Tour Report: Soviet Nuclear Weapons Depot B.

As you may have seen on the photos in my last post, the weather on our tour in summer of 2018 together with our friend Torsten from North Urbex was a bit erratic. It couldn't seem to decide between sun, clouds and rain; so it gave us all of it in varying intensity.

It wasn't the hottest day of the summer, but it was still pretty hot as we started our walk down a long road that led us from the airport's garrison past a small guard house towards a hidden facility deep in the woods - an abandoned special weapons depot of the Group of Soviet Armed Forces in Germany. Here, the Soviets stored free-fall nuclear bombs for the 911th Fighter-Bomber Regiment. This place was our main objective for this first part of the tour, and we knew that it was going to be a pretty long way. Unfortunately, the weather apparently thought that it would be nice to play a little game with us and give us a nice little mix of sun and showers...

Heavy backpacks, hot and humid weather and the occasional rain shower - we had quite a nice walk through the woods, before we finally arrived at our destination. We took a little break to have a snack and "recover" from the walk, while we checked out the area and looked for a way into the warhead storage bunker.

There was one, and it was pretty small and full of spiders, so my wife decided to keep enjoying the weather outside as Torsten and I snaked through a tiny access and into the handling bunker that made up the front part of the storage facility. Coming inside from the heat, the cool (but stale) air was rather enjoyable, and we took or time to explore the bunker and take our photos.

Bunkers don't usually offer spectacular views in terms of photography, because they're mostly concrete, have no revolutionary architectural features, were raided by copper thieves, and if you're hoping for beautiful available light - forget it. This bunker was a little different, because - even if lots of things had been removed - it still had a lot of the metal in it, so we could actually get a pretty good idea of how various things were operated. In addition, I had never before had the chance to check out a bunker of the 'Basalt' type, and I was truly amazed at the sight of the huge steel doors that separated the handling bunker from the actual storage bunker.

After checking out the main parts of the bunker, we moved on to explore the technical parts inside the bunker, and even here, many relics were still there, so Torsten and I had a lot to see before we crawled back out and finally saw daylight again :)

After another short break, we went on to also take a look at the buildings surrounding the facility, but they were mostly just ruins, so we began our walk back to the car - after all, we had another location on our list for the day....

To find out about the history of this place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.

Tour Report: U.S. Nuclear Weapons Depot D.

Two weeks into the year 2018, it was time for our first tour of the year. The day before, my mother had spontaneously decided to join us, which totally made sense, because we were going to take her car anyway :)
It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. We left early, and we arrived at our first spot after about two and a half hours of driving.
For the first location, we had decided to check out an abandoned nuclear weapons depot of the US Army. Supposedly, it wasn't secured at all and more or less a local recreational area, so entering wouldn't be troublesome, and we expected a nice walk in the park, so to speak.
And that is exactly what we got - a really nice walk in the park.
There were no fences to be climbed, and the entire area was completely open.
We were there at around ten in the morning, but there already were people walking their dogs, and the later it got, the more people were coming and going, some with their children, some with cameras, and some were alone just walking around.
Anyway, we actually did what everyone else was doing - having a good time. We took our time walking around in the morning sun and checking out very corner of the ample premises. We also went a little off-road and got to explore an ammunition depot of the German Luftwaffe, which was situated right next to the nuclear weapons depot.
Shortly before noon, some fog came up and really added a nice touch to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the fog was gone as quickly as it had come.
Before we left, I made a little climb up the guard tower (of course), and after about two hours of walking through the cold, we arrived back at the car and started heading for the next location.


To find out about the history of this relic from the Cold War and to check out all the photos, click the button below.

Tour Report: Soviet Nuclear Weapons Depot

After we had finished exploring the old mental asylum - but definitely not before we had finished the cake! - we still had a little bit of daylight left at our disposal. After all, it was late October, and the weather as well as the time behaved accordingly.
We - that included Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland, Pixelcracker, my wife and myself - decided to go for a short exploration of a nearby nuclear weapons depot that had been built during the Soviet occupation.
After an adventurous drive (three cars, an unexpected stop and the coffee machine miraculously survived), we arrived at the surrounding fence and the large entry gate. We drove on for a little bit to find an opportune place to park that also was a little closer to the weapons bunkers. From there on, we walked through s bit of forest until we found a place where we could climb over the concrete wall surrounding the place.
Moving around was no problem; most of the place had been renatured and we walked around freely, altough wothout taking too many photos due to the fading light.
At some point we met a weird guy who wasn't security, but showed a strange interest in what we were doing without telling us what he was doing there. He didn't pose any threat, though, and we finished our exploration undisturbed.
Unfortunately, the light was really bad, so taking photos was kind of unseless. But who knows - maybe we'll get another chance next week when my wife and I are in the area again...


To find out more about the history of this li'l ol' place, click the button below.

Nuclear Weapons Depot K. - New Year's Eve

I am pretty far behind with my tour reports. That's why the report from our traditional New Year's Eve tour is about 9 months late...
Just like the Christmas tour, the New Year's Eve tour has become a tradition for the last couple of years. The abandoned nuclear weapons depot about 60 kilomters from my home has become the location of choice for us. There are no people and almost no light pollution, so it's perfect to try some light paining. Also, due to the nature of the place, there is a lot of concrete, so you can play around with burning steel wool and not have to worry that anything (except yourself, of course) can catch on fire.
Anyway, the last New Years Eve was no different. We packed our stuff in the car (next to the usual urbex/lightpaining/camera gear, the equipment includes some New-Year's-Eve-stuff such as sparkling wine, caviar and salmon toast) and headed West to the location. My wife and I were accompanied by her brother and his girlfriend.
Once we had arrived at the perimeter of the depot, we parked the car at the barrier and walked the rest of the way. The rest of the way is an almost 20-30 minute walk through a very dark forest.
When we got there, we set up our "camp" in one of the large shelters, had some food and drink and started our lightpaining session.
I really like playing with fireworks and long-time exposures, but the photos I like most are the ones with a lot of smoke and shadows of people...


To find out more about the history of this place and to check out all the photos from this cold war relic, click the button below.

Nuclear Weapons Depot S.

This is not a "real" nuclear weapons depot, since there were no actual nuclear warheads stored here.
Nonetheless, this depot was an important part of NATO's strategy of building a line of nuclear deterrents across Europe.
There were three nuclear weapons depots in the northernmost German state; two of those were used to store the actual warheads (one is now being used as storage by local farmers, and a gallery from my visits to the other one can be found here) and this one was used to store the rocket engines that were to propel the warheads onto Soviet airspace in case of nuclear war.
Germany never was a nuclear poswer itself (although some theories and rumors exist that the Nazis had conducted nuclear tests by the end of World War II), but it played an important part in the NATO's nuclear strategy.
So, American-built nuclear warheads and rockets were stored in Germany which were to be launched using German carrier systems.

As I've said, this depot was used for storing engines for nuclear missiles during the Cold War.
Much of the area has been tunred into a wind farm, and the remains of the depot are merely a depot for thrash by now...

For more photos, please visit my website.