World War II

A German fire control post overlooking the beach at Bredene serves as a reminder of the large-scale defensive works of the Second World War.

A graceful arch bridge, a kilometres-long railway tunnel, and several pedestrian bridges still recall a railway line in France from the 1930s that was never completed.

During the Second World War, the historic naval harbour of Hellevoetsluis in South Holland grew into an essential stronghold within the Atlantic Wall, the 5,000-kilometre-long coastal defence system of Nazi Germany.

For more than half a century, you’ve been able to cross the Kempen Canal near Geel via a Bailey bridge, a temporary bridge developed for military purposes during World War II.

Aircraft development in Germany gained momentum after Adolf Hitler came to power in early 1933.

Organisation Todt, Nazi Germany's construction company, sent an army of forced labourers to an old marl quarry in the Netherlands in the spring of 1944 to convert it into an aircraft engine maintenance site.

For almost a century, the Veuve Van Enschodt bridge over the Rupel was the only connection between the Antwerp municipalities of Klein Willebroek and Boom.

As if the Atlantic Wall defensive strongholds in the Ostend dunes were not enough, Nazi Germany erected a second line of defence in the hinterland.

The dunes of Raversijde, a seaside resort west of East, are home to not one but two German bunker complexes.

On Christmas Eve 1944, disaster struck Kalken when a V1 bomb hit the Vaart canal in Kalken at 4 pm.