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On Holiday on the Slovinian border


Alicatt

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Came across this road block when we were leaving Slovinia last week

SlovenianTrafficJam.jpg

Slo-Aust-Border.jpg

There was a Bunker Museum there too but as I was the only one that was intrested in going I was vetoed so I will have to go back for a look next year.

Next month I'm being visited by a frien and he has asked if we can visit the fort at Eben Emael so I will make sure I take my camera with me.

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The fort of Eben Emael !

Will be great - haven't visited that one yet, but I've been to the ones of Aubin-Neufchateau & Battice: also very large undergound forts.

I especially like the fresco's painted by the soldiers in the underground kasernes

see picture 11 on http://www.fortiff.be/ifb/index.php?page=b17

NB Contrary to Eben Emael, that was captured in surprise attack, some of these forts were able to hold out vs the Germans,

e.g. the fort of Tancrémont that resisted from 10/05/40 till 29/05/40, so 1 day longer than the official capitulation at 28/05.

Enjoy,

K

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Thanks Koen,

My friend that is coming over from Scotland, he is originally from Holland and was an officer in the Dutch army :)

After seeing Eben Emael featured in the TV series "de Smaak van de Keizer" and then remembering about reading about it on a book of European fortifications I have been trying to visit it but always been too busy to go there, my friend gives me a great opertunity to go visit.

A few years ago I visited the fort at Verdun, another amazing place.

I have also visited the underground hospital on the island of Jersey and that was also a great visit as were going around the fortifications around the island.

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Thanks Eisenschwein, they are not too far from where I live about 1:30 drive from here.

My mother and father in-law took me to see the UK war graves in Leopoldsburg as originally some of the soldiers had been burried in my mother in-law's back garden and they had asked me to find out a bit about them for her.

Oma is the young girl on the extreme right, the rest are her brother and sisters, the cross she is laying flowers at are of a German soldier that died in the town of Hechtel in Belgium.

Oma_oorlog_graven.jpg

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Thanks for the link Koen, opened up some possibilities for exploration for me and my wife, we both love to explore old fortifications :)

With pleasure !

High on my wish-list of visits is the fort of Loncin, where you can see the destruction caused by the German heavy artillery

(in fact, it's a necropole, as the fort partially blew up, killing 350 soldiers, many soldiers still buried there under the rubble)

http://www.fortiff.be/ifb/index.php?page=l6

Would be interesting to couple this to a visit to the nearby fort of Lantin, still intact, with all rooms/spaces open for visitors

http://www.fortiff.be/ifb/index.php?page=l3

A kind of "before" (Lantin) & "after" (Loncin), maybe good for education of the kids.

So many things to do ...

In fact in Belgium we're quite "spoiled" with the many WO I & II battlefields,

impossible not to be interested here in military history .

! Nice pic that you added ! thx for sharing

Rgds, K

Edited by Koen
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  • 4 weeks later...

There´s a lot to see in Slovenia, for being such a small country.

We made an official trip when I was at the military academy to the border with Italy and followed in Rommel's footsteps from WWI, reading Infantry Attacks as we went. We also went to see the Slovenian army and armour museums, can't remember the name of the location right now but it was a neat museum. There´s also a good museum on the battles of Isonzo in Karfreit/Capporetto, can't remember the Slovenian name of the town.

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While my wife and I are intrested in old buildings and things military, the rest of our group were not, they just wanted to lay on the lake shore and enjoy the sun so we never got to do a lot of exploring. We had not planned on going to Slovenia, I took the route as a detour to where we were going, the point where Austria, Italy and Slovinia meet (it was closed!). Now I know where things are when we go back next year I will be making time to visit the museums etc. in the area rather than being bored on the beach :)

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