Military locations

The German army fenced off the border between Belgium and the Netherlands from 1915 with a three-wire fence. Electric current of 2,000 volts was rushed through the middle wire.

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.

The Spanish Empire once spread over much of the world, but the Spanish-American War of 1898 dealt the global empire a death blow.

The Hartmannswillerkopf massif in the French Vosges Mountains overlooks the Alsace and was the scene of heavy fighting between the French and German armies from December 1914 onwards during the First World War.

Monday morning, February 21, 1916. It is a quarter past seven in the morning when the German army opens fire on the forts north and east of Verdun in France.

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

In Antwerp, dozens of kilometres of trenches, parapets and ramparts lie hidden under a thick crust of branches and leaves.

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.

With a bunker as its foundation and on top of a floodbank, Air Guard Tower 5K3 offered a broad view over the Hollandsch Diep and the Mariapolder beyond. 

You bump into this brick obelisk at the edge of a forest in northern France. The monument was erected more than two centuries ago.