Infantry blockhouse K-S 32 - Orlicke mountains, Czech Republic - Military Installations on Waymarking.com

The extended system of fortifications was built to defend the former Czechoslovakia during the second half of the 30s. The heavy fortified installations with infantry blocks were built in the border sections with high defence priority. They were solid, mostly two-storey constructions which were armed with machine guns as well as with anti-tank guns, if necessary with mortars, too. The typical characteristics of these blocks were the armoured cloches (bells) and cupolas which served for the observation of the battlefield. Other tasks were the fire control and the command of the machine guns. In case of war each infantry block was able to operate independently. Besides other facilities each infantry block had its own well, filter room and engine room, in which the electric power was generated. The infantry blocks were individually shaped to the corresponding terrain and constructed in accordance with their combat tasks. They differed in their dimensions, outlines, wall and ceiling dimensions, armament and garrison. Nevertheless they consisted of standardized construction and design elements. For a usual infantry block about 1300 to 1500 m3 of concrete and up to 120 tons of steel reinforcement were needed. They could stand artillery shelling up to calibre 305 mm. Until September 1938 228 heavy independent blocks were structurally finished.

The plan of upper floor of the infantry blockhouse K-S 32

The infantry block K-S 32 (code name "Na ružku") is a double-sided installation with two armored cupolas and two protection wings, construction strength II, which was built within the framework of the construction subdivision 5 ZSV III Králíky (Grulich) as one of the first infantry blocks in this area. Concreting took place from December 7 to 14, 1936. 1570 m3 of concrete were used. 36 soldiers were considered as the crew. The block had an identical armament in the two combat compartments - in each room was a casemate anti-tank gun model 36 with a heavy machine gun model 37 on top of it and a heavy twin-machine gun model 37. Four light machine guns model 26 were considered to defend the block to the rear. The same weapon was planned for the left armored cupola; the right armored cupola was equipped with a heavy machine gun model 37. During the German occupation (1938 -1945) the block became seriously damaged; the two armored cupolas and all embrasures of the main weapons were removed violently. The left side was seriously damaged by test shelling. Temporarily the object served as an illegal waste disposal site and as a source of building material. Its destruction lasted until spring 2001 when the ForteG-section of the difrology club began to look after the block as a basis for the coming military museum Lichkov.

Era: WW II Related web site: [Web Link] General Comments: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/16/2018 Kullisak visited it