Shell factory
Built in 1917, 1932, 1937 and 1952, building 112 municipal monument
Vroeger
This complex comprises four buildings. The oldest building is 112, which dates from 1917. It is tall and narrow, earning it the nickname ‘the cathedral.’ Its most striking features are the windows and the roof trusses, with riveted steel joints. Building 112 housed a press shop for large shells. Building 294, constructed in 1932, also housed a press shop, with a turning shop. In the late 1950s, the AR-10 rifle was assembled here. In 1937, building 330 was built onto the east façade, as a press shop for large shells, or cartridge shells as they are also known. Shells are filled with a detonator and gunpowder, the cartridge is mounted on them. After the weapon is fired, only the shell remains.
The front of building 330 is curved and has ornamental brickwork. Building 407 was added in 1952. This housed the furnaces for the annealing line. Annealing was a means of hardening materials. Chemical treatment of the shells improved their durability and prevented rust. Later on, components for medium calibre ammunition were manufactured in this complex of buildings.
On the front of the complex is the entrance to the shelters beneath the site.
A former employee recalls: ‘Here at Eurometaal we had one of only two water-powered presses in the Netherlands, it weighed two thousand tonnes. It ran on water, not oil. Water pressure forced it down. […] A sawn-off piece of metal was heated until red-hot, then cooled. It was then fed automatically into the press, and the press made the first rough, thick, m483 shell for an anti-tank grenade.’
Present
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Building 112 – HPM munitions presses, 1952.
Workers stand at the HPM munitions press for the fourth stretching of the brass sleeves. The HPM presses were probably transported to Germany in the last year of the Second World War. After the war, they were repurchased. Photo: J.B. van der Kok.
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