Gefechtsturm Augarten

Gefechtsturm Augarten

Drone flight - Phantom DJI II - Sunset over Vienna, with mouse. Gefechtsturm Augarten, Vienna, Austria. More background info: "Flak" is short for "Flugabwehrkanonen" in German – i.e. 'anti-aircraft guns'; and "Türme" is 'towers'. And indeed they are kind-of tower-like gigantic bunkers, between 7 and 13 stories high, primarily built towards the end of WWII as bases for heavy anti-aircraft gun batteries on the roof. The lower floors also served as additional air-raid shelter space for the city's population.These towers always came in pairs – one for the actual gun batteries, called the "Gefechtsturm", the other, the "Leitturm", was for radar and other tracking devices, which needed to be separate from the guns in order to work properly.Three cities in the Third Reich (on the territory of today's Germany and Austria) were thus supposed to be better protected from the increasing Allied bombing campaigns during the second half of WWII: Hamburg, Berlin and Vienna. Especially in the case of the former two, the guns didn't do much to prevent the large-scale destruction from the air. In fact, the number of planes shot down by these Flaks was negligibly low. But they did serve their second role well – that of providing air-raid shelter space for the densely populated cities. In addition they housed emergency hospitals and broadcasting stations. Moreover, they served a propaganda function, of course: that of creating the illusion of safety and thus bolstering the people's will to endure more war … despite the fact that this war already was as good as lost at the time these towers were erected.//www.dark-tourism.com

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