RELIVE THE COLD WAR – VISITOR’S GUIDE
Enter the ultra-secret
Kemmel command bunker A site steeped in secret missions, invisible enemies and ever-present tension that left nobody unaffected ...
Koninklijk Museum van het Leger en de Krijgsgeschiedenis
Royal Museum of the Army and Military History
GB
Anonymous and buried amidst the greenery: the bunker entrance
0 -1 -2 -3
A location that was kept secret
Strategically located in the far west of Belgium, a long way from a possible frontline
Site
Kemmel
Command Bunker
WELCOME To the Kemmel command bunker Make your way down into the ultra-secret command bunker of the Belgian armed forces, the nerve centre of the supreme command during the Cold War. The bunker, built in the early fifties, was originally designed to be the command post of an international air defence system. However, the bunker would never play this role. In the early sixties, the supreme command of the Belgian armed forces decided to equip the bunker as a command post in case of exercises, crisis or conflict. After the Cold War, the bunker stood
empty. The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History in Brussels was entrusted with the task of preserving this unique piece of military heritage and making it accessible to the public, in collaboration with the Ypres CCMP (Centre for Competence in Support Material and Products). In October 2009, Defence Minister De Crem officially declared the bunker open. Experience what life was like for our soldiers during the Cold War. Step aboard the time machine and fly back to the Cold War ...
Oostende
Brugge
Antwerpen Mechelen Gent
Ieper
Kortrijk
Brussel
Kemmel (Heuvelland)
site Kemmel Command Bunker
3
level
0
1
level
-1 2 6
8
5
level
-2
7
3 9
4
10
11 19
level
12
-3 13
18
15 14
16
17
A location that was kept secret
1
6
The mezzanine
2
7
The corridor
3
8
The infirmary
4
9
From the ice-cold war to German reunification: 1917-1991
5
10
East and West face each other
6
12
From secrecy into the public domain
7
16
9
17
Land, air and naval forces and Medical Service
8
0 -1 -2
20
Wintex ’73: An exercise in the command bunker The Belgian armed forces during the Cold War
10
22
A nuclear war
11
23
12 13 14 15 16 17
24
The Military Intelligence
18
32
The Operations Room
19
30
Telecommunications
le ve l
pa ge
Contents
-3
site Kemmel Command Bunker
5
LEVEL
0
A location that was kept secret
A small, unsightly building blocks the entrance to the bunker from view.
1
Up on the roof is a spotlight which could be rotated from inside to light up and monitor the terrain. In the event of a conflict, crisis or exercise, the guard house was protected with barbed wire and a sentry was set up
inside. Near this building, in the open behind the trees, you can still see three masts connected by a long wire antenna. These were the receiver masts for the radios in the bunker, which picked up messages from all over the world via short wave or high frequency signals. There was no transmitter mast on the site: signals from a transmitter antenna
could be intercepted and located. This might betray the location of the secret command bunker. To send radio messages, the bunker used an underground copper cable connection to the barracks at Ypres, where the transmitter aerials stood. In addition, a few outbuildings still remain on the site, where fresh air was drawn into the bunker
Rhombic antenna Also on the site, near the original entrance, there is still a rhombic antenna which also works in the short wave. A few kilometres from the bunker, there are still two small plots of land on which a transmitter aerial and a receiver used to stand. This was the telephone connection for the bunker. When the bunker fell into disuse, Defence sold off the land. 6
site Kemmel Command Bunker
LEVEL
The mezzanine
-1
The Military Police 2 (MP) control access to the bunker.
Transport chest Documents could not be brought into the bunker just like that. Officers with responsibility for the operation of the bunker made all the necessary preparations for their departure for Kemmel and deposited their classified documents in large chests. They would be transported to the bunker
Did you know?
under guard. Everyone would get the necessary documents back on arrival. After an exercise, or when the time came to leave the bunker again, all documents were left behind and destroyed, for nothing must be leaked about the existence of the bunker or what went on inside.
The bunker is very well protected against fire. Alongside all the fire extinguishers you also regularly find flame dampers, long hooks for dragging objects out of the flames, fire alarms and barrels of sand.
