Casemate G-18: cast steel for the war industry
The Netherlands
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You are standing here at what remains of Casemate G-18. A G-casemate is a cast steel dome casemate, where the type designation "G" refers to the cast steel from which the dome is made. The dome, which is partially embedded in concrete, is not rotatable and has only one firing port, meaning the firing direction of the heavy machine gun inside is fixed. This limitation defines the G-casemate’s weakness: if the enemy appears from a direction outside the firing range, the dome casemate becomes ineffective.
This was precisely the fate of G-18. While the dome casemate could have been equipped with a rotatable dome, this option came with a higher price tag. As a result, the cheaper, fixed variant was chosen.
After the battle at Grebbeberg, this casemate—like almost all other G-casemates—was blown up by the Germans so they could reuse the recovered cast steel in their own war industry. The imprint of the dome is still clearly visible in the remaining concrete of G-18.
In the Grebbe Line, there were 144 G-casemates, with 30 of them located around the Grebbeberg, from the Rhine to Achterberg. If you’d like to see an intact G-casemate, you can visit Fort Vechten or Fort Everdingen.
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