Bike-ride insta360 X4:Old Munitions depot Brüggen-Bracht

Описание: The Brüggen-Bracht ammunition depot is the largest abandoned ammunition depot in Europe.
Between 1948 and 1996, it served as an ammunition depot for the British Army of the Rhine and the Royal Air Force and, in addition to numerous bunkers, even housed its own rail system and stations.
It covers an area of about 1300 hectares.
Since 1945, the British Rhine Army (RAF) has used parts of what is now a huge area to blow up unexploded ordnance. In 1948, a restructuring began, whereby the site was fenced off and it was expanded into the largest ammunition depot in Europe.

After the end of the Second World War, the site was used by the British Army of the Rhine from 1948 to 1996 under the command of NATO. Orders also came from the nearby NATO headquarters in Mönchengladbach, which is now abandoned. This is only about 20 kilometers away and also holds a former hospital of the British Army of the Rhine.

Initially, the ammunition was stored in simple huts made of corrugated iron. At this time, the British Army of the Rhine was already building ammunition bunkers.
Later, the corrugated iron huts were replaced by mobile sheds so that the ammunition could be placed in different places, as transport was not always easy. The scales were then simply pushed over them. This was a good solution for the limited storage options of the 1960s.
Some ammunition could not even be brought into a covered location due to their size or weight. The aerial bombs, for example, were simply stored in the western area of the depot in the open air.

Today, the almost 1300-hectare site is largely owned by the North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation "Nature Conservation, Heritage and Cultural Care". Since 2000, it has been part of the Brachter Wald nature reserve. An adjacent company uses cleared areas of the area for industrial purposes.

This is located in the Brachter Wald
There are more than 200 halls and bunkers on the site, four loading stations, which included 15 kilometres of rail network and almost 90 kilometres of road network.
For example, the Brüggen-Bracht ammunition depot had a sufficient infrastructure to store up to 45,000 tons of ammunition quickly and in an organized manner. With this extraordinary amount of stored ammunition, it was at times the largest ammunition depot in Europe.

The infrastructure at the Brüggen-Bracht ammunition depot
In addition to the usual handgun ammunition, aerial bombs from the RAF airfield Brüggen-Elmpt were also stored. This is also a Lost Place today, which will be followed by an article.
The ammunition was delivered by freight rail via the Kaldenkirchen–Brüggen light railway. It was then unloaded at one of the four loading stations and transported further along the roads.

The station at the eastern end of the depot served as a distribution point. Here, incoming ammunition was forwarded to the corresponding other loading stations.

The streets circle the site, which is located next to a highway, along a fence.
At some intersections, the roads enter the terrain and flow into the road ring on the opposite side of the depot.

Particularly striking on aerial photos is a large intersection that forms a huge "X".


However, there is not much left to see of the approximately 15-kilometre-long rail network today.
After the abandonment of the site, the British dismantled a large part of the rails and remaining rails were removed a few years later by German workers.

Bunker
Abandoned bunker
But most of the bunkers still exist today and some can even be entered.
However, there is no access to this through official channels.
From the official paths, only some of the corrugated iron halls can be reached, in which ammunition was stored in the early days of the depot.

Blasting unexploded ordnance
Before the site became an ammunition depot, the complex was mainly used for targeted explosions of unexploded ordnance and other ammunition.
For this purpose, large concrete walls were erected and artificial mountains were piled up so that flying parts and pressure waves could be contained.
A broadcasting house with antennas is also still standing in between.
#insta360x4 #dutchmarkymark #bikeride #360video #8kvideo
   / @dutchmarkymark360videos-ot7xt