Lock Bunker Hasselt (Godsheide)

Second World War (1939-1945)

Belgium Limburg Hasselt

This bunker is located north of the Albert Canal as part of a defence bridgehead set up to provide additional support at the canals locks. The recently built Albert Canal with positions on the south and west banks of the canal from Antwerp to Liege formed the Belgian Army's principal line of resistance in 1940.

The bunkers here were constructed in the period between the war being declared in September 1939 and early 1940 using similar techniques as those employed on other bunkers built on the K-W line and at Gent. When the Germans captured the bridges over the Albert Canal at Veldwezelt and Vroenhoven unleashing the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions ,the Belgian rear was threatened, and so the troops along this part of the canal withdrew.

This remaining bunker was one of four located north of the Albert Canal and the defences included an anti-tank canal, which helped form a defensive island that held the bunkers within the bridgehead perimeter.

Although the bunker is located on the opposite side of the road from a busy Aldi supermarket, it is not so easily seen. This is due to it be located next an industrial hardware shop and that nature has now provided plentiful natural camouflage.

Its external features include two sets of machine gun embrasures constructed on an east-west axis, narrow observation slits, grenade gullies and metal hooks on the roof, where camouflage nets could have been attached.

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