Battery Hundius Ostend

Here on the Oosteroever, just a stone's throw from the center of Ostend, is one of the best-preserved bunker complexes on the Belgian coast: the Hundius Battery (Type 157). This fortress is part of the Atlantic Wall that the Germans built along the European coasts against an Allied invasion during World War II.

Paul Hundius was commander of a German U-boat during World War I. He was killed on September 16, 1918 when his submarine was depth-charged by the British destroyer Young Crow. Built by Ukrainian and Russian POWs, the Hundius Battery includes a fire control post, four artillery casemates, ammunition and crew bunkers, a trench system, and other structures. It is a textbook example of a typical "Naval Coastal Battery" on the Atlantic Wall. It never served as a defense against advancing Allied armies and was evacuated when Canadian troops marched on Bruges.

All guns of the Hundius battery were controlled from this fire control bunker (M17 control station for medium and heavy batteries). After the Second World War, the bunker was used by the Belgian Navy as a broadcasting center. It remained in service until 1978.

Willem Vandenameele