Everyone entering must surrender their military ID card. The MP places it in one of the wooden pigeonholes and issues a numbered card. So it is absolutely forbidden for anyone simply to wander into the bunker!
Watch!
The origins and construction of the bunker and a bunker complex in the east of Germany.
site Kemmel Command Bunker
7
LEVEL
-2
The corridor
In an emergency, the bunker can call on its own special facilities.
3
To the right and left are large technical areas built to supply the bunker with heating and ventilation. To the right are two 100 KVA electric generators which can supply the bunker with electricity. The diesel generators have to be started manually.
In the area to the left is the heating plant. Boilers bring steam to a heat exchanger where the steam heats up the water. A circulation pump carries this water to a radiator in the ventilation shaft to refresh the air which is distributed through the bunker by the air drawn in from outside. The humidity in the air is regulated by making use of an atomising pump which forms a curtain of water through which the
Did you know?
8
site Kemmel Command Bunker
warm air flows. Alongside the air refresher are suction channels for stale air. An Arkla-Absorption installation cools the air and the diesel generators. There is space under the room for 30,000 litres of well water.
The bunker is already obsolete by the time the construction work is finished. It does not have any nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) protection. In addition, military technology in the mid-fifties is already able to make particularly powerful weapons which could wipe a bunker like Kemmel off the map in a trice. The cost of giving the bunker even better defences and equipping it with NBC protection is too high and the process is not viable.
LEVEL
-2
4
The command bunker is not intended for combat functions. Nor are there any extensive medical facilities in the bunker. However, there is an infirmary. If someone falls ill, or injures himself, he can be treated here.
Did you know?
As well as the infirmary, the bunker also has a cafeteria, but it has no sleeping quarters and no refectory. It was not intended that military personnel should stay here overnight or eat here. They slept and ate in hotels in the locality or in the barracks at Ypres. site Kemmel Command Bunker
9
LEVEL
-2
5
From the ice-cold war to German reunification: 1917-1991
The Cold War involves the whole world. Belgium is not immune, and in fact plays an active role. Belgian politicians are consummately skilled at the international level. Paul-Henri Spaak gives the ‘speech of fear’ in 1949.
10
Pierre Harmel helps to defuse tensions between the two big blocs in 1967, while in the early eighties, Wilfried Martens plunges the country into uproar with the arrival of the American nuclear cruise missiles in Florennes. Three quotes from these prominent politicians from
Belgium’s history reflect the three great stages in the Cold War.
Watch!
Political highlights from the Cold War.
LEVEL
-2
First quotation : ‘Do you know what our policy is based on? It’s fear. Fear of you, fear of your government, and fear of your policies’ 1948, P.H. Spaak talking about the Soviet Union
Second quotation : ‘Military security and a policy of détente are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. Collective defence is a factor for stability in global politics’ 1967, P. Harmel in the famous ‘Harmel report’
Third quotation : For my part, in any case, I have no problem living with the responsibility that I shouldered on 14 March. Any other atttitude or decision would have had serious consequences’ W. Martens talking about the missiles crisis in 1985, in: De memoires, Lanno/Tielt, 2006.
site Kemmel Command Bunker
11
LEVEL
-2
East and West face each other
6 The Iron Curtain,
separating East from West. The Cold War splits the world into two great power blocs. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with the United States
12
as a superpower stands directly opposite the Warsaw Pact led by the Soviet Union. The political, but above all, the military contrasts between East and West are vividly symbolised in this room. The two ideological ex-
tremes are separated only by the Iron Curtain that cuts Europe and Germany in two. A German soldier stands on either side of the Iron Curtain.
LEVEL
-2
Propaganda films from East and West. Watch!
Every Belgian soldier was given information about the armies in the Eastern Bloc. This information came in the form of booklets or cards.
