World War II

A military railway line, a dilapidated monument and an anti-tank trenches surround the ruins of the Brasschaat fortress.

With its 17 bunkers linked together, the fortress of Eben-Emael was considered impregnable—or so the Belgian army thought.

A 33-kilometre-long canal zigzags from Stabroek to the Albert Canal in Antwerp. What at first glance looks like a strip of nature was initially intended to hold up German tanks.

In 2005, the concrete launch pad of a German V1 launch base from the Second World War was found in the Vrijbos in Houthulst.

In 1876, German industrialist Max Duttenhöfer founded the explosives factory "Düneberger Pulverfabrik" near the German city of Hamburg, where gunpowder and other explosives were produced during both world wars.

From 1936 onwards, hundreds of scientists, engineers and technicians settled in the German fishing village of Peenemünde on the Baltic Sea to develop and test the V2 rocket.