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Part I of this story shows the historical use and construction of WWI-era German Corrugated Iron Shelters that can still be found on the Western Front. The photographs of restored shelters and steel panels were taken at the restored Morolager and at Vauquois Hill, both located in the Meuse-Argonne Sector. The period photographs and line drawings were taken from British and American reference books.

The intention of this data gathering was to recreate a shelter, as accurately as possible, for use by the author's reenacting regiment when participating in living history demonstrations such as Military Through the Ages in Jamestown, Virginia. Part II of the story discusses the challenges in meeting this goal, and it shows the end product.

Historic Photographs of Complete Shelters

Photographs of Complete Shelters Today

 

Note: The wooden front on the right side of the above picture covers the entrance to two shelters spaced apart in a similar fashion to the two shelters on the left. Ideally, this was done in all German camps.

Construction Details and Photographs

The shelters were formed from SECTIONS, about 42"-43" wide, placed adjacent to each other. The most common lengths I saw were three-, four, or five section shelters. The photographs above show two four-section shelters. From the photographs and the inspection in October, it does not appear that the Sections were attached to each other. Rather, the support came from piling dirt on the sections.

Each SECTION was formed by two matching PANELS, with C-channels riveted onto the end of the panels.

Actually, photographs and inspection suggest that each panel was formed by overlapping two sub-panels and riveting the two together.

Pardon the unscientific way to express this, but the curved panels measured spanned 91" from end to end and 112" by the circumference.

Another shelter measured, suggested that the height was 74" from floor to ceiling. This is somewhat higher than a British source, which shows a drawing of a shelter measuring 5'7". A technical drawing in the same British publication (Pill Boxes on the Western Front, by Peter Oldham) identifies the maximum diameter of a similar shelter as 9'6", or 114".

A few quick calculations to check measurements:

Using the measurements on the right would suggest that each panel would be curved 120 degrees (rounded) and that it would take three panels to complete a full circle.

One British source suggests that the iron was about 12 gauge in weight. The panel corrugation appears to be about 4" from hill to hill, and about 2 3/4" deep.

The C-Channel measured appears to be about 37" high, 4" wide and a little more than 2"wide.

The C-channels attached to the above panels appear to be male and female, with two extensions / holes, respectively. They appear to be riveted to the corrugated iron panels. Note that the other C-channel measured above has four holes. Thus, it appears that there was not one uniform measurement.

Just a few final notes. First, in the shelters inspected, there was no base board, frame or foundation visible. Also, the shelters inspected used a mix of wood, corrugated iron, or a combination thereof to form the rear wall.