Throughout the centuries, Punt van Reide has often been a battleground due to its strategic position. During the Eighty Years’ War, the French Period and World War II. In 1940, the Germans built an artillery battery and barracks on Punt van Reide to defend Emden harbour. They were built on wooden scaffolds to protect them from the high water. In 1943, they looked for dryer grounds and built the Marine Flak Battery in Fiemel, just east of Termunten. Some of the bunkers are still visible in the landscape.
The Groninger Landschap tells the story of nature, landscape and military heritage near the remains of the German Stützpunktgruppe Delfzijl.
Starting at the nature organisation’s visitor centre, you can walk along several routes with visible and less-visible remains of the Atlantic Wall. Visitors can experience these memories of the war in various ways. An outlook point at the visitor centre gives an overview of the entire fortification.
The Marine Flak Battery consisted of more than forty buildings, including living quarters for hundreds of crew members. After the war, the heaviest anti-aircraft artillery of the Netherlands was abandoned. It served as a prison for members of the NSB and after that was briefly used as a sheepfold.
Several of the fortifications were destroyed when the Delta dike was widened in the 1970s. Only one cement foundation for 10.5 cm artillery, the last heavy artillery installation, ammunition storage and a few smaller bunkers remained. They were also allowed to remain when Groninger Landschap purchased the adjacent Breebaart polder in 1991 so it could be reclaimed by nature. They are a reminder of a time when the landscape was less peaceful.
