From
World War II, it was the name of a
beach obstacle defending
The Atlantic Wall.
The Belgian Gate was made out of three tons of steel and was placed further out along the defensive line than the main line of hedgehogs and log ramps.