What I can see

On various spots of the ancient walls of Piraiki Coast, we can see concrete surfaces with traces of machine guns. During the German Occupation, German pillboxes were quickly built on most of the Attic coastline (Marathon-Sounio-Piraeus) and in Chaidari. The main concern of the German occupying forces was to protect the port of Piraeus. They sent reinforcements through this and fueled the war in northern Africa. Therefore, the installation of powerful machine guns along the Piraiki Coast was a top priority.

What I can't see

With their withdrawal, Germans unraveled the pillboxes, loaded the machine guns and bombshells haphazardly into barges, which they later sank. These bombshells remained at the bottom of the Saronic Gulf and others were stuck between the rocks of Piraiki Coast for decades. Their detection and removal took many years and was an extremely dangerous task. After the war, many fishermen illegally used the bombshells’ dynamite for fishing. Many children searched for bombshells secretly from their parents and sold the dynamite to the fishermen. In many cases children were killed or mutilated.

Info

• Address: Themistokleous coast

Bibliography