Secret Underground Telephone Booth 'L1' Chênée

This is underground phone booth 'L1'

In itself, you would pass by this in no time. An ordinary street, with an ordinary manhole cover.

However, this manhole cover is not the cover of a sewer, but of an underground phone booth. About 200 of these were constructed. In these cells, a soldier could connect with his field phone to one of the 34 telephone exchanges (Centraux telefonique) after which one could be connected to one of the bunkers or forts within the network of the defense lines of the city of Liège, la Position Fortifiée de Liège.

All of these manhole covers bear the name of manufacturer Elkington. The manhole covers are numbered 1509. A special wrench/piece of equipment could be used to open the lid. In the years before the war, this would have been finished with "cobblestones. See telephone box at Vaux-sous-Chèvremont. But in our time, the street has been repaved several times and only the manhole cover is visible.

The cell is about 1.80 to 2.20 deep, and one could descend and connect his field phone by means of climbing brackets fixed in the wall.

How many remain?

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Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Ed Lewandowski