World War II

On the left bank of the Scheldt in Fresnes-sur-Escaut in Northern France, this centuries-old fire engine building bears witness to the ceaseless struggle of miners and engineers against the groundwater in the underground galleries.

In 1938, the Organization Todt, the construction company of the German Third Reich, began constructing the West Wall (or Siegfried Line), a German defence line from the Netherlands to the Swiss border.