US intelligence community, since the latter city was more crowded than the small country village of Giebelstadt, and this exposed highly secretive U-2 operations to a higher risk of espionage.

Missions carried out by the U-2 were of basically two types. The first was relatively risky ELINT missions along the border with the USSR, where defenses were stimulated without entering the enemy airspace, to obtain precious information on the reaction capability and the enemy anti-aircraft barrier, including the position of radar sites, etc. The second mission type was high-risk ELINT/PHOTINT missions, or ‘overflights’, where Soviet airspace was actually penetrated. In the latter case, the U-2 made use of its superior altitude and range performance to carry out long missions above the defenses of the USSR. As known, the development of high-performing SAMs, reaching up to the cruising altitude of the U-2 meant it was not invulnerable any more after 1960. This put an end to overflights. However, a total of 24 mostly successful overflight missions were carried out between 1956 and 1960, each of them specifically studied and approved with the direct involvement of president Eisenhower.

Besides missions along the border, or over satellite countries of the Eastern Bloc (still considered a high risk, but not as high as a direct overflight of the USSR), a single overflight of the USSR was actually flown from Giebelstadt. This was mission No. 2040, flown on October 13th, 1957, with Hervey S. Stockman at the controls. A report from this mission can be found on a CIA document here.

Following the end of the U-2-based intelligence missions, Giebelstadt was ceded to the US Army in the years of Kennedy. The Army used it as a huge base for helicopter operations well into the third millennium – the base was deactivated and returned to Federal Germany only in 2006.

Today, the now private airport can be barely neared without triggering security service. However, even a quick look along the fence will reveal clear traces of the US military tenancy. From hangars to fences, to softer constructions north of the airfield, everything is much US military standard.

Giebelstadt Airbase US U-2 CIA USAF Würzburg Bayern Germany

The runway – huge for todays single-prop and glider activities! – can be seen clearly from the south and from the eastern end.

Giebelstadt Airbase US U-2 CIA USAF Würzburg Bayern Germany

Antenna arrays and a now oversize control tower are other witnesses of the past military activity.

Giebelstadt Airbase US U-2 CIA USAF Würzburg Bayern Germany

Getting there and moving around

Giebelstadt airport can be conveniently reached along road N.19, about 8 miles south of Würzburg. Unfortunately, despite the road passing right besides the airport, there are very few options for stopping close to the fence with a car on this fast road, and similarly on the road going along the southern fence of the airport, taking east to Mönchsmühle nearby. However, the eastern runway head can be approached from the latter. Just turn north towards the base in the vicinity of the general aviation hangars in the southeastern corner of the airport. The road is a dead end, and you will likely trigger some inspection by people inside the fence, so not much to worry about if you stay outside.

Another part which can be toured is the former administrative part/barracks to the northeast. This can be entered driving along the northern side of the airport. This area has been taken over by private companies, and you might trigger some inspection by the respective security agencies. They are rather friendly though, so again, not much to worry about if you take picture staying in your car.

Wolfsschlucht II – Hitler’s Forgotten Headquarters in France

September 17, 2016December 24, 2018 CarloR3 Comments

A few miles from the city of Soissons, and precisely in the municipality of Margival in the northern French countryside, southeast of the region of the Somme – where the fierce offensive of the British and their Allies took place in 1916 – lies a very little advertised and almost unknown item of great interest for war historians.

It was here, not far from where young Hitler fought for the Kaiser in WWI, that the occupation forces of Nazi Germany started building their headquarters in 1942. The place, not far north from Paris and at a similar distance from the coasts of Normandy and the narrowest section of the Channel, was probably selected also for the existence of a long railway tunnel, with an entrance hidden in a small but deep valley – of use for hiding the special armored train Hitler used to travel over the occupied regions of the Third Reich.

Being intended for acting as a major directional center where the Führer himself should be in charge, the military installation was designed with all that was necessary for leading the German offensive and directing operations on a potential western front, and with some comfort for the top figures of the German government. Similarly to other bases destined to host the Führer, the fort in Margival received a picturesque name – ‘Wolfsschlucht II’ or ‘Wolf’s canyon II’.

The fact that soon after the D-Day operations and the real opening of a western front for Germany the region fell under Allied control meant that the installation was used intensively for only about three months in the summer of 1944 – it had began to be used more considerably from the first months of 1944, when an invasion from the sea began to be seen by the Nazi high command as likely.

Hitler reportedly visited the place only in one occasion and for 1-2 days in June 1944, soon after the successful landing of the Allies in Normandy, electing to concentrate personally on the Eastern front and leaving the command of operations to other generals. General Model resided in the installation in August 1944. Soon after the area was lost to the Allies.

