The German command was very fond of giving their secret objects intricate and somewhat romantic names. Suffice it to recall the names of the Fuhrer's headquarters - "Wolf's Lair", "Eagle's Nest", "Bear's Den" … So they called the fortification on the border of Poland at that time "Earthworm Camp" …
There are many legends about the top-secret "Camp of the earthworm" (in German, Regenwurmlager).
Chaff grains
Allegedly, the camp is not only a defensive line, but also a treasury where art objects taken from the USSR are buried, including the famous Amber Room. Allegedly, it was there that SS youngsters were prepared for military operations, forcing them to wander in the dark for weeks in underground labyrinths - of course, only the strongest won. Allegedly, these labyrinths stretch all the way to Berlin, and then - almost throughout the Reich. And they built it even before the start of the war, and then completed it in the winter of 1945. And prisoners of concentration camps worked in hellish underground conditions, which "of course" were burned in the underground crematorium. Allegedly, Hitler several times came to this Regenwurmlager directly from the Reich Chancellery on an armored underground train.
These are all myths. There is neither the Amber Room, nor other stolen valuables, nor are there any gold ingots transported for storage from German banks by the end of the war. The fanatical commanders did not make the green youths roam the dungeon; the prisoners did not build this structure, and certainly no one was burned in the local crematorium, because there is simply no such thing there. And Hitler did not come there, and underground tunnels do not stretch either across Europe, or even to Berlin …
But what about the mysterious name? Even the name is not so mysterious. And very accurate. German builders used machines with a tunnel shield to work - why not an earthworm gnawing at the rock? Everything is simple, prosaic. Yes, and this structure had another, not so romantic name - the fortification "Oder-Wart Bend". Our military gave him two others - the Mezeritsky fortified area, or the Oder quadrangle.
All the engineers who had a chance to inspect the Regenwurmlager from the inside, bewildered, said the same thing: what an amazing, excellent work - and what a talentless project! Indeed, this fortified area stood without any maintenance, left to itself, for more than 70 years, and it was built 10 years earlier. They built it conscientiously, processed every seam to shine, laid the tiles evenly, securely fastened all the metal parts. Even today, the tunnels look like they are waiting for an hour when the electric train will go through them again. All cables are insulated. However, as experts say, with such a fantastic selfless work, a rather weak fortification system turned out. It seems to the uninitiated that it is almost impossible to take such a modern fortress buried in the ground. Alas,with a massive blow to the enemy, it will not delay for a long time.
This is exactly what happened. We took Regenwurmlager in the winter of 1945 in just three days. And the tank army of General Katukov took them, which the defenders did not expect at all, because such fortifications are usually ironed with bombs, and then finished off with artillery. Who thought that Soviet tanks would go against the pillboxes? But the tank army came up first, and it entered the battle. After all, as Katukov believed, there was "a whole city of reinforced concrete and steel with underground railways, factories and power plants, it could accommodate at least an army in its depths." Katukov was in a hurry because "the dam systems on the neighboring lakes were designed in such a way that, if necessary, any part of this fortified area could be flooded." And he, like other commanders, was given the task of knocking out the enemy and seizing a German underground plant,which made aircraft motors.
Along the entire length of the structure, for many kilometers, there are cone-shaped concrete bumps - "dragon teeth", an analogue of our "hedgehogs". Each panzerwerk had several rows of these "dragon teeth". They were not a hindrance to the tanks. The tanks found a passage and demolished these panzerworks with shells along with the panzerkolpak. German pillboxes only looked powerful. Imagine a two-story structure with loopholes from which machine guns, flamethrowers and grenade launchers look out. The Germans had their own classification of firing points according to the type of resistance to shells and the thickness of the walls. The most serious weapon emplacements were Class A panzerworks with walls 3.5 meters thick. The walls of type "B" structures were 1.5 meters thick. So the shells perfectly pierced the "B" class panzerworks and even piled them to one side.
Neither the minefields that generously planted around Regenwurmlagera nor the cunning security systems arranged according to old knightly recipes helped in the defense: stairs that collapse, bridges that overturn if an enemy who does not know secrets stand on them. The machine guns placed in special rooms at the entrance to each section of the tunnels did not help. But the Regenwurmlager was designed for a short-lived defense. It contained plumbing, sewerage, a hospital in case of injury or illness, excellent sleeping quarters in the barracks, clean toilets with three booths, lighting, a system of natural and forced ventilation, food supplies, and renewable water supplies if the plumbing went out of service. Everything is very well thought out and rational in German.
Why was it built?
The Meseritz fortified area was built even before the Munich Agreement, after which the relevance of strengthening the eastern border faded away. Today these places are part of Poland, but before World War II they were German territory. The Oder and Warta rivers formed a natural border and a kind of border when attacked by the enemy. But a section about 65 kilometers long passed along the ground. It was here that it was decided to build a reliable fortification in addition to the East Wall and the Siegfried Line, blocking the border to the west.
Construction began in 1936 and continued until 1938. During this time, tunnels were dug - both the main one with a height of up to 5 meters and the rails laid along it for electric trains, and the side ones, which were equipped with whole clusters of panservice. For the work, the best specialists in the Reich were attracted and this underground miracle was built using the latest technology of the time. But in 1938, when it became clear that Germany was about to go to war with Poland, and then take possession of all of Western Europe, the work was suspended. The agreement with Stalin made it possible to relax at all and not think about the Polish border. That is why the building has elevator shafts, but the elevators themselves are not.
During the war years, the complex began to be used as it is, that is, in an unfinished form. A factory was located here, a sabotage school was organized, but not for the green SS men, but for the Iranians, Afghans, Arabs and even Indians. And certainly no one drove them through the tunnels without food and in the dark. The structure's underground position helped withstand the bombing, the frequency of which had increased many times by the end of the war. The allies were also saved from the bombs by the fact that this structure was almost invisible from the air - the panzerworks were perfectly camouflaged, where necessary - painted green, located among forests and lakes, individual stone walls looked just like houses. And then if you look closely.
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After the war
The first thing that the Soviet troops did was send in sappers and hastily cleared the traps to enter the complex. Archival footage with Soviet chronicles has survived, where soldiers are digging up the rubble after the explosion, and this happens just at the underground factory in the Mezeritz fortified area.
In the post-war years and before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Soviet troops were stationed here. Of course, the dungeon was not used in any way - they walked in the vicinity with caution, since they ran into mines. They tried to weld the entrances, seal up the panzer caps, hang up signs stating the prohibition of passage, etc. True, there was nothing to drag from the dungeon. Even the tiles the Germans used to pave the floors were taken away by enterprising Poles.
Towards the end of the Soviet era and after publications in the press, the military finally decided to examine the underground structure and map the moves. Together with sappers and civil activists, they walked about 35-45 kilometers. We were amazed at the wonderful preservation and pleasant fresh air. At that time, the study of the object stopped.
Magazine: Mysteries of History, no. 42. Author: Mikhail Romashko