Romanian fortifications

Take some photos from upstairs first and make a good plan! Beter use a pipe to breathe down there. The structure was not hermetically closed (remember the ventilation shafts) but it could be badly oxigened down there. And don't forget to be tied with good ropes!

If there is a tunnel, or generaly a room without concrete walls and roof, you'd better not go further, because the structure could colapse and bury you alive.

I really hope you're at the age to have the guts but also be cautious enough

This post has been edited by bansaraba on July 26, 2008 09:31 pm

As I said, I took more pictures of the bunker in Brasov:

This shows the ceiling, which is at the same level as the small door. There can be seen a hole in the far right side, maybe in conection with the metal pipe outside (seen in the secod picture of my first post about this bunker):


This picture shows a third ventilation shaft, but outside it is below earth:


Now, the most interesting part: the descending shaft. There's a long way down there, as the end of the ladder cannot be seen in those 2 photos:

Hey old man,

you are exploring one of the "Opera" bunkers, here in Brasov!

"Opera" was a radar network established by Luftwaffe in Romania in the winter 1942 - 1943, to protect some key military assets: Ploiesti oil raffineries, Brasov aircraft factory IAR. The network was integrated with Freya and Wurtzburg radars, and data was centralised by phone line to the zonal operation rooms (as the bunker in Brasov or the "tunnel" in Ploiesti Vest) and served to activate fighters squadrons, fog generators, civil protection and, of corse, AA artillery ("Flack"). Flack had his own radars for fire control, but those were activated only after scrambled by Opera recon radars (VHF type, Freya, 150 miles detection radius).

The bunker of Brasov was part of that network. You will find inside the remnants of a phone operating room, a radio transmitter (in-flight guidance of fighters) a big electric generator and a situation room.

By design, this type of AA bunker is made to withstand the direct hit of a single 1t bomb or the blast of 5t bomb at 20m. That was a lot. For example, Romanian fortifications of the seaside were designed to withstand multiple 75mm hits or one direct 105mm hit (aprox. 7kg C4).

Have a good day and watch your steps!

Very interesting indeed and there might be some people in Brasov interested about that; however, I wouldn't go down there, it's pretty dangerous.

For ones who would, please read the posts above and take extreme caution! Don't forget to take some good pictures.

No one mentions the Romanian fortifications of the Independence war....
Since a year I've been studying the military engineering of the 1877-1878 and according to my information more than 50% of the Rom. fortifications round Plevna are still remaning. Here is a Google Earth screenshot, showing probably the most impressive one: the redoubt "Marele duce Nicolae". located some 4 km. North-East of Grivita village.

Good job, Sturmpionier! Thanks for sharing the image!

Same thing, different angle. And some ghosts from 1877.



I have seen the fortification and in my opinion it's in to good condition to be the original one it looks like it was abandoned yesterday not 130 years ago. Trenches from WWI don't look that good.

What about these two ghosts.....

Indeed this was the fortification we visited before the reenactment at Plevna. It's 100% original. The only redoubts, that were restorated were "Issa aga" ( in 1907)and "Kovanlak", placed near the Panorama (in 1973).

This post has been edited by Sturmpionier on September 01, 2008 06:35 am

Waiting for those pics from the Brasov bunker,did someone get in eventually?

i took a look inside this escape tunnel and :

1. this is an ww2 AA bunker
2. the ladder goes low as 10-15 m in the ground.

what do you think that we found down there? the bunker is used as cellars and there's no way to enter inside. main entry is in a court in Str. Lunga and we went to talk to the owner. we found a woman that thought about me and my friend that we are sent by the former owner who claimed the house(112 law).

you don't wanna know what circus was

How did you figured it out, did you saw or took photos of something interesting?

This newly published book is relevant to the topic: http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=5394

Last Sunday I looked for the fortifications at Namoloasa, part of the Focsani-Namoloasa-Galati line. Spent hours looking for clues about where these fortifications are located, the articles are ambiguous. In the end, found something on google maps, southwest from Namoloasa:


I investigated most of the places circled in red. Many of them had nothing to see, being just a thicket of bushes like this:


Others had a few concrete blocks, or part of the foundation:


the "best" one was this:


I have read about an intact bunker, picture here, slideshow here, asked locals where it is located, but they don't seem to know anything about it.

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However, north of Siret river, south of Hanu ConachiI found these:

The six fortifications lined up (plus one, degraded, near DN25 road) are placed about 600 meters apart. They consist of a structure about 9.5 meters per 4 meters, with walls 1 meter thick, flanked by two concrete fortifications. Pictures here:
Back side of main fortification:

Front side:

Top:

Inside view:

Fortifications on the flanks of the main bunker:


The main bunker has two entrances and no openings for firing, looking more like bomb shelters. It has two "rooms" about 2 by 2 meters, connected by a tunnel 2 meters wide by 3 meters long. Each room has a vertical ventilation shaft, about 15 cm in diameter. Above the tunnel there is a space where probably a machine gun might have been placed. Part of the bunker's walls are made of red bricks, while most of the top and front walls are concrete.
The side fortifications are just concrete blocks, about 3 by 3 meters, with an opening where a machine gun might have been mounted.

More interesting were the two fortifications that are not lined up with the others. One of them has been blown up and lies in pieces, the other is more or less intact. It has a semicircular shape, built around a circular room with a 3 meter diameter. The structure is about 11.5 meters long by 7 meters wide, with an extra 4 by 3 meters addition. Couldn't get a photo of it, made a sketch:

There were no ventilation shafts in the outer room. Three corridors connected the outer room with the inner one. Don't know where the entrance was, the back walls have been broken down, if there was an entrance it must have been there.
A few pictures:




I have a few questions for those in the know:

South of Siret, near Namoloasa, is there an intact bunker (as shown in the Adevarul slideshow)? If yes, do you have any idea where it is located?
North of Siret, the fortifications were part of Focsani - Namoloasa - Galati/Braila line? I found no mentions of fortifications here. Any idea when they were built?
The small bunkers, what was their use?
The large bunker probably housed an artillery turret. Any details about the gun size/firepower?

Very nice finds the bunkers you visited are from the FNG line. From what I see the first fortification is a embrasure for a transportable 53mm turret. The fortification is missing the front mound of earth that camouflaged the bunker in a small hill. Because they are pre WWI bunker made from non reinforced concrete. The chambers are probably for ammunition storage and cover for the crew.

The bigger bunker is probably for a fix turret probably for a bigger gun.

Below are a few images of the bunkers from the area, and as you can see around Fundeni there are many bunkers. But they are smaller than the ones around Bucharest. Anyway I recommend you to visit them, who knows what you'll find.