But the history of the place was not over. The bunkers, barracks and service buildings had been constructed by the German paramilitary Todt organization with good care and had survived the war basically undamaged. They were used by the French Army until 1955 before being selected for quartering NATO forces until 1968. Then control was given back to the French Army, who abandoned the place with the end of the Cold War in the early Nineties.

Since then the place has been left deserted and has fallen into oblivion. Only in recent years a local society of enthusiasts has begun a lengthy but precious restoration work, which by now has interested only a limited part of the huge area of this military installation.

Due to the extensive use by western forces in the Cold War period, much of the few remaining interiors date from more recently than WWII. On the other hand, the buildings and their disposition are original from the German master plan.

The following photographs were taken during an exploration of the site in August 2016.

Getting there and moving around

Wolfsschlucht II has three main gates, one to the south in Margival, leaving the D537 as the road climbs uphill in a horseshoe bend, one to the east in Laffaux, leaving the D537 to the right before reaching the town center approaching from north, and the last to the north, on Rue Principale in Neuville-sur-Margival.

I selected the first of the three, for immediately after passing the gate and the former guardhouse there is a free area where you can conveniently park your car. This area is technically inside the old fence, so if there is nobody around to greet you and to ask about, you may be worried about your car being blocked inside if somebody closes the gate. I watched the door closely and decided it had been open for months, so I left my car inside. Soon after I met one of the members of the preservation society, who assured there was no trouble in parking where I had actually parked, so I guess you can adopt the same strategy…

I must mention the preservation society has a website where they advertise guided tours of the place, even in English language (website here). I tried to contact them in advance the days prior to my visit, about twenty-five times via phone, but could never speak with anybody – the line was free but nobody answered. I sent also some emails to the guys on the contact list of the site, and never received an answer. I decided to go anyway, and in the event I could tour the place without troubles, except a few restored bunkers, which are closed and cannot be visited except with a guide I guess.

The place is not particularly creepy. Once there, I found an entire family and various other people touring the area, plus people busy in the restoration of some of the bunkers. The railway track is still active, so there are also trains passing right besides the bunkers.

The bunkers are roughly aligned along a single road leading from the southern to the northern entrance, to the east of the railway track. The length is about 1.7 miles one way, so plan a walk of about 3.5 miles for a round tour of this installation.

Sights

The first large bunker you find when approaching from the southern gate is the ‘Loano’ bunker – all names are from after WWII, where the numbers painted on the bunkers are original German. The distinctive concrete dome and the surface with holds for practicing with climbing and doing exercises is an addition dating from after WWII.

Margival Wolfsschlucht 2

The road then splits in two. Both ends lead to the northern part of the installation, where the most interesting bunkers can be found. The lower path goes along the railway, and climbs uphill steeply towards the end. There is less to see along that than the other path, going uphill immediately behind the ‘Loano’ bunker.

Along the latter, you can find a series of service buildings, barracks, clubhouses and canteens for troops. Also a former square with a flagpole can be seen to the side of the road at some point. Most of the buildings are totally abandoned. I explored some of them with some satisfaction, but what you can find dates clearly from relatively recent years.

Margival Wolfsschlucht 2

Among other buildings, a partially interred bunker for troops, similar to those you can find in the batteries of the Atlantic Wall, can be spotted in the trees, refurbished but unfortunately not accessible. A distinctive feature of some of the buildings is their ‘partially armored’ construction, with the part reaching to the road made of lighter materials and that closer to the hill made of reinforced concrete.

I guess the iron window frames and blinds date back from WWII.

After a good walk you finally reach a T-shaped crossing and a group of buildings. Among them, the one belonging to the preservation society – ‘Berezina’ bunker. To the east you can spot the only multi-storey building of the complex, which reportedly served as a building for visitors, and actually looks like a small hotel. I don’t think this dates back from WWII, for the style is somewhat ‘un-German’. You can step inside at your own risk, for the building is totally derelict. Baths and canteens are still easily recognizable. To the back of the ‘Berezina’ bunker it is possible to find the entry of a heavy armored bunker, in a refurbished camouflage.

Margival Wolfsschlucht 2

Going back to the T-shaped crossing and taking to the west you find one of the most interesting bunkers, a former communication bunker which was named ‘Patricia’ after the war. This building follows the ‘partially armored’ construction scheme. It is exceptionally long, possibly one of the largest of the kind in Europe.

Margival Wolfsschlucht 2

Inside the building it is easy to distinguish the unarmored part to the front from the armored part to the back, closer to the hill.

