World War II

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.

In 1990, a Sherman tank was parked at Balgerhoeke lock in Eeklo in honour of the Canadians who liberated the town from German occupation on 15 September 1944.

Anyone entering Nieuwpoort via Kinderlaan will come across the remains of the World War II German Widerstandsnest Karthauserdünen.

The Atlantic Wall, Nazi Germany's World War II defence line, stretched over 4,000 kilometres from the North Cape to the most south-westerly tip of France, namely Hendaye.

In 1815, after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, Dutch King William I gave the go-ahead for constructing the New Dutch Waterline. This defence line extended over a distance of 85 kilometres between the Zuiderzee and the Biesbosch.

Mobile anti-tank barriers, known as Cointet elements, formed the backbone of the Belgian KW line erected in 1939 to prevent a German invasion.

The Zwin region between Belgium and the Netherlands has had an eventful military past as a natural border since the Hundred Years' War broke loose. Even during World War I, the border region came back into focus.