De Punt bunker complex

At the parking area at the start of the bunker trail, you can see a so-called Tobruk. This small concrete structure has an opening at the top, from which soldiers could observe or fire a weapon. These bunkers were usually built at the edges of larger complexes to provide close defense. Thousands of them can be found along the entire Atlantic Wall.

The name Tobruk comes from the Libyan town of the same name, where the Germans first encountered this originally Italian design and later copied it as a model. This particular Tobruk was found along the Hoge Pad in Ouddorp during preparations for new housing construction. The nearly 30-ton structure was transported here on a low-loader in May 2016 to mark the beginning of the bunker trail at De Punt.

During the war, the area where you are now standing was dominated by the surrounding waters of De Grevelingen and the North Sea, which were still connected at that time. After the 1953 North Sea Flood, this sea inlet between Goeree and Schouwen was closed off by the Brouwersdam, part of the Dutch Delta Works. To the south and east of De Punt, hundreds of meters of new land were added through sand replenishment. The current road “De Punt” did not exist back then; it marks what was once the boundary between land and water.

At this southernmost location of the Kop van Goeree, the Germans could fire upon Allied troops landing from either the North Sea or De Grevelingen with two anti-tank guns from their elevated position. However, this strategic advantage also made the site vulnerable to attacks from multiple directions. To protect the guns, the two concrete gun shelters (remises) were built with massive overhangs at the entrance, creating a kind of covered passage that provided extra protection. These are rare Type 504 bunkers—only one other example exists in the Netherlands.

Other large bunkers you can see here include an ammunition bunker and a troop bunker. The position also included substantial gun emplacements and several smaller structures such as a toilet, water storage facility, and positions for machine guns, flamethrowers, a searchlight, and even a captured French tank turret. The highest-ranking German officer in the Netherlands, the Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber in den Niederlanden, inspected the site and concluded: “Sehr gut ausgebaut und in Ordnung” (“Very well constructed and in good order”).

The German occupiers once described the Atlantic Wall as a “Perlenschnur aus Stahlbeton”—a “string of pearls made of reinforced concrete,” referring to the line of bunkers strung along the coast. After the war, the area became overgrown with brambles, and the bunkers were forgotten for decades.

In 2010, a group of enthusiastic volunteers restored and reopened the site, turning it into a true pearl among the Atlantic Wall relics still accessible in the Netherlands today. You’ll find an excellent replica of the tank turret, as well as a reconstruction of one of the guns, with its barrel creatively made from an old lamppost.

A walk or visit through the complex takes about one hour.