Bunker BE 4 Boncelles

Bunker BE 4 is located along a path in a tiny wood and is part of sector Boncelles-Embourg (BE) of the second line of defence for the city of Liège, la Position Fortifiée de Liège, (PFL 2).

The bunker is located on a private plot but can be seen en photographed from the path which runs through the tiny wood.

There is some damage at the left gunopening. This was not caused due to war activities but due to an accident with amunition of the Belgian forces. The backside (with the door) of the bunker is completely covered with soil.

When after the war the bunkers lost their strategic importance for the Belgian defence, the metal doors and shutters were removed and sold as scrap. It is a large bunker and would hold two machinguns ore one and a 47 mm anti-tank canon.

The walls and ceiling of the bunkers from the PFL were standard 1.30 m. thick and of reinforced concrete. They had to be able 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.

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Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Ed Lewandowski
• La Position Fortifiée de Liège, Coenen & Vernier