Margival Wolfsschlucht 2

Again the inside of the armored part is very similar to the bunkers of the Atlantic Wall, a consequence of both being designed by the same design studio. Remains of cables from WWII and of other equipment from various ages make this visit very interesting. It’s very dark inside the armored part, you will definitely need a torch, and be very careful, cause the pavement is uneven and there are manholes and other strange cavities all around.

The last part of the visit will bring you to the Führer’s quarters. Keeping going uphill, the road will turn north. As you reach the top of a steep climb you will be facing a corner building with three square pillars. This is bunker N.1, where Hitler was in his only visit to the Margival site in June 1944. The very sober decoration of the façade with the three pillars is the only distinctive feature of this building, which is again armored to the back.

Margival Wolfsschlucht 2

Leaving the N.1 building to your left you may take a road proceeding around the hill without climbing. Along this road you see a grassy area with curbs framing a square spot on the ground. This is where a ‘normal’ – i.e. not armored – house for the Führer’s entourage used to stay. Further on, you can find an original Nazi swimming pool, again intended for top-ranking staff stationed in the installation.

Margival Wolfsschlucht 2

Going back to bunker N.1 and taking to the north, you can find large buildings possibly originally hosting command services and canteens. At the time of my visit these were undergoing restoration.

A refurbished bunker with a ‘Tobruk’ shooting post can be found to the northernmost end of the building complex.

Margival Wolfsschlucht 2

During my exploration I came back to the southern gate and to the ‘Loano’ bunker following the lower road along the railway. Being an active track, it should be approached with extreme caution. It is part of the tour, for it was there from the origin.

Margival Wolfsschlucht 2

All in all, this was a stress-free, easy and enjoyable exploration. The site is rich of historical significance and showcases interesting military buildings from the period of Nazi Germany. I would recommend it for everybody interested, including those in lower than average physical condition. Don’t forget guided tours are possible in principle – I wish you are luckier than me in scheduling one!

The Atlantic Wall – Off the Beaten Track

September 11, 2016October 19, 2019 CarloRLeave a comment

Soon after gaining control over French territory in early summer 1940 and after the unsuccessful battle in the sky against Britain the following autumn, having successfully occupied all Nations in continental western Europe, Hitler’s military command decided to fortify the sea border on the Atlantic coast of the Third Reich.

At that time, this meant developing existing strongpoints and building many others anew along a shoreline extending from Norway all the way to the border between France and Spain, thus encompassing the western coasts of Norway, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium and France.

The detailed preparation of this pharaonic project – the ‘Atlantic Wall’ – and its realization were commissioned by the government to the ‘Organization Todt’, a paramilitary organization led by Fritz Todt, and following his death by the minister of armaments Albert Speer.

Thanks to millions of tons of concrete, to forced labor – in the form of forced cooperation of the local skilled workers in the respective Countries -, and to often reconditioned cannons transferred from other fronts and older WWI forts, either original German or captured in occupied territories, tens of fortified bunkers for coastal defense of many sizes began to appear on the Atlantic coast and reached operational state between 1940 and 1944.

The proximity of the coast to undefeated Britain made the areas of southern Belgium and of the French Pas-de-Calais and northern Normandy the most fortified of all. Some among the most monstrous pieces of artillery ever deployed were installed in this sector, where it was expected that an invasion of the Reich would take place sooner or later. These batteries were operated by troops of either the German Army or Navy.

Comparatively less fortified, the coast of Normandy was that actually attacked in June 1944. Even though the German command knew an attack was imminent at that time, the preparation of the D-Day included deceptive side-operations, which successfully misled the Germans, who could not know exactly the point of the Allied invasion until little before the fateful dawn of June 6th.

Today, many of the coastal batteries in the area of the beaches of the D-Day, which played an active part trying to interfere with the Allied operations, are obviously national monuments and can be visited very easily.

On the other hand, the majority of the batteries of the Atlantic Wall, scattered along a very long coastline, have slipped into oblivion.

In France, many of the strongpoints close to the coasts and shores of the Pas-de-Calais are still there, derelict and often covered in graffiti, a very common sight along the coastline. More inland batteries and installations, including storage bunkers and service buildings, lie on private land, hence they are not publicly accessible (in theory…). In Belgium, much of what remained was willingly dismantled, leaving only a few sites open to the public as museums. And so on.

Even though the Atlantic Wall was an excessively ambitious project and remained a largely unfinished work, some of the completed installations are unusual and very interesting from the viewpoint of engineering. Thanks also to the many murals, inexplicably not preserved, dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation, exploration of many of these abandoned sites can be rewarding and a very interesting way to spend some time in these regions.

