Stützpunkt XXXVIb H - Heeresküstenbatterie 'Katwijk - Alt'

Strong point StP. XXXVIb H Heeres Küsten Batterie Katwijk-Alt was located in the first line of dunes along the coast south of the boulevard at Katwijk. This battery received its suffix “Alt” [old] after the construction of another battery by that name between Katwijk and Noordwijk. HKB Katwijk-Alt was built around January 1942 and featured four captured pieces of French 7,62 cm field artillery which were set up in four open emplacements. The fire control post was a small masonry building slightly north of the gun sites. The battery was one of the first built in September of 1942, when construction of the Atlantic Wall was initiated. Since there were no ready-made plans for gun emplacements available, they had to be custom designed. Curiously, every gun had a different heavy-duty emplacement. Each featured an ammunition bunker of type 607 and a shelter of type 621. While the guns were outdated and of relatively poor quality, the improvised emplacements were very generous. This is typical for the early phase of the war, when time, building materials and man power were still in abundance. The central building was a type 636 fire control post in its earliest design for this function. No improvements were ever made to the battery and its artillery was not encased in protective housings. At completion, the complex comprised about sixty structures; among these were four large gun sites, a fire control post, four casemates for cannon of type 612, two as rear protection and two on the beach, plus a type 667 casemate, also on the beach. The site contained numerous shelters and storage bunkers, a mess hall, a kitchen, a bakery and so on. The Germans also reused two existing Dutch shelters dating back to World War I.

In 1953, the three artillery bunkers on the beach were toppled into a deep pit and buried. 1969 saw the demolition of fifteen masonry fortifications to the east of the bike path that now runs along the battery. The remaining, virtually intact, battery was finally covered with sand in 1980, leaving few visible traces today.