The Defence Line with 21 Machine Gun Bunkers (Sarve-Lehtma)
Fortification
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Ferroconcrete machine gun bunkers were built in 1941. The word used in Estonian Dott – is an Estonian adaptation of a Soviet Army term ДОТ (долговременная огневая точка), literally translated as a point of constant firing. It is a closed defensive structure made of stone, concrete, armoured tiles etc.
Sarve-Lehtma defence line never saw much military action, as the enemy arrived from an unexpected direction. The defence line had been built on the eastern and northern coasts of Hiiumaa but the German landing arrived on the southern coast in October 1941. Sarve-Lehtma defence line machine gun bunkers are the same type of heavy machine gun positions for 2-3 gunners. Some minor differences occur (number of embrasures, shape and location of anterooms etc.). These structures were completed in haste, using available materials under the conditions of war, hence the quality of construction varies.
Today, the bunkers have hardly any function. In Heltermaa one of the bunkers is used as a cellar, on the Cape of Sääre it is used as a base of an RMK (State Forest Management Centre) viewing platform. The condition of ferroconcrete is satisfactory, metal shutters and doors of embrasures are missing. Some of the bunkers are situated in the woods so badly overgrown that they are impossible to spot.
There are nearly 50 machine gun bunkers in Hiiumaa but they form a steady long defence line only here. Most of them are located around coastal batteries. In 1970 the border guards installed three SPS-3 machine gun bunkers made of precast ferroconcrete panels, one of them (from Suursadama Position) has been dispatched to Hiiumaa Military Museum.
Good morning, this is not the right address to react on the contents of your site, but the menu of the militaryheritagetourism leaves me no other choice than this. My remark is just in general a warning, don’t erase too much of your visible history out of rancune. I’ve just been to Texel a Dutch island which had in 1945 26 large casemate type 625 and lots of secondary objects as kitchens, storage and living quarters. And most of them have been erased or covered and filled with sand, what you don’t see you can forget. I have just surveyed and added 49 covered secondary objects in OSM. They were recognisable by unnatural hills in a flat forest, their camouflage was perfect an overgrow of grass, fern and blackberries or bramble. Some roof tops were visible due to vandalism, you’re not allowed to leave the footways to roam the forest floor. But just as the T34 which has been removed from its stand, you’ll never get it back to attract any visitors. Just tell the whole story with ups and downs and to illustrate that, you'll have to fight or struggle for your freedom even nowadays. The Germans even used and changed a Dutch observation site for their own use. That makes a double story at one object.