The following photographs were taken exploring some installations of the Atlantic Wall along the coast of northern Normandy and Pas-de-Calais, France, in August 2016.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Fécamp
Dieppe
‘Friedrich August’ battery – Wimille
‘Todt’ battery – Audinghen
Calais
‘Oldenburg’ and ‘Waldam’ batteries – Calais

Fécamp

The garrison here operated a Würzburg Riese radar, of which the fork-shaped concrete base remains today, plus optical distance measurement devices. Entering the bunkers is not possible, the gates are locked.

Fécamp Atlantic Wall

Walking north on top of the shore, towards a horrible, really misplaced wind farm, it is possible to spot more measurement stations, with a characteristic bulged roof, a round shaped plant and a very thin observation slot. Going in is generally possible at your own risk – wild brambles obstruct the entrance.

Fécamp Atlantic Wall

Close to the road running along the coastline more demolished bunkers can be spotted, but they are out of reach, too close to the wind turbines and beyond a guarded perimeter.

Fécamp Atlantic Wall

Getting there and moving around

A car park can be found on top of the cliff north of the center of Fécamp, close to a small church. The area can be toured with a pleasant walk along the coastline on top of the cliff.

Dieppe

In the garden you can reach in the premises of the castle of Dieppe it is possible to spot the former entrance to the service tunnels of the local coastal fortifications. The gates are locked. Also a small bunker for a light cannon can be found nearby.

Dieppe Atlantic Wall

On top of the cliff besides the castle an armored metal observation post can be easily found. From there moving south along the road on top of the cliff you pass a totally inaccessible former battery besides a small parking area – the doors have been bricked up. Farther south another concrete observation bunker can be found, this time accessible with the usual precautions – it is very close to the rim.

Dieppe Atlantic Wall

Getting there and moving around

Reaching the castle is possible from the city center or from a dedicated parking. The top of the cliff with the metal observation post is a popular panorama point with a parking nearby. The concrete observation bunker can be reached with a narrow path with little difficulty – pay attention to the usual brambles and nettles.

‘Friedrich August’ Battery – Wimille

Little remains of this once huge battery with 305 mm naval cannons, operated by the Navy. The area has been converted for industrial production. One of the remaining bunkers, partly destroyed but still very large and imposing, can be spotted from the distance close to a factory on top of a hill, driving along Route de la Menandelle, Wimille.

Friedrich August Wimille Atlantic Wall

The area is reportedly rich of remains of the Wall, including headquarters of the German admiralty, but all are on private grounds – not just pastures or vineyards, but fenced private gardens. I spent a couple of hours trying to get close to them without success.

All in all, it is much easier and more rewarding moving along the beaches in the area, where you can surely find some interesting remains.

Getting there and moving around

Unless you have some sort of permission and you are going with a local guide, don’t waste time leaving your car, just drive uphill along Route de la Menandelle, Wimille. You will see the battery to your right in the distance.

‘Todt’ Battery – Audinghen

One of the best museums on the mighty batteries of the Pas-de-Calais has been created in one of the towers of the famous ‘Todt’ battery. This museum (Musee du Mur de l’Atlantique, wbesite here) is surely worth a visit to find an explanation of the working procedures of the battery, its history, and also for the pieces of artillery preserved here, including Europe’s only surviving ‘Leopold’ railway cannon.

Todt Battery Atlantic Wall

A less visited place nearby the museum is the former N.4 tower of the same ‘Todt’ battery. This is totally abandoned and unfortunately the ubiquitous writers hit very hard with their ignorant spoiling. Nonetheless, in the almost total darkness – you will need at least an iPhone torch for moving around – of some of the former shell storage and service rooms many substantial traces of original Nazi murals can be seen still today – much larger and more interesting than those you can find in the museum.

Todt Battery Atlantic Wall

Besides the service road, you can explore the firing chamber and the support platform of the cannon with the concrete platform of the main metal pivot still in place.

Todt Battery Atlantic Wall

Getting there and moving around

Reaching the abandoned tower N.4 is easy from the museum. From the round about where D940 and D191 cross you will find the museum leaving D940 close by along a road called La Sence. Leaving the museum to your right, keep driving along La Sence. You will come to a T-shaped crossing, where you need to turn left. The road will start to descend downhill, and you will find a convenient parking area to the left just before reaching D940. Leave your car here. Leaving the parking from the main gate by foot, turn right on the road you just came from, and soon after take an unpaved service road to the left, in the direction of the sea. Follow this road until it turns left – about .15 miles later. You can spot the tower partly hidden by the trees.

The tower has a shape very similar to that of the one you can visit in the museum, so you may already have an idea of the plan of the site. Anyway, an entrance can be found on the eastern side – i.e. the back side – of the tower. The murals can be found on the lower floor, so no climbing is strictly needed. The ground is extremely muddy and slippery, so carefully choose your shoes. The rooms are almost totally dark, so you will need at least a small torch and good flash or a tripod for your camera.