Thanks to its kinetic energy, this arrow can pierce a target protected by 300 mm of armour plating at a distance of 2 kilometres. site Kemmel Command Bunker
13
LEVEL
-2
The KGB infiltrates Belgium The fact that the threat of a war between East and West really existed can be seen from this Soviet spy radio. The radio is hidden in a metal chest, buried in the woods at Meerdaalbos. At the end of the nineties, a former agent for the Soviet secret service, the KGB, revealed that a number of radios were buried in Western Europe. They were to be used by sleeper agents in the event of war between East and West. A marker stone indicated where the radio was hidden.
14
site Kemmel Command Bunker
Transmitter-receiver used by the top-secret Belgian ‘stay-behind’ network SDRA-VIII, hidden in a wine crate
LEVEL
-2
The Americans in Belgium In the early eighties, the American 485th Tactical Missile Wing bring cruise missiles to Belgium. The missiles are a reaction to the replacement of the Soviet SS20 missiles in Eastern Europe. The arrival of the cruise missiles causes tremendous controversy in public opinion in Belgium. Steve Quintin was one of the American military personnel stationed for a time at the air force base at Florennes. In the summer of 2009 he donated his original uniform to the Royal Army Museum.
site Kemmel Command Bunker
15
LEVEL
-2
From secrecy into the public domain
7
This telephone is not secure None of the telephones was secured. Should an enemy gain access to the telephone network, then important information could fall into the wrong hands. Use of the unsecured lines was strictly supervised. Classified information had to be encrypted.
16
site Kemmel Command Bunker
An office brings you into one of the more important rooms in the bunker, the working area of Joint Staff 2 and Joint Staff 3. These two offices need to work closely together. The members of Joint Staff 2 process the data from the intelligence services and pass it on to the relevant
Did you know?
people in Joint Staff 3, who in turn use the information in planning operations and actions on the ground. This office gives you a good view into the big Operations Room, the real beating heart of the bunker. The red curtains are used to block the view from other rooms. Not all the information that is displayed or can be seen in this room is intended to be seen by everyone.
On your way out, look at the SOXMIS map: Areas permanently out of bounds to the Soviet Military Mission. These areas of the Federal Republic of Germany in the west are marked in purple and are out of bounds to any member of the Soviet army. These are agreements between East and West to openly monitor each other’s activities, or rather to spy on them, between 1946 and 1991.
LEVEL
-2
8 All the different staff units of the Belgian military – the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Medical Service – have their own separate offices in the bunker. At least one of their offices has a view of the Operations Room.
9 These two rooms form the office of the chief of staff. He is in charge of the Belgian armed forces and thus also has the top role in the bunker. The first room houses his secretariat. The spiral staircase can be used to quickly carry messages coming in to the communications rooms on level -2 to the chief of
staff. The second room is the chief of staff’s own actual office, with comfortable chairs and a photo of the then King Baudouin in battledress.
17
LEVEL
-2
18
site Kemmel Command Bunker
LEVEL
-2
site Kemmel Command Bunker
19
What did the Belgian military use the Kemmel bunker for?
Wintex ’73: an exercise in the command bunker
Identity card of Commander Devuyst, used during WINTEX ’77. This card was found in 2009 in one of the pigeonholes at the entrance to the bunker.
20
site Kemmel Command Bunker
In order to test and optimise military cooperation between the various NATO countries, regular exercises were conducted. At the level of all staff and command structures, these were Command Post Exercises (CPXs). March 1973 saw the start of one such exercise, named WINTEX (Winter Exercise), in the command bunker at Kemmel. It lasted nine days and was run from SHAPE in Bergen. The objective of the exercise was to practise and evaluate the plans and procedures in the NATO strategy through maximum activation and training of NATO and the national headquarters with
their command structures and communications facilities. In reality, all attack procedures, communications resources, Military Intelligence, logistical lines and so on were tested. But it was actually just a paper exercise for the chains of command. Troops in the field did not participate. WINTEX ’73 assumed the following scenario. An ‘unforeseen event’ led to tensions outside the NATO zone. In this period of rising tension, ORANGE (the so-called enemy) decided to announce the partial mobilisation of its troops and to deploy its troops. This was followed by some hostile incidents on the border with NATO countries, leading to an appropriate response
by NATO. ORANGE then launched a major conventional attack, and the conflict spread further. NATO’s military activities would lead to a successful end to the conflict. Such an exercise put all the NATO general staff units on the highest state of alert. In the case of the Belgian staff, this meant that the bunker at Kemmel was brought into use. The available communications present in the bunker were used to ensure that the staff had the necessary input of information in order to carry out the exercise. This meant that they could test their readiness, gain experience in conflict situations and run a thorough evaluation of their communications so that they could streamline
all the important information channels. During such an exercise, the enemy invariably came from the East, but it was never called by its real name. Instead of referring to the enemy as the Soviet Union or the Warsaw Pact, the name ORANGE was usually used. The bunker was used more than once for such an exercise. The last exercise took place in the mid-nineties.
