The actual route was decided on, trees were removed. It was commanded by the German occupation army. The wire was electrified on the 24th of July 1915. In the beginning of July 1915 the first posts and construction material were delivered in Zondereigen (Baarle-Hertog). Other parts followed in August 1915 or still later (in Geistingen and Ophoven it would last till the middle of 1916). By June and July 1915 some strips had already been completed (between Minderhout and Arendonk, in the vicinity of Maldegem, Boekhoute, Prosperpolder and Neerpelt). Separate parts of fencing were built at various places. The barrier was not built from East to West or vice verse. When was the wire of death constructed?Ĭonstruction started in April-May of 1915. Surveillance of the 54 kilometre-long borderline in Baarle-Nassau could thus be reduced to 15,5 kilometres.ģ. This was the case in all three ‘hunches’ in the North of Antwerp (from West to East: Essen, Nieuwmoer and Wildert Meer, Meerle, Meersel-Dreef and a part of Minderhout Poppel, Weelde and Ravels). The inhabitants were enclosed by the wire of death on one side and the barbed wire fence along the Dutch borderline on the other side. This area was often erroneously referred to as no man’s land, in fact it was cut off from Belgian territory but remained occupied by the Germans if it was inhabited. To shorten this, large straits of Belgian soil were left behind the wire of death. The total distance between Knokke and Vaals (the tripoint of Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany) was almost 450 kilometres long. On Belgian soil it was constructed along the borderline, following the border loosely. The wire of death reached from the Belgian coastline in Knokke (Zwin) until the suburbs of the German city of Aachen. As a weapon it was founded on scientific military research and on technical knowhow.Ģ. It was far more than being a meaningless improvisation or experimentation. It was the borderline between war and peace. The wire of death was an electric barrier on the border of Belgium and The Netherlands during the First World War.
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