You can also walk around on the outside to the front of the tower. Entering from there is very difficult, the level of the ground inside being much lower than that on the outside.

Calais

This unattractive port town is home to many installations connected with the Atlantic Wall. The beaches to the south of the town are crowded with cannon and observation bunkers, which are ‘gently’ moving with time from the original elevated positions to a lower level close to the water.

Calais Atlantic Wall

On a large abandoned area which was once a huge car park – possibly for embarking cars going over the Channel to England – to the west of the city centre it is possible to spot an armored tunnel/shelter for storing a railway cannon.

Calais Atlantic Wall

Getting there and moving around

The installations on the western beaches of Calais can be reached and walked very easily. Just park your car in one of the parking areas for people going to the beach and go by foot.

The tunnel/shelter cannot be reached, it is in an abandoned parking which nonetheless is private property (many signs and fences in place). You can photograph it with a zoom lens parking your car in front of the cemetery on Avenue Pierre de Coubertin, or in front of one of the gates of the area on Rue d’Asfeld. No walking is needed.

‘Oldenburg’ and ‘Waldam’ Batteries – Calais

Among the most remarkable remains of the Atlantic Wall, these two batteries are located close to the beaches east of central Calais.

Calais Oldenburg Battery Atlantic Wall

The two huge towers of the ‘Oldenburg’ battery used to host heavy naval cannons and were operated by the German Navy. Today the cannons are gone, but the huge concrete bunkers are still there. Also a one-of-a-kind bunker hospital can be spotted nearby.

The installations are totally derelict, and unfortunately the area is today on the border of a guarded and overcrowded refugee camp, so you don’t feel very safe when moving around – small groups of young immigrants ‘escaping’ their camp and without much to do will probably find and stare at you – and at your belongings. Try to avoid misunderstandings, but be ready to defend yourself. On the plus side, Calais center is populated by much Police, clearly aware of the exceptional condition of the town in these days.

Calais Waldam Battery Atlantic Wall

The ‘Waldam’ battery besides is placed farther east with respect to ‘Oldenburg’, in the territory of Le Fort Verd. Here besides the ‘usual’ intermediate size bunkers for cannons you can spot an interesting piece of engineering, in the form of a concrete bunker capable of revolving around a pin. At least one exemplar is still in relatively good shape. Also a very unusual observation tower for aiming equipment can be spotted nearby.

Calais Waldam Battery Atlantic Wall

Exploring the site can be done with no official restriction, but the area is mainly for bird hunting, so be careful not to interfere with hunting-related activities. Accessing the totally derelict bunkers is possible if you go prepared to face wild vegetation, brambles and nettles. Immigrants do not go far from their base camp, so you have very low chance to find them if you move in the area of the ‘Waldam’ battery.

Calais Waldam Battery Atlantic Wall

As usual in the area, ship-arresting devices, once standing half submerged on the beach, can be spotted around, often used as posts for roadsigns or for marking road corners.

Getting there and moving around

As already pointed out, Calais is not only unpleasant as usual for a mainly commercial port town, but it is also living a particularly bad moment, being overcrowded with immigrants posing some security problem. Fearing for my car I elected to park close to the beach way east of the ‘Oldenburg’ battery and of the refugee camp. A convenient parking used by some friendly hunters and local traffic can be found between Le Fort Verd and Les Hemmes de Marck. When driving east towards the latter (along Rue Jean Bart), turn left on a public unpaved road with no signs pointing straight to the coastline. The road turns sharply left towards Calais at some point, and you find a prohibition sign telling not to go further, and a good parking with some information panels. You can park there.

For reaching the ‘Waldam’ battery I would suggest using Google Maps or something similar on your phone – coverage is very strong. This is to avoid wasting time on dead-end passages between the countless ponds and puddles in the area.

The road you can’t drive on going west (Digue Taaf) will lead you back to the ‘Oldenburg’ battery. For reaching the ‘Waldam’ battery you will need to move north of the road, in the hunting area between the road and the beach.

From the parking to the ‘Oldenburg’ battery is about 1.5 miles one-way. Touring the area is a physically requiring task not only for the distance, but for you have to find your way on uneven terrain, with fields of brambles and nettles. You can have much fun if you like exploring and you go prepared, only don’t forget to bring some water and snacks – you are on a beach after all, so it will be hot and you will be totally exposed to sunlight.

