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Also an interesting fact: The Swiss packed all bridges connecting Switzerland to Germany with tons of explosives until just recently. The wooden bridge [0] conn

by lqet 6y ago

Also an interesting fact: The Swiss packed all bridges connecting Switzerland to Germany with tons of explosives until just recently. The wooden bridge [0] connecting Bad Säckingen with Stein contained hundreds of kilo of TNT until 2015. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holzbr%C3%BCcke_Bad_S%C3%A4ckingen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holzbr%C3%BCcke_Bad_S%C3%A4cki...

nix23 6y ago
You have explosive nearly on every main bridge and "autobahn" sometimes in the street sometimes on the walls of mountains, to slow down tanks/troop transports. Fun detail: Those can just be detonated with a "encoded" metal-plate. They look a bit like that: https://img.luzernerzeitung.ch/2018/4/14/5f68fda6-34ec-4375-995c-758a7fec3897.jpeg?width=1360&height=944&fit=crop&quality=75&auto=webp https://img.luzernerzeitung.ch/2018/4/14/5f68fda6-34ec-4375-...
- Faaak 6y ago
  There was explosives, but they've all been taken out ~10 years ago
  - nix23 6y ago
    True, but not all, just most of them.
- awiesenhofer 6y ago
  So wait, these were pressure sensitive and triggered if the right "pins" were pushed when driving over them (if the metal plate was in place)? Glad I only heared about this now and not back when I was driving over these regularly...
  - nix23 6y ago
    Hehe no :) you have a central ignition away from the street (hidden in a bush under bridge etc) and it looks often like a sewer cover, if you uncover it you have 8-16 holes, on top of them you have to place your correctly encoded metal-plate then you place the igniter in the metal-plate-hole, that igniter fires another igniter and the whole bridge/street goes boom, if its the wrong hole (or wrong encoded metal-plate) you just destroy the main igniter and nothing will and can ever happen. EDIT: The first ignition (the one in the plate) is manually fired often hundreds of meters away thru a fuse-cord, but you can "in theory" automatize it (trip wire or other technique's) witch is absolutely illegal, same with claymore's...they just have holes in the splinter to safe some weight ;) BTW: DON'T try to open those sewer covers, you WILL have big problems in a matter of minutes.
gmueckl 6y ago
West Germany did much the same with all roads and train tracks crossing into East Germany and Czechoslovakia. There were pre-made holes in the roads to blast craters into them. Bridges and tunnels were prepared similarly. It was also rumored that the explosive charges were mounted in place all the time, but I don't believe that part anymore.
- corty 6y ago
  They weren't mounted, they were kept in a nearby bunker. The charges were standardized round flat 50kg lumps, called cheese charges because they looked like a wheel of cheese. The roads and bridges had prepared openings looking like a normal gutter (round in germany) into which the cheese charges fit perfectly. The top plate could often be recognized because there was a single number stamped in, telling you how many cheese charges to load. What was always present however was the initiator charge and the wiring to the nearby bunker. There were even more interesting things like the new Elbtunnel in Hamburg having massive blocks of concrete above all entrances. The girders holding those blocks were intended to be cut by explosive charges drop the blocks, blocking the tunnel.
  - jacobush 6y ago
    Sweden had preparations like this for roads and ports.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- Xylakant 6y ago
  > West Germany did much the same with all roads and train tracks crossing into East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Bridges crossing major rivers as far west as the Rhine river as well.
- Someone 6y ago
  Yes, it’s not like the Cold War was armies staring at each other, there were a lot of preparations going on. Some bridges also were over-dimensioned so that heavy tanks could bridge them (and bridges, viaducts and roads are marked as to load-carrying capacity. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Load_Classification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Load_Classification) Also, the original strategic plan for NATO against a soviet attack was defense in depth, so I think all NATO countries in Western Europe prepared for the need to destroy infrastructure. The Netherlands had plans to flood large parts of the country, for example. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJssel_Line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJssel_Line, not just Germany, and not just near the border with Eastern Europe. And of course, there was a nuclear backup plan in case infrastructure couldn’t be destroyed before the enemy took it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Munition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Muni....

by lqet 6y ago

nix23 6y ago

You have explosive nearly on every main bridge and "autobahn" sometimes in the street sometimes on the walls of mountains, to slow down tanks/troop transports. Fun detail: Those can just be detonated with a "encoded" metal-plate. They look a bit like that: https://img.luzernerzeitung.ch/2018/4/14/5f68fda6-34ec-4375-995c-758a7fec3897.jpeg?width=1360&height=944&fit=crop&quality=75&auto=webp https://img.luzernerzeitung.ch/2018/4/14/5f68fda6-34ec-4375-...

Faaak 6y ago
There was explosives, but they've all been taken out ~10 years ago
- nix23 6y ago
  True, but not all, just most of them.
awiesenhofer 6y ago
So wait, these were pressure sensitive and triggered if the right "pins" were pushed when driving over them (if the metal plate was in place)? Glad I only heared about this now and not back when I was driving over these regularly...
- nix23 6y ago
  Hehe no :) you have a central ignition away from the street (hidden in a bush under bridge etc) and it looks often like a sewer cover, if you uncover it you have 8-16 holes, on top of them you have to place your correctly encoded metal-plate then you place the igniter in the metal-plate-hole, that igniter fires another igniter and the whole bridge/street goes boom, if its the wrong hole (or wrong encoded metal-plate) you just destroy the main igniter and nothing will and can ever happen. EDIT: The first ignition (the one in the plate) is manually fired often hundreds of meters away thru a fuse-cord, but you can "in theory" automatize it (trip wire or other technique's) witch is absolutely illegal, same with claymore's...they just have holes in the splinter to safe some weight ;) BTW: DON'T try to open those sewer covers, you WILL have big problems in a matter of minutes.

gmueckl 6y ago

West Germany did much the same with all roads and train tracks crossing into East Germany and Czechoslovakia. There were pre-made holes in the roads to blast craters into them. Bridges and tunnels were prepared similarly. It was also rumored that the explosive charges were mounted in place all the time, but I don't believe that part anymore.

corty 6y ago
They weren't mounted, they were kept in a nearby bunker. The charges were standardized round flat 50kg lumps, called cheese charges because they looked like a wheel of cheese. The roads and bridges had prepared openings looking like a normal gutter (round in germany) into which the cheese charges fit perfectly. The top plate could often be recognized because there was a single number stamped in, telling you how many cheese charges to load. What was always present however was the initiator charge and the wiring to the nearby bunker. There were even more interesting things like the new Elbtunnel in Hamburg having massive blocks of concrete above all entrances. The girders holding those blocks were intended to be cut by explosive charges drop the blocks, blocking the tunnel.
- jacobush 6y ago
  Sweden had preparations like this for roads and ports.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Xylakant 6y ago
> West Germany did much the same with all roads and train tracks crossing into East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Bridges crossing major rivers as far west as the Rhine river as well.
Someone 6y ago
Yes, it’s not like the Cold War was armies staring at each other, there were a lot of preparations going on. Some bridges also were over-dimensioned so that heavy tanks could bridge them (and bridges, viaducts and roads are marked as to load-carrying capacity. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Load_Classification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Load_Classification) Also, the original strategic plan for NATO against a soviet attack was defense in depth, so I think all NATO countries in Western Europe prepared for the need to destroy infrastructure. The Netherlands had plans to flood large parts of the country, for example. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJssel_Line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJssel_Line, not just Germany, and not just near the border with Eastern Europe. And of course, there was a nuclear backup plan in case infrastructure couldn’t be destroyed before the enemy took it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Munition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Muni....