site Kemmel Command Bunker
21
LEVEL
-3
10 The fact that Belgium
is a member of NATO means that the Belgian armed forces are also not immune to the Cold War. The consequences of the ideological confrontations and the arms race that they triggered had an effect at This was a personal anti-tank every level of the Army, the weapon and came into use in Navy, the Air Force and the the early seventies. Medical Service. Belgium had been preparing for a large-scale war for nigh on fifty years. The biggest fear from the Warsaw Pact troops was the large number of tanks. Special anti-tank weapons were developed to counter The Belgian them, including MILAN (Misarmed forces during the sile d´infanterie lÊger antichWatch! Cold War. ar or Anti-tank Light Infantry Missile). 22
site Kemmel Command Bunker
Well protected! This American M1 helmet carries the traces of a Chinese mortar attack on the morning of 9 March 1953 on the Belgian positions at Chatkol in Korea. Soldier Laffut sustains injuries all over his body, but although the flying splinters pierce his helmet, he suffers no more than a minor head wound.
LEVEL
-3
Screening room
11 When prevention would no longer have been possible... The Belgian armed forces started using the dom-410 radiation meter in 1968. It is designed to measure radiation and is used in security controls and accidents or incidents involving nuclear weapons. The radiation meter measures the strength of the ambient gamma rays, detects radioactive materials and checks equipment, clothing, liquids and personnel for radioactive contamination. If any contamination is registered, everything has to be decontaminated and cleaned.
A nuclear war Watch!
Documentary about the Cold War
This gives you a chance to watch a documentary about the Cold War. Why not sit down and rest your legs before you continue with your journey of discovery? Touch the screen to choose your language.
site Kemmel Command Bunker
23
LEVEL
-3
Telecommunications
12 This is where the
automated and manual telephone switchboards are located. To get an outside line from inside the bunker, you first have to go via an operator, who then puts you through to the number you want. Incoming calls also first go via the switchboard before the desired person can be reached. Telephone calls within the bunker go direct without the intervention of the operator.
24
site Kemmel Command Bunker
This manual switchboard is modular and easy to set up. It is designed to provide communications lines in the field.
LEVEL
-3
13
Just like in the 10ttr (10th Transmission Troops, known in Belgium as the Royal Corps of Signals) room, telex machines with an encryption device in the crypto office are vitally important.
listen!
This is the code room. This is where the ciphers are operated and incoming and outgoing telex messages decoded and encoded. The codes change regularly and all transmission centres linked to Kemmel then also change their codes. Messages are encoded once or twice, depending on the level of classification. Unclassified messages are not encoded.
These telex machines are housed in wooden units covered in foam to absorb the noise. Soundproofing panels are likewise affixed to the walls. Otherwise the noise of the telexes chattering all day long would be unbearable.
Messages with the classification Restricted distribution are encoded online. This is done automatically as the message is sent. All messages classified as Confidential and upwards are encoded both online and offline.
Telex machine
site Kemmel Command Bunker
25
LEVEL
-3
Telecommunications
14
The hatches are used to pass on messages to the neighbouring rooms.
Hatch
Did you know?
26
This corridor is also a fully protected zone. Military personnel working with these transmission units have special security clearance. All the doors are locked and the only way to contact them is via the hatches. Security is high and the procedures are very strict.
site Kemmel Command Bunker
The machine room is equipped with a number of teleprinters or telex machines. These machines send and receive short messages.
