Hacker News Reader

Comment by gmueckl | Hacker News Reader

West Germany did much the same with all roads and train tracks crossing into East Germany and Czechoslovakia. There were pre-made holes in the roads to blast craters into them. Bridges and tunnels were prepared similarly. It was also rumored that the explosive charges were mounted in place all the time, but I don't believe that part anymore.

View on HN

They weren't mounted, they were kept in a nearby bunker. The charges were standardized round flat 50kg lumps, called cheese charges because they looked like a wheel of cheese. The roads and bridges had prepared openings looking like a normal gutter (round in germany) into which the cheese charges fit perfectly. The top plate could often be recognized because there was a single number stamped in, telling you how many cheese charges to load. What was always present however was the initiator charge and the wiring to the nearby bunker.

There were even more interesting things like the new Elbtunnel in Hamburg having massive blocks of concrete above all entrances. The girders holding those blocks were intended to be cut by explosive charges drop the blocks, blocking the tunnel.

Sweden had preparations like this for roads and ports.

Yes, it’s not like the Cold War was armies staring at each other, there were a lot of preparations going on. Some bridges also were over-dimensioned so that heavy tanks could bridge them (and bridges, viaducts and roads are marked as to load-carrying capacity. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Load_Classification)

Also, the original strategic plan for NATO against a soviet attack was defense in depth, so I think all NATO countries in Western Europe prepared for the need to destroy infrastructure. The Netherlands had plans to flood large parts of the country, for example. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJssel_Line, not just Germany, and not just near the border with Eastern Europe.

And of course, there was a nuclear backup plan in case infrastructure couldn’t be destroyed before the enemy took it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Muni....

> West Germany did much the same with all roads and train tracks crossing into East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

Bridges crossing major rivers as far west as the Rhine river as well.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com