Luftwaffenfestungen.

[Jaap Woortman]

Dear friends,

In Thorsten Heber’s thesis “Der Atlantikwall 1940-1945. Die Befestigung der Küsten West- und Nordeuropas im Spannungsfeld nationalsozialistischer Kriegsführung und Ideologie”, it can be downloaded from http://diss.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/ebib/diss/show?dissid=613 , I found the following part in chapter XXIV.3. Die Flieger-Bodenorganisation der Luftwaffe im Westen at page 468: “Reichsmarschall Göring plante daher in kurzer Frist den Bau von sieben Luftwaffenfestungen im Bereich Ob.West mit ständigen Anlagen für die Jägerführung, Gefechtsstände, Such-, Peil- und Ortungsgeräte. Aufgrund des veranschlagten Betonbedarfs von ca. 1. Million Kubikmeter Beton für jede der sieben Luftwaffenfestungen, war die Durchführung dieser Bauten unmöglich und löste bei den Bauorganisationen im Westen grösstes Unverständnis aus. Zu einer Durchführung dieser Pläne kam es nicht mehr, obwohl schon die Befehle zur Errichtung solcher Anlagen nördlich von Venlo, ostwärts Laon, nordostwärts Orleans und ostwärts Orange ergangen waren.”
But what are these “Luftwaffenfestungen”? I have in 45 years of Luftwaffe research never heard of these socalled Luftwaffenfortresses. Is the writer confused by the controllcenters at Deelen, Stade, Doberitz and Metz or was this the Luftwaffe counterpart of the “Kanalfestungen”, the harbours at the Channel coast defended by the German troops till almost the end of the war in May 1945? Were these Luftwaffenfestungen also the planned location for the Luftwaffenfestungenbatallionen? I hope someone can give me some information about this idea in the defence of the west against the allies. What was the function of such a fortress? And what was the philosophy behind it?

Looking forward for your answers,



Jaap

[Nick Beale]

My initial understanding of the passage you quote is that these proposed facilities were NOT built as they would have used up a million cubic metres of concrete each.

If they didn't exist, that's why you (and I) haven't heard of them. I don't think the author is confusing anything with the facilities like Deelen. He says that the fortresses were to have permanent faciities for fighter control; tactical HQs; and search, homing and location devices.

There was a scheme underway in northern Italy for a small number of airfields with hardened facilities and very heavy Flak protection. There are some dcouments at Freiburg as I recall. The project never got very far but I think that the term "fortress" was used in this connection as well.

The philosophy? Well the Nazis had two main approaches in their repertoire: Plan A = slaughter defenceless people; Plan B = hide something under vast amounts of concrete. In this case they opted for Plan B and I guess they hoped to make their infrastructure bomb proof as with the U-Boat pens.