Peenemünde Army Research Facility

June 24, 2016April 5, 2022 CarloRLeave a comment

Peenemünde is broadly known for having hosted the first ever large-scale research center and test ground for military rockets, missiles, flying bombs and innovative ordnance and weaponry in the world. The small town of Peenemünde is located on the island of Usedom, a nice, almost flat island on the shore of the Baltic sea, on the border between today’s Germany and Poland – ‘Peene’ is a river having its mouth (‘münde’ in German, from which the name of the place) where Usedom island is.

History – in brief

The Peenemünde site was a creäture of the administration of the Nazi regime in the late Thirties. It grew rapidly to a considerable size especially for the time. The site included an electric power plant, later used after the closure of the research center for supplying energy to the East German power grid, an airport, later converted into an air base and operated by the Air Force of East Germany, a sea port, a series of technical facilities for testing and producing all that was needed to assemble rockets, their systems and engines, as well as for preparing propellants.

There were also several launch pads for missiles and flying bombs, and last but not least, scattered over a broad area, housing for thousands of people, which included high-ranking technicians and people from academia – there was also an advanced wind tunnel -, military/SS personnel, as well as factory workers, including many prisoners of the regime.

The site was so large that a dedicated local railway was built and operated to allow people commuting, modeled on the urban railway of Berlin. The railway network was the third in size in Germany, following Berlin and Hamburg.

This enormous installation was directed by Wehrner von Braun, later to become a technical leader in the US research efforts in the field of rocketry, and a central character in the race for space opposite the Soviets.

Peenemünde was never an operative launch site – it was far too distant from potential targets in Britain for the limited range of flying weapons of those days – but due to its primary relevance as a testing and production site of the v1 flying bombs and later of the v2 missiles, the site became a designated target of very intense bombing raids.

The Peenemünde complex was severely hit in a series of air attacks launched by the Allied British and US air forces in the summer of 1943. After that, production was moved in forced labor camps in central Germany – Mittelbau/Dora being probably the most in-famous – whereas only research and testing was still conducted in Peenemünde, with plans to move progressively more and more equipment to other destinations scattered over the territory of the Third Reich, for which construction was started in the last years of WWII.

The Soviets captured what remained of the complex in Peenemünde at the very end of WWII in May 1945. By common agreement, the Allied put an end to rocket research in Germany, the Soviets materially blowing up every technical building still standing in the area, with the exception of the power plant, the airport and a few others. Parts of the machinery in the powerplant as well as almost all railway tracks were reportedly transferred to the Soviet Union.

Since then, the air base of the East German Air Force has been developed in more instances, adding aircraft shelters, a tower and other technical buildings that are still standing – the airport is today open to general aviation. The power plant was updated over the years by the Communist regime, becoming one of the most polluting plants in Germany, whereas the former launch pads and the area once occupied by technical buildings were rapidly reclaimed by nature.

The following photos were taken during a visit to the site in April 2016.

Sights

Museum

After 1989 and the German reunification, the power plant was soon closed, and a museum (Historical Technical Museum, website here) on the history of the Peenemünde site, recognized worldwide as the cradle of modern rocketry, was opened in it.

Among the few buildings of the Nazi era still standing today, the building of the ticket and book shop of this museum used to be a bunker for governing the power plant also in case of an air raid.

There are three main exhibitions in the museum. The open air exhibition, on the ground of the power plant, is composed of an original v1 launching ramp moved here from France, with a v1 flying bomb assembled from original pieces, a reconstructed v2 rocket, and a local train from the original local railway system.

Peenemunde Technology History Museum

In the photos it is possible to see the launch system of the v1, which was pushed to its take-off speed by a piston moving in a pipe underneath the bomb, in the body of the ramp. Mostly similar to modern acceleration systems on aircraft carriers, except for the piston was moved as an effect of a chemical reaction involving hydrogen peroxide, and not water steam as it’s most typical for aircraft carriers.

The second and third exhibitions are hosted in the building of the power plant – itself a significant example of industrial architecture from the days of the Nazi regime – and describe the history of the army research center and of the powerplant. The first of these two is the ‘central piece’ of the complex, no visit of Peenemünde is complete without a look at this exhibition.

In the photographs it is possible to see some of the artifacts in the exhibition about rocketry in Peenemünde. It is possible to appreciate the advanced technologies tested here already in those early years, including high pressure mixing of liquid propellants, graphite deflectors for thrust vectoring, inertial navigation systems, turbopumps for pumping the propellant into the combustion chamber at the correct rate. There are also original signs from the area.

Peenemunde Technology History Museum

Scaled mockups of all items tested in Peenemünde, much more numerous than the v1 and v2, add to the show, together with models of the former launch pads. Especially launch pad ‘VII’, used for the v2 rocket, was so well designed that it was adopted also in the US after the war as a blueprint for their own designs.

