Fusilier wrote:I live in the centre of Vilnius who is now a modern city demolishing it's soviet heritage
I´m happy for you Baltic States peoples that you could get out of the Russian "iron fist" and have the chance to become modern countries. Germany has a long tradition in cooperation with Baltic countries and cities.
We gained independence but now have to keep it. The economical, energetic and cultural pressure from Russia is very strong as they wont give up their imperialistic ideas sadly. When I read Tom Clancy or John la Carre sometimes I find so many similarities between what's written 20-30 years ago and what's happening now and here. More on the subject: http://www.15min.lt/en/article/opinion/ ... 530-351717
Thanks for links Fusilier! I recall reading about the 1950s-60s when the USSR was concerned about border incidents with China, and in a few areas the Soviets actually took the turrets and guns from old tanks and mounted them in concrete emplacements along the border to defend against China. One thing about the USSR, they never threw anything away no matter how obsolete it seemed.
Hungary is a small country so everything is close
The Soviets had many secret bases in Hungary some of them are still closed and guarded but they are empty.For years there were rumors that they had stored nuclear warheads in secret bases but officials (both Hungarian and Russian) denied it,of course.The Soviets went home and they left contaminated soil,abandoned and stripped barracks,(even electricity wires had been pulled out of the walls..) and lots of UXOs (unexploded ordnance) and it turned out that they really had stored nuclear warheads in more than one bases.One was in Nagyvazsony. The next link is in Hungarian but there are pictures as well. http://falanszter.blog.hu/2013/05/15/fe ... ktar_kapui and this is a video (also in Hungarian ) that is the first video made in that base. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecTWPwNAQkU
The headquartier of the Southern Group of Forces was also in Hungary in Totvazsony.The Soviets would have commanded the attack against the West from that base.One more link ONLY PHOTOS https://plus.google.com/photos/11474235 ... banner=pwa
Plus the location of the base: http://wikimapia.org/11250747/hu/Szovje ... C3%A1zsony
As mentioned before, next to my parents place was a cold war NATO communication bunker that was closed back in 1992. Last Sunday was an "open house" there:
Awesome pics housil! As claustrophobic as I am (credit that to being buttoned up in the p.o.s. M-113s we used to have), I think I'd make out ok if the choice was stay in the bunker for a few weeks or come out and die of leukemia or other radiation or biological/chemical "issues". Unfortunately when our AT&T bunkers are shut down, they are often not accessible because of environmental issues; asbestos dust, lead shielding, copper and other types of heavy metal contamination. I don't understand the last part because what mom or dad in their right mind is gonna let their kids play in or eat the gray-ish dust that may be piled in the corner of a room if they are touring a bunker? The thing with our EPA is that the stuff gets into the air and that is why they say it is too dangerous to let people go into these places. Of course some of these places may appear abandoned but you notice little things like generator noises and that the access road to the main entrance is still plowed in the wintertime even after 30-40 years. If I ever do travel to Germany, I'll have to check out one of these places. BTW, in the places we have here that really are shut down, people who sneak into them have photographed pool tables, ping pong tables and other recreational stuff, did you notice anything like that in this bunker?
Very cool pics woodland! My apologies I thought this reply had loaded but somehow it never got sent. Those bunkers look considerably bigger than what I've seen here in the U.S. and they look like they were made to not only survive pretty much anything, but to function for considerably longer than ours. Also housil's photo of the telephone cables running across Germany, they are very similar to American system called AUTOVON----Automatic Voice Network, a blast resistant communications system for near-instantaneous contact between U.S. forces and the pentagon around the world. When I was on active duty, it was said that our military members could make free phone calls home using AUTOVON, but I don't recall exactly how it worked.
The (now civil) owner say´s, the bunker has a surface of 1.500m² (~1.800 sqr yard) and was made for 65 persons for 4 month (power, food etc.)
The outer walls are made out of 3 meters (~10 feet) steel/concrete, each inner wall was made from 1 meter (3,3 feet) steel/concrete, the roof out of 4 meter ( ~ 14 feet) steel/concrete to withstand a 15 kton nuclear explosion
) that is the first video made in that base.
