Westwallmuseum
Panzerwerk "Katzenkopf"
im Luftkurort Irrel/Südeifel
For the protection of ist territory, Germany started in the year the 1936 (officially in 1938) the construction of an enormous fortified line along its westem borders. This line reached from the border-area of Basel (Switzerland) up to Kleve (Germany, lower Rhine area) and was 630 km long. They called it the "Westwall".
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Of the 22.000 forts, bunkers and pillboxes planned, 14.800 were constructed, among them 32 forts of the type "B", with 2m thick concrete walls.
At Irrel, 2 forts of this type, the "Katzenkopf" and the "Nimsberg", were built as northern stronghold of the "Westwall", tasked to secure the important Road-axis Luxembourg - Cologne.
Both of the upper floors were originally divided into 45 rooms of varied sizes. These were the troop quarters for the crew of 84, guard rooms, gunnery rooms, first-aid station, lavatories, ammunition supply, cold storage chamber, canteen, kitchen, as well as telephone controll and radio station.
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More than 60 electric motors for the ventilation system, the water pump, the heating and the lighting could be supplied by electricity produced by two diesel-engine generators. Normally the nearby village Irrel provided all the energy.
The fort itself and ist immediate area could be defended by several firing postions to include two gun-turrets with 6 firing- holes for 2 sMG34 each, a 50mm grenade-thrower and a flamethrower. The artillery and infantry watch-turrent was used for the all'round observation and the shooting commands.
On the fourth and deepest floor are two large galleries totalling 138 m of legth. One leads to the waterpump-room installed over a 180 meter deep well, the other to the remote gun-turret.
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