Artillery targets on the beach

When, at the behest of Adolf Hitler, the Krupp concern proceeded in the late 1930s to construct and build the largest cannon of the 800mm caliber, it was simultaneously decided to adapt the artillery range stretching from Darłówek to Bobolin for the assembly and testing of this giant cannon. Todt's organization built there, among other things, a reinforced concrete crested wall with a circumference of about 2 kilometers and a height of 12 meters, which obscured any work on this weapon. Planks were inserted into the recesses between the wall's columns to dampen the shockwave from gunfire. From above, the area of the strict training ground was camouflaged with camouflage nets stretched over the pillars. Around the training ground were coastal defense posts, air defense posts and a network of bunkers. Between the walls there was an assembly station for the world's largest cannon and a special track system from which the mammoth cannon was fired with various projectiles. The following were tested there: projectile penetrating power, initial velocity, range, among others. Testing of the "Dora" and "Gustav" cannons was watched by Adolf Hitler and many of his marshals. mammoth cannons were also dismantled there and taken to the front by trains. Many other types of guns and cannons of caliber from 155 mm and upwards were also tested at this training ground at various positions. The training ground area was guarded from the sea, land and air. It was guarded by anti-aircraft artillery positions, coastal artillery positions and machine gun nests. Several shelters were equipped with pancerwerki, or steel domes up to 500 mm thick, which were mainly used to test the penetrating power of their armor. Such pancerworks and bunkers acting as firing targets were located in Bobolin. On both sides of the mouth of a branch of the Grabowa River known as the Dead River to the Baltic Sea were also shore artillery positions defending the area against landing from the sea, as well as anti-aircraft artillery positions that did not leave the training ground to be bombed.

Leszek Walkiewicz