Milsurp After Hours

Had a meeting of the Dutch Fire Arms Collectors Association today.
This time the meeting was organized at “Fort bij Edam” (Fort near Edam).
Preparation of the soil started in 1895 en the actual building of the fort started in 1908.
The fort was ready for use in 1913, just before WW I started.
This fort is one of many that was build for the protection of Amsterdam.
Next to the forts, we depended on inundation.
The plan was to flood the surroundings of the forts and give the enemy just one way to Amsterdam.
They had to go past the forts first though.


Some pictures of course.

Entrance at the back of the fort.





Inside the fort you find several rooms…..for example:

The infirmary (The guy in the picture didn't make it)


The kitchen…..this one still works, but I decided to skip lunch…..


Post office


The roof of the fort looks like this.
You can only see a couple of chimneys.
The sand that is used to cover the roof is sand that comes from the dunes near the North Sea.
It filters the rain water before it is collected inside the fort.



When the enemy approached, the soldiers ran to the various defense walls.
The forts were never actually attacked, but IMHO approaching infantry had no chance at all.
There was only one road to approach the fort….for the rest typical Dutch flat country.





Stairs to the observation tower


The observation tower can be approached from the inside.
This is what it looks like on the outside.


View from the observation tower towards the north.
Back then there was no fence and I suspect that the grass was mowed regularly.


Enough about the fort.
Here are some pictures of weapons that were displayed at the meeting.

Different versions of the Dutch AR-10.






Various Dutch M95 carbines


An instruction model of the Dutch M95



A United Defense Model 42.






Enough for now.
It has been a long day, but I enjoyed it very much.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Martin

Excellent little history lesson with great photos. How many of these forts did they build ?

Thanks Martin, most interesting.

Nice tour Martin. Thanks.

That is a good post Martin. Very interesting. Reminds me of some forts around where I live that were used in various wars including the Civil War.

I found this Dutch site that translates into English. I tells a lot about the fort's history. Among the interesting pieces is that it housed British pilots as prisoners at the outbreak of WWII. The Dutch, attempting to stay out of the war, apparently shot at British and German planes alike if they flew over Holland. It goes on to say after the Germans decided to attack Holland the Dutch repatriated the British. And also after the war the prison was used as a prison for Dutch women who fraternized with the Germans. Interesting place.

This is the home page translated. Hit the "fort" option in the header to see what was happening at various times.

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... md%3Divnsm

@ Robert
Yes, this fort has a lot of history attached to it.
You can almost smell it when you walk through all the different rooms.
I like these places a lot.
Thanks for the link.

@ Woftam
46 forts and batteries were built to defend the Dutch capital.....Amsterdam.
Check the picture.
Every white dot represents a fort or battery.
The distance from Amsterdam to one of the forts or batteries is between 15 and 20 kms.
The blue areas surrounding the defence line are the inundated areas.




Met vriendelijke groet,

Martin

According to Hogg and Weeks Military Small Arms there were only a few hundred made, and according to the authors, " the M42 shoots quite well , feels good, and would probably have been a good deal more popular than the M3."

But at another site a guy has one and the stories you read in that string are that there were at least a few thousand made after the US gave up on them as an official military arm and that Holland and resistance forces during WWII got the lions share of them after their manufacture was taken up again shortly after the US procurement process turned them down.

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... opic=27978

Niner wrote:According to Hogg and Weeks Military Small Arms there were only a few hundred made, and according to the authors, " the M42 shoots quite well , feels good, and would probably have been a good deal more popular than the M3."

But at another site a guy has one and the stories you read in that string are that there were at least a few thousand made after the US gave up on them as an official military arm and that Holland and resistance forces during WWII got the lions share of them after their manufacture was taken up again shortly after the US procurement process turned them down.

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... opic=27978

The Dutch governement had ordered 15000 UD M42's in 9mm, but they were not delivered before the fall of the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. The OSS used more then 14000 of them in operations around the world, there are quite a few pictures of them where they are in use either by OSS Agents or Partisans, Guerrillas.etc.......in France, the Balkans, China-Burma-India etc.
(source: US Small Arms in World War II by Tom Laemlein)

Great pics of Fort bij Edam, Martin, it's on my list to visit. Fortifications are my second hobby. This summer I visited the Kornwerderzand fortifications.

Great pics of Fort bij Edam, Martin, it's on my list to visit. Fortifications are my second hobby. This summer I visited the Kornwerderzand fortifications.

Thanks Tom.
It's not really my hobby, but I love to visit places like the Fort at Edam.
You can smell history there.
I've visited Kornwerderzand many years ago.
I'd love to visit it again.
Maybe next year.
First however I want to visit Eben Emael.
I've read a lot about the history of that fort.
Now...........I want to smell it.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Martin

Eben Emael is also very high up on my list.