Regenwurmlager

"Earthworm camp" ( German Regenwurmlager ) - an abandoned German fortification in western Poland (near Miedzyrzecz , north of Zielona Góra ), near Lake Kshiva , one of the largest underground structures in Europe.

It was built by Germany in 1936-1938. Acted until the spring of 1945 . He lost his defensive significance in 1938 after the Munich agreement ( Sudetenland annexation ).

But it was not the distance that bothered us, but this fortified Meseritz district, or the Oder triangle, as it was also called. Before the war, Germany had built two fortified areas: one in the west — the Siegfried line, the other in the east — the Oder triangle. The defensive ramparts during the war years fell into decay. But immediately after the Battle of Stalingrad, the Germans began to modernize both defense systems. The Mezerit fortified district, the main one on the way to Berlin, was converted with the latest engineering equipment. The whole city of reinforced concrete and steel with underground railways, factories and power plants, he could accommodate in his bowels at least an army. Armored mines went 30-40 meters in depth, and on the surface of the road were blocked by chains of grooves, stretching for many kilometers. Dozens of low domes of pillboxes bristled with guns and machine guns. Dam systems on neighboring lakes were designed in such a way that, if necessary, any part of this fortified area could be flooded.

Military history did not yet know examples when a tank army was breaking through a powerful fortified area. Typically, fortifications of this kind were destroyed by heavy artillery fire and airborne aircraft, and only then sappers and rifle units completed the destruction of the pillboxes and bunkers.

- Katukov M.E. At the tip of the main blow. - M .: Military Publishing, 1974

During World War II it was used as an underground plant.

The underground part has suffered little, and most corridors are accessible for visiting without special equipment. The “North Pole” branch (Nord pol) is completely flooded. Branches A62 and A63 are partially flooded.

It consists of many bunkers connected by a system of tunnels and corridors stretching for kilometers.

In the eighties, an in-depth engineer-engineer reconnaissance of the area was carried out by the forces of Soviet troops and Polish enthusiastic researchers Robert Jurga and Anna Kedrina (more than 35 km of tunnels were examined) ^[1] .

On Soviet maps, it was designated as the Mezeritsky fortified area.