At Bunker Complex De Punt, we find various support bunkers: an observation bunker, machine gun bunker, tank turret bunker, toilet bunker, water bunker, and a searchlight garage with bedding.
Observation bunker
The first bunker we find in the De Punt Bunker Complex is an observation bunker, also known as a Leiche MG Ringstände bunker. This reinforced concrete combat room has a round or octagonal hole at the top. An affût stood on top of this. An affût is a mount for a machine gun, which was used to defend the complex. The bunker has a wall thickness of 75 cm.
In addition to being a defensive structure, the Ringstände was also used as an observation post. The bunker was usually occupied by one person. Above the entrance to this bunker, a dot can be seen, which is a so-called marking dot. Many bunkers have such dots, which marked the entrances so that they were easy to find in the dark. The paint used contains a radioactive substance (radium), which made the dot glow in the dark. This radioactive substance has now worn off.
Machine gun bunker
The bunker is a schwere mg Rinständ or Tobruk bunker for a heavy machine gun. On the edge of the bunker was a mount on which an mg 311 (f) was mounted. From the bunker, the North Sea beach could be monitored and fired upon. The ring on the edge of the bunker has a special field of fire marking. The names Anton, Bertha, Cäsar, and Dora come from the German game or telephone alphabet. In English, the names would be Anna, Bernard, Cornelis, and Dirk. The names correspond to the sectors from which the soldiers could expect an attack. Today, the Ministry of Defense still uses a similar system.
Tank turret bunker
The tank turret bunker is of the Tobrukständeen type and was used to defend the beach in the direction of Grevelingen. The reinforced concrete combat area was topped with the turret of a French Renault FT 17 tank. This tank was used during the First World War and is considered the first modern tank. In the FT 17, the driver sat in the front, the engine was in the rear, and the turret was placed in the middle. The layout of this modern tank was unique at the time, but is now a commonly used layout in tanks. The turret of the bunker housed a Reibel Mg 311 (f). This French machine gun was also used on the other two Tobruks located at De Punt.
Toilet bunker
There were two toilets in the bunker, ‘2 sits abbort’. The toilet bunker was built further away from the living bunkers for hygiene reasons. There was no connection to a sewer, so people relieved themselves in a wooden bucket. This wooden bucket stood under a slab with a hole in it. The hole was covered with a lid because of the smell.
The abbort at this complex is heavily constructed. The splinter wall in front of the toilets is almost 10 meters long and the floor is 3.5 meters below ground level. A splinter wall is a wall that provides protection against shrapnel from bombs during an air raid. On top of this is a 30 cm thick concrete roof and another 1 meter of soil on top of that.
Water bunker
A bunker containing a drilled well that supplied water to the complex. The so-called well (brunne) with filter installation. In this bunker, water was stored in two 1,700-liter tanks. Before the water was pumped into the tanks, it had to be filtered. The water ran through two filters, the coarse filter and the sand filter. Unfortunately, the pumped water turned out to be brackish and could not be drunk.
A reservoir (trinkwasser-behälter) was built on the complex, which was supplied with fresh water every day by horse and cart from headquarters. The trinkwasser-behälter contained one of the two tanks that were removed from the bunkers through an opening in the roof. The remaining tank was probably blown up with a hand grenade, but is still in place. The source has been closed off and taken out of use. The filter installation is still complete in the bunker.
Searchlight garage and bedding
This bunker was built against the shelter bunker and consists entirely of masonry. A searchlight and the associated generator, which provided the power supply, were stored in this garage (depot). The searchlight had a diameter of 60 cm and a considerable range of 4,000 meters horizontally and 7,000 meters vertically. The searchlight was deployed as soon as there was a threat of attack from enemy ships or aircraft, requiring the searchlight to illuminate them. The searchlight was operated by two soldiers.
Between the garage and the bedding is a brick path over which the searchlight could be pushed by the soldiers to the desired location. From this brick path, a concrete track ran in a wide curve to the roof of the type 504 bunker (bunker 3), the highest point of the complex (now the landmark). From this spot, the searchlight could be used at an angle of 360 degrees.
