Defense Bunker MM 5bis

This is bunker MM 5 bis, Les Margarins-Manaihant, of the 1st defense line of La Position Fortifiée de Liège, PFL 1.

It is the 7th bunker of this sector because bunker MM 305, is also located between bunkers MM 4 and 5.

The bunker is located in a meadow only about 200 meters from bunker MM 5. It is unclear why 2 bunkers were built at such a small distance. The entrance is still open, but is largely below ground level. In addition, it is overgrown with nettles and blackberry bushes full of thorns, making access difficult.

The walls and ceiling of the bunkers from the PFL are standard 1.30 m. thick and made of reinforced concrete. They had to withstand shells of 150 mm. To illustrate, the caliber of shells a Königstiger could fire was caliber 88 mm. Thus, only heavier caliber field guns could penetrate the concrete and potentially destroy the bunker.

The bunkers were built in the 1930s.

After the war, when the bunkers lost their strategic value for the Belgian army, the plots of land on which they stood were sold. All the metal of the hatches and doors was sold as scrap metal. Hence the that most bunkers are now on private plots.

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Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Joost Verheijden (1, 2), Ed Lewandowski (3, 4, 5)
• La Position Fortifiée de Liége, Coenen & Vernier.