A visit to the complex of the power plant may easily take 2 h 30 min for an interested subject.

Former test grounds and launch pads

The launch pads were placed closer to the airport, very close to the northeastern shore of the island, to the north of the village of Peenemünde. Today, this broad ‘ghost area’ is partly fenced, surely not accessible with private vehicles, possibly accessible by foot. It is a kind of natural preserve, with much wildlife around.

The best way to explore this area, without getting lost in the trees and with a chance to spot what is still in place, is going with a society offering guided tours of the site, named ‘Historische Rundfahrt Peenemünde’ (website here). As of 2016 there are tours offered in German three times a day on a regular basis, but it is possible to arrange tours in English upon request at your preferred time – this was my only option as I don’t know much German. In my case, it turned out I was the only visitor on that tour, so I had the guide – a gentleman speaking a very good English, and with an incredible knowledge of many technical matters – all for me for the duration of the whole 3 h 15 min tour. You move mostly with a minivan, so apart from the bumpy road the visit is very comfortable.

The tour starts by the airport of Peenemünde, and you are soon driven into the site. With the help of a digital map, the guide will show where you are standing with respect to the buildings and installations that were originally there. You can see from the photos that Soviets took their job very seriously, so that very little remains of the original structures. You can recognize the original plan of the site mainly by the asphalted roads still in place today – albeit covered in dust.

Peenemunde Test Site and Launch Pads

Peenemunde Test Site and V2 Launch Pad

The most prominent sight in the complex is surely launch pad ‘VII’, once used for the v2. It is possible to spot the containment banks all around the launch site. The concrete flame deflector is still in place, filled with rainwater. The walls of the deflector were water-cooled to resist the extreme heat of the rocket exhaust at takeoff. The water pump occupied a part of the lateral banks, together with measuring equipment and a sheltered observation deck. Still standing is a water nozzle used by firefighters in the – likely – event of fires due to malfunctions in the launching process.

A stone celebrates the launching of the first v2 missile from this site.

The rocket used to be moved to the launching position – above the flame deflector – with a special trolley. Multiple silos were placed around a common track made of concrete, built outside the perimeter of the containment banks. The trolley, loaded on a sliding platform, could move along the concrete track. The missile was collected from the assembly silo, the platform moved along the concrete track to reach the head of a short metal railway track where the trolley could be pushed to reach the flame deflector, in the middle of the containment banks – see the photo of the model above. Like the flame deflector, the concrete guide is still standing today, filled with rain water.

Other interesting sights of the visit are the experimental launch ramps of the v1, placed to the northernmost part of the island, right behind the beach. A first experimental ramp (type 1) was totally made of concrete, and was clearly not adopted for operational use, being too difficult to build and manage. Other two ramps, not so different from one another, were the first examples of types 2 and 3.

Peenemunde Test Site and V1 Launch Pad Type 1

Peenemunde Test Site and V1 Launch Pad Type 2

Peenemunde Test Site and V1 Launch Pad Type 3

Peenemunde Test Site and V1 Launch Pad

Type 3 was adopted operationally and deployed to the coasts of France and Belgium. Inert concrete warheads used in test flights can be seen in the photos, left from the age of testing.

You can see here that all ramps pointed directly to the Baltic sea. Telemetry towers were installed on the neighbor islands of Oie and Ruegen for tracking the experimental flights and taking measurements. Two such towers that are still standing today can be spotted from here in the distance, you can see them in the photos.

Peenemunde Test Site and V2 Launch Pad

Before leaving, having shown a great interest for the topic of aeronautics, I was given the opportunity to tour an incredible exhibition of weapons, systems and artifacts from the area they are putting together in a small farm surviving from the days of WWII – where rabbits were bred for feeding the staff and for making fur for airmen. As of May 2016 this was not yet open to the public.

Peenemunde Exhibition of Innovative Weapons

Among the artifacts you can see in the pictures from this exhibition, TV-guided bombs, experimental solid propellant rockets, a piloted v1 and tons of other incredible items. This shows once more that many technologies later become widespread had been tested here much before they started to be massively used. Also preserved are some parts of aircraft downed during the raids of 1943.

Maybe after finishing with the tour it is interesting to have a brief look to the airport, where the control tower possibly from the Nazi era and some aircraft shelters are still standing. The place can’t be walked freely for it’s still an active GA airport, but part of the former base is being used as a testing track for sport cars and can be approached safely.

Peenemunde Flugplatz East German Airbase

My tour lasted more than 3 hours, but at the time of booking my English tour I was offered also shorter options.

