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Air Surveillance Tower

Oudemirdum

This air watchtower is located near Oudemirdum on the Huningspaed near the Jolderenbos, which serves as a reminder of the Cold War period. These air watchtowers were installed all over the Netherlands to spot enemy aircraft.

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This air watchtower is located near Oudemirdum on the Huningspaed near the Jolderenbos, which serves as a reminder of the Cold War period. These air watchtowers were installed all over the Netherlands to spot enemy aircraft.

The air watch towers were manned by volunteers from the Air Force Corps. From the towers the observations had to be passed on to a power station in Friesland to a bunker under the Prinsentuin in Leeuwarden. There, volunteers, the plotters, sat around a plot table to chart the enemy's movements in the air. Sometimes the watch could be placed on existing towers, such as in Leeuwarden and Sneek and on the forest watchtower in Appelscha.

The KLD was disbanded in 1968 because the new observation techniques had been improved. Most of the towers were subsequently demolished. The air watch tower on the Huningspaed near Oudemirdum is the only tower of the Raat system in Friesland that survived the demolition hammer. At about fourteen meters in length, it was the highest in the province. The open concrete grid was called the Raat system (after bee combs), at the top of the tower a shelter was made for bad weather conditions.

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Here you will find Air Surveillance Tower

Huningspead 1
8567 LL Oudemirdum
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