A small triptych featuring various rusty elements from pillboxes of the Molotov Line.

And so we have here:
A lock of the armored door barring the interior of the pillbox (several hundred kilograms of solid metal fitted with rubber gaskets to make them gas-proof);
A periscope tube with remains of the mechanism to rise/lower the periscope. Most of the pillboxes, except for the smallest ones, were equipped with good quality periscopes mounted in a metal tube which was closed by a round plate at the roof of the structure. The plate was moved sideways by a long iron rod attached to the handle shown at the photo. Then, a periscope could be risen to provide 360 degrees view. Those plates and tubes proved to be the weakest spot of the Soviet bunkers. The round plate (or lid) could be pried open by a crowbar and grenades could be rammed inside the tube. Most often than not, once the German assault pioneers got to the roof it was usually beginning of the end for the crew inside.
Solid hook mounted in the ceiling of an artillery casemate. They were two of them – another was fixed to the wall opposite the loophole. They were used, along with metal ropes, to lift heavy gun elements in case they required replacement or servicing.

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Tags:   abandoned bunker derelict fortification history Linia Mołotowa military Molotov Line pentax pillbox shelter Soviet urban exploration urbex WW2 бункер заброшенные decay Art Poland rust Visualmanuscripts

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In 1939 when Germany and Soviet Russia attacked Poland they affectively partitioned the country 50/50. The new German-Soviet border in the middle and south of "former Poland" ran mostly along the big Bug river.
Further north though, the river curved westwards and the border was drawn more or less vertically on the north-south axis. In this way Germans were already firmly established on the eastern part of the river barrier and this is where the Soviets massed most of their formidable concrete pillboxes of the Molotov Line. They sensibly assumed that no enemy would bother to force a river crossing when only couple of kilometers to the north the secret Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact has placed that possible enemy on the eastern riverbank already.
Yet, even that secondary strategic direction was not left undefended. Over the years we had mapped the area thourougly but still there were small gaps which made us slepless and this is where I happily lurked very recently.
Of course, there are no formidable pillboxes of the usual type but way back in 1941 there were dozens of simple bunkers which dotted the landscape there. They were built from concrete and stones - collected by the farmers forced to labour for their new Soviet masters - and were reinforced by huge wodden logs covered with earth embankments. They were simple, cheap and effective. And there were lots of them.
Unfortunately, their simplicity became their curse, too. Most were levelled after the war - nobody wants to have a mountain in the middle of his farmland! Those which remained are usually hidden in the forests with just a handful remaining on the fields. They are difficult to find and mapping them is not an easy task. After all, not every hole in the ground can be traced back to 1941 so you need to know what you are looking for.

What you see on the photo is what remains from one of those bunkers - a little embankment and a cluster of trees:)
Yet there is also a little story attached to this very place. And old man living nearby remembered perfectly that his father, once the Soviets fled, immediately helped himself to a huge amount of freshly cut wooden logs and he hauled a ton of them to his farmyard, apparently a quantity big enough to build a new house or a barn. And then the Germans came...
They reckoned that he had stockpiled far more than he could ever use himself and they immediately ordered him to share the wood with another farmer whose house got burnt.
This small tale also shows that maybe not all human beings should always be judged by the color of the uniform they happen to wear - even when war is raging all around.

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Tags:   history military Soviet ww2 Molotov Line pillbox bunker fortification mazowieckie Polska PL landscape Pentax Art tree Visualmanuscripts

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One of the pillboxes located near beautiful Veisiejis Lake.
The lake, with its thirteen islands, is narrow and winds its way river-like through a heavily forested area. It's location – parallel to the former German-Soviet border – made it a perfect natural barrier. With bunkers dotting its eastern shore it might've became a nightmare for the assaulting enemy.

But this 3-embrasure heavy machine gun pillbox, much like all the others in the area, has never fired a single shot. Unmanned and with no armament installed became just another monument of the ill-fated Molotov Line.

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Tags:   abandoned bunker derelict fortification history Linia Mołotowa military Molotov Line pentax pillbox shelter Soviet urban exploration urbex WW2 бункер заброшенные Lithuania LTU decay Art Pentax Art landscape Visualmanuscripts

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This small pillbox equipped with one Maxim heavy machine gun was built just 5 km from the old German-Soviet border.
Although the area is generally flat there, even the slightest variations in terrain elevation provided an excellent field of fire and such opportunities were exploited to the maximum by the builders. If you look at the right part of the photo, towards the distant treeline, it will give you a clue how far those little killers could see – and fire.
Neither this bunker, nor fourteen others in its neighborhood, took part in fighting in June 1941.

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Tags:   abandoned bunker derelict fortification history Linia Mołotowa military Molotov Line pentax pillbox shelter Soviet urban exploration urbex WW2 бункер заброшенные Szczuczyn Podlaskie Poland POL decay Art landscape Visualmanuscripts

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This anti-tank semi-caponier was equipped with one 45 mm gun and three heavy machine guns.
Part of the Molotov Line, located in south-east Poland and western Ukraine, was almost catching up with the construction schedule in 1940-41, with many of the pillboxes almost fully equipped and armed. Consequently some of the strongpoints showed stubborn resistance during the opening hours of the German-Soviet war.
The structure is heavily damaged with the roof cracked open and some serious internal damage which is a direct result of deliberate action of the German pioneers who had blown off the armored housings of the guns.

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Tags:   abandoned bunker derelict fortification history Linia Mołotowa military Molotov Line pentax pillbox shelter Soviet urban exploration urbex WW2 бункер заброшенные Rudki lubelskie Polska PL decay Art Poland Pentax Art Visualmanuscripts

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