K-24 Juliett-class Soviet submarine

	Heading to Berlin or the former GDR? Looking for traces of the Cold War open for a visit?
	A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY Second Edition - 2024
	DON'T LEAVE IT AT HOME! AVAILABLE in PAPERBACK or KINDLE from your national Amazon store!
	amazon.com \| amazon.de \| amazon.co.uk amazon.it \| amazon.fr \| amazon.co.jp

This submarine is moored in the port of Peenemünde, a five minutes walk from the entrance to the power plant. This is reportedly the only Juliett class submarine existing today, so visiting is an absolute ‘must-do’ for the committed tourist (website here).

Furthermore, the condition of this unit is still very good, making for an interesting and unusual visit – a unusal fact is that all is written in Cyrillic alphabet, with many ‘CCCP’ factory signs on the labels of the gauges and of the technical stuff. Juliett submarines were designed in the Fifties and operated till the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early Nineties, with a capability for launching cruise missiles with tactical nuclear warheads directed to target ships or coastal targets, from a distance of some hundred miles. They were conventionally powered with large diesel electric-units.

Peenemunde K24 Soviet Juliett Class Submarine

Having been designed after WWII, they are much roomier than German U-Boots from the Nazi era, hence the visit is ok also for claustrophobic people. You can see two launch tubes in a deployed position to the back of the ship.

Visiting may take between five minutes and 1 hour depending on the level of your interest.

Note

A visit of these three items at a reasonable pace but without running may easily fill a day schedule. I know there is much to explore and see on your own in the area of the former complex, but I could only dedicate one day to this site during my trip. I would recommend doing at least the same for an interested person.

In any case, the island with its Baltic shores and light is nice and relaxing, so I would recommend planning a day for Usedom also in case you are not interested only in military history.

Getting there and moving around

The island of Usedom is much larger than the area of the former research complex, which once occupied the northernmost extremity. The island can be approached by car with two bridges in Anklam and Wolgast from mainland Germany, or from Poland. It is very easy to get there by car.

Once in the village of Peenemünde, it’s easy to spot the massive building of the power plant. K-24 can be reached with a five minutes walk from the entrance of the power plant. The place is very popular, so there is a large parking just besides these two attractions.

The pick-up point for the guided tour of the former research center is by the small airport, which is located north of the village, a 1.5 miles drive from Peenemünde. Free parking besides the small office building.

I couldn’t imagine a more convenient way than having a car for moving around, but the island is reportedly very crowded in summer. A train can be used to reach some of the villages on Usedom, so you may consider also this alternative.

A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY

Second Edition - 2024

The БАРС system – The tropospheric network of the Warsaw Pact

The Wollenberg site – Bunker 301 ‘Tushurka’

Sights

Getting there & Visiting

A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY

Second Edition - 2024

Share this:

Sights

Red Forest, Bridge of Death and Pripyat Access

‘Azure’ Swimming Pool and School (Microdistrict 3)

Panoramic View from Rooftop (Microdistrict 5)

Amusement Park

Post Office

Central Square

Hospital – Medical Center 126

Cafe Pripyat, Passenger Port and Floating Pier

KBO Service Center

Prometheus Movie Theater and Music School

Furniture Shop and Home Appliance Shop (AGD)

School N.2 (Microdistrict 2)

Visiting

Share this:

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Sights

Chernobyl Town

Cooling Towers of the Nuclear Power-Plant

Nuclear Power-Plant

Kopachi Village Kindergarten

Zalissya Village

Isolated School & Kindergarten

Children’s Camp ‘Emerald’

Abandoned Barges on Pripyat River

Visiting

Share this:

Soviet Over-the-Horizon Anti-ICBM Early Warning System ‘Duga’

Historical Overview

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Sights

Access and Radar Antennas

Control Center and Technical Buildings

Training Center

Chernobyl-2 – Firefighters Station and Village

Chernobyl-2 – School

Chernobyl-2 – Entertainment Center

Visiting

General Data and Advice for a Trip to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Type of Trip

Time of the Visit

Radiation/Safety

Dress Code

Souvenirs

Canteen

Hotel

Guided Tour Suggestion

Share this:

Sights

Launch Control Area

Getting there and moving around

Integrated Fire Control Area

Getting there and moving around

Share this:

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Sights

Project ‘Riese’, Poland

Osowka

Rzeczka

Getting there and moving around

‘Weingut I’ Aviation Industry Complex, Germany

Getting there and moving around

Share this:

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Sights

Nike Missile Battery – Wurmberg

Getting there and moving around

Pershing Warhead Storage Bunkers – Waldstetten

Getting there and moving around

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum – Villingen-Schwenningen

Getting there and moving around