CAPONNIERE AND TORPEDO STATION

2-in-1

In the rampart of Front I-II is a gate. A fence and heavy doors behind it. They hide a long corridor to a special building. This building had 2 tasks. That in itself is not special. But it was both a caponniere and the torpedo station. That combination makes it unique in the Netherlands.

Deep underground are 4 rooms. In the first ever a steam engine puffed. In the second were devices and batteries with a highly explosive target. The two other rooms have embrasures. They were casemates.

Caponniere

This building was built in 1880. It is here in the first place because the coastal battery itself also had to be defended. What if an enemy were to attack? And would cross the moat? Then the artillery in the 2 casemates opened fire.

The building replaces a bastion, because it did not fit here. This makes it a caponniere. Because that's the name of a casemate that serves as a bastion. In 1880 also very modern.

At first there was a cannon in each casemate. Old front loaders that shot with 'scrap'. These are cans with ball bearings in them. After a minor renovation, machine guns were set up in 1890. Back then, these were very modern weapons. Only they were still there in 1940.
 

Torpedo station

The torpedo station has nothing to do with submarines. In 1880, soldiers simply called sea mines torpedoes. That was no problem. Because the torpedoes we know today did not yet exist. From this building, sea mines in the Haringvliet were served. They were in rows in the channel. Just below the coast.

After years of experiments, a very clever system had been devised. The mines were anchored. Their place was known. Each mine was connected to a switch panel with an electricity cable. This was in the torpedo station. From the torpedo station, each sea mine could be switched on or off separately. This prevented chain reactions if a mine exploded. And as long as the enemy did not appear, shipping traffic could continue as usual.

Electricity was needed for the system. That came from batteries. How did you charge it? The steam engine was needed for that. How it all worked exactly, the guides are happy to tell you during the tour.