Hacker News Reader

Many WW2 era German bunkers and coastal batteries seem fine with no maintenance and erosive sea climate doing it's thing so not sure about that.

https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/12168/German-Coastal-Batt...

View on HN

There's difference between engineering for lowest possible cost and engineering to win a war.

Uh no, axis and allies produced the cheapest/most effective means to win the war. Take for instance the Stg44, mostly stamped sheet metal. Russian PPSH, stamped sheet metal.

I think GP was trying to say that fortified buildings last longer than shoddy McMansions. Which seems true given the survival ratio of castles to hovels over a millennium or so. Of course to win a war you may want to fortify cheaply... but given the modern system armies we have now I’d have to say that part of the grand strategy is to simply outspend rival nations.

Yeah, German reinforced concrete structures like those and the flak towers are basically gonna last longer than the pyramids. They are the honey badger of architecture.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com