LEVEL
-3
15
This room is the actual automated switchboard. This is where all the necessary equipment is housed that makes it possible for the telephone lines in the bunker to work. Siemens is one of the first companies to make such an installation in industrial quantities. This installation serves about 200 lines, of which only five are outside lines. Today, all of this technology is contained inside a simple mobile phone.
listen!
The telephone switchboard
The sound of the telephone switchboard during an exercise.
site Kemmel Command Bunker
27
LEVEL
-3
16 This room is man-
ned by the staff of the Special Dispatch Service. All inbound and outbound messages pass via this room. The staff are in contact with the machine room and the radio room. The military postal service also regularly calls at the bunker. This is what you might call the crossroads of the communications services within the bunker. It is run by a secretary with two or three military personnel. The spiral staircase connects them directly to the secretariat of the bunker commander.
Radio Receiver bc-312 d
Telefunken Empf채nger E 639 AW 28
site Kemmel Command Bunker
LEVEL
The radio room
-3
17
As well as the automatic and manual switchboard and the telex machines, the bunker staff can also use an extensive and sophisticated radio apparatus.
When all other systems fail, the radios are the only way to communicate with units in the field. Apart from a transmitter, receiver and antenna, nothing else is needed.
High frequency can be used to connect to the whole world. Radio waves reflect off particular ionised and electrically charged layers in the atmosphere. These layers change in height and thickness depending on the time and the changing seasons. These changes are documented and this means that radio connections can always be made with any place in the world.
listen!
A radio conversation between two military personnel on exercise
site Kemmel Command Bunker
29
LEVEL
-3
30
site Kemmel Command Bunker
LEVEL
-3
site Kemmel Command Bunker
31
LEVEL
-3
18
19
These two offices belong to the Military Intelligence.
The beating heart of the bunker is the Operations Room.
Its staff gather information on the basis of reports from various sources. They contain data on our own strength as well as all possible information on any enemy. The Military Intelligence staff analyse the reports, assemble the information and pass it on to the relevant services.
This is the largest and most important room in the bunker. This is where the tote boards are kept up to date, so that you can get a picture of the situation at the front at a single glance. ‘Tote boards’ is the term used to mean all of the maps and information boards displayed on the
walls. The name probably comes from the term ‘totalizator’, a sort of scoreboard. In the event of an exercise, crisis or conflict, the tote board carries full and meticulously updated information about the weapons systems of the Army, Air Force and Navy, such as tanks, aircraft and ships, on the basis of the sitreps (Situation Reports).,
The Military Intelligence
32
site Kemmel Command Bunker
LEVEL
Operations Room
-3
The maps track friendly and enemy troop movements. Every morning, and sometimes several times a day, briefings are held, where those in charge of the weapons systems, logistics, personnel, operations and telecommunications report on the status of their individual areas. If necessary, separate meetings may be held to look at a particular subject.
Tote-board
Watch!
What happens in the bunker? Find out by using the touch screen.
33
Kemmel command bunker Lettingstraat, 64, B-8950 HEUVELLAND Open on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm (last entry at 4 pm) The number of visitors in the bunker is limited to 49! The visit takes about 90 minutes
Prices
€ 3 pp. for individuals, € 2 pp. for groups, € 1 pp. for those aged under 26 Tickets and visitor’s guide (€ 2) available from the Tourist Office, Reningelststraat 11, 8950 Heuvelland
Groups Min. 20 people per group Max. 25 people per group, larger groups will be split up! Groups must book in advance and be accompanied by an accredited guide (€ 50 per group of 25 people)
Reservation Tourist office Reningelstraat, 11 B-8950 HEUVELLAND T: +32(0)57 450 455 F: +32(0)57 448 999 E: toerisme@heuvelland.be Royal Museum of the Army and Military History Parc du Cinquantenaire, 3 B-1000 BRUSSELS T: +32(0)2 737 79 07 F: +32(0)2 737 78 02 E: kemmel@klm-mra.be
Combined visits available (Tourist Office) 34
site Kemmel Command Bunker
R.E. KLM MRA Graphic design: Exelmans Graphics
Royal Museum of the Army and Military History