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Impenetrable Beach
To make the Zeeland beaches, like other coastal defenses, inaccessible for an Allied landing, the Germans constructed numerous obstacles starting in February 1944. These were meant to form an impenetrable barrier against landing craft and other vessels. In the Liberation Park, a collection of tetrahedrons is displayed—concrete, three-sided pyramids designed to block boats. Another notorious obstacle was the Hembalken—heavy wooden beams mounted on tripods, equipped with sharp steel blades and explosives such as mines and grenades. These structures could tear large holes in a vessel. Using fire pumps, the Germans sank these beams into the sand to the desired depth.
Underwater
To make a landing even more difficult, the Germans placed these obstacles below the tide line. This meant the Allies could only land at low tide; at high tide, their vessels would run aground on the barriers. However, landing at low tide forced them to cover a greater distance across the open beach, fully exposed to German defensive fire from the coastal fortifications.
Origin of the Tetrahedrons
After the war, construction materials were scarce. The concrete beams of the tetrahedrons were therefore repurposed as road reinforcement by laying them in a row. The large tetrahedrons in the Liberation Park, for example, came from a former road reinforcement through a pasture in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. The smaller tetrahedrons next to the Bailey Bridge were donated by the Minderhoud family (Hoeve Zwemersdam) from Baarland, where they had been used for years as ground reinforcement.