Produktbeschreibung
with one R-35 turret, one APX turret, one Panzer II turret and two turret base plates.
Given the limited resources available to the planners of Fortress Europa, they used whatever material was available. While the French tanks captured in 1940 might be old and no longer battleworthy, their turrets were still useful as beach defences for the Wiederstandneste.
Mounted in concrete they are excellent multi-purpose machine-gun bunkers. The German fortifications in Normandy used R-35 turrets while those in Brittany used Somua or Char B-1 turrets. The small turrets were easy to conceal and often took their would-be attackers completely off guard.
Initially German fortifications used turrets from captured tanks like the R-35 and APX turrets or old tanks, such as the Panzer I and II. These required a lot less concrete and were extremely easy to conceal from the enemy.
Using such turrets as the Panzer I or II often meant the turret itself was under gunned and offered poor armour protection; therefore posing little threat to the Allied tanks facing them. Once Hitler authorised the use of Pantherturm or Panther turrets in October 1943, this issue was sucessfully overcome. |
