"The underground installations were amazing. They were literally subterranean towns. There were 4 in and around Ohrdruf: one near the horror camp, one under the Schloss, and 2 west of the town. Others were reported in near-by villages. None were natural caves or mines. All were man-made military installations. The horror camp had provided the labour. An interesting feature of the construction was the absence of any spoil. It had been carefully scattered in hills miles away.”

--Colonel R. Allen wrote in his book ("Lucky Forward : The History of Patton's 3rd US Army" ,Col. Robert S. Allen, published by Vanguard Press, New York 1947)

The tunnel system under the castle has a special quality. In 1944 OT (Organisation Todt) moved in with 1000 men, and started extensive reconstruction. The complete equipment of castle Bellevue, Berlin, was moved to Bad Salzbrunn, to furnish the system. In one of the suites, which should be allegedly inhabited by Hitler, was an elevator.Under the castle-yard is located the main system, which had 4 entries.The system is finished. The overall tunnel length is 950 meters and the base is 3200 sqm. The installation of a huge communication center was planned.

Near Langenstein and Halberstadt. Factory for Junkers (airplane manufacturer). As of 25 March 1945 they had lost 4819 workers by tunneling, and 853 by building airplanes.

This system has two entries. Four lateral tunnels, connected together, have been planned as working rooms. A 48 meter high elevator shaft with a diameter of 6 meters is leading to buildings on the surface. Some parts have concrete. The base is 6200 sqm, the overall tunnel length is about 1700 meters. On the surface above the system are located several concrete buildings with stages leading to underground shafts, clay-tubes are reaching to the surface, cable shafts are visible; also facilities for providing equipment. This building would have housed the heating and/or ventilation system for the tunnels.

Lachs

Located at Kahla/Grosseutersdorf, Thueringen. Following an old mine, an extensive tunnel system was built. Projected for serial production of the Me 262. The whole tunnel system should reach 30 km. The underground working conditions were very bad; there was not enough fresh air. Seven months after beginning the fresh air problem was not solved. The vast majority of the workers consists of slave workers; approximately 12,000. 991 cases of death were recorded due to malnutrition and accidents.

S III

Located near Ohrdruf, Thuringia, Germany, and apparently built as a headquarters for Hitler. This mapped tunnel system is about 1.5 miles in length. It was constructed by approximately 15-18,000 inmates of the nearby concentration camps Ohrdruf , Espenfeld and Crawinkel, from the Autumn of 1944 to the Spring of 1945.“Purpose of the installation was to house the High Command after it was bombed out of Berlin. This place also had paneled and carpeted offices, scores of large work and store rooms, tiled bathrooms with bath tubs and showers, flush toilets, electrically equipped kitchens, decorated dining rooms and mess halls, giant refrigerators, extensive sleeping quarters, recreation rooms, separate bars for officers and enlisted personnel, a moving picture theater, and air-conditioning and sewage systems".--Colonel R. Allen wrote in his book ("Lucky Forward : The History of Patton's 3rd US Army" ,Col. Robert S. Allen, published by Vanguard Press, New York 1947),

A concentration camp was built near Litomerice, Czechoslovakia 3000 prisoners were working on the construction. Richard has never been completely finished: only about 1200 crank-shafts and 1500 sets of engine cylinders were ever produced there.... they cost 6000 lifes.

Richard III for the Philips company, for the production of radio tubes

Richard II for the Osram GmbH company, for the production of light bulbs

Richard I for the Auto Union AG company, for the production of engines for tanks

Barbe

Located in the black forest, Hasslach, near Offenburg in an old quarry. The German armament industry moved parts of this industry in the deep tunnels to protect them against air attacks.“Barbe” was first a parts plant then redesigned to be production plants; Prisoners were made available to speed up project from camps in the area.Progressive war events caused this project to fail. It then became a prison camp and ammunition depot and the prisoners worked on tunnel expansions. Another company moved in to produce crankshafts, and was all set up but the power supply was destroyed. Prisoners died mostly of dysentary and typhus. The French army liberated the prisoners and later destroyed the tunnels.

Schwalbe

Planned for the production of 240,000 gallons of fuel and 50,000 gallons of plane fuel. The Tunnel length overall is about 3 km. The tunnels were built by about 500 forced laborers and prisoners.

Located in the Hoennevalley, several kilometers from Neuenrade, Sauerland.In the Quarry Emil some tunnels were built, projected for the Mineraloelsicherungsplan.

Anhydrit

Large parts of the tunnels had been used in February 1945 by Henschel AG for production of anti-airplane rockets.

Mittelbau was projected to be built in the Kohnstein on a 251,250 km large area several tunnels. One project planned for producing airplanes, another for producing liquid O2. About 4000 prisoners from the camps Ellrich, Dora and Harzungen did the work.

The Mittelwerk/Dora

tunnel complex

The system began as a strategic petroleumreserve then later became a location for V2production. The A and B tunnels ran through themountain, and accommodated two regular gauge rail tracks. The production of parts and assemblies took place in the transverse chambers. B tunnel served as the main assembly line for the V2. The south end of A tunnel produced the V1 buzz bomb. The section at the north end was part of the ongoing expansion which would have become a massive underground aircraft

factory. The section splitting off in the middle to the east was to be a liquid oxygen factory and repository.

WIESE

The V3 was one of the strangest WW II Weapons. The barrel had a length of about 124 meters! The weight of this weapon was 76000 kg. Every time, the grenade passed one of 32 intermediarys, a new charge of explosives, stored in the sides was ignited, so that the grenade gained more and more thrust to an planned velocity of 1500m/sec. with a range of 160km. Actual velocities reached were about 1400m/sec. The Fort with the gun was built underground up to a depth of more than 100m, with a guncrew of about 1100 soldiers. The Fort was projected for 25 guns. In July 44 an allied air attack destroyed the Fort with 5.4 ton Bombs

To build this base, the Germans had a simple but very efficient scheme. They first had a railway tunnel dug, alongside which they then had an unloading platform built and galleries to stock materials : wood, cement, tools,.. delivered in large quantities

September 1943 : Building began

Late August 1944 : Site abandoned by the Germans

1 of the 5 V-3 launching shafts (the only one preserved). V3 munitions

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/7087/uk027.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/4392/

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1325/start.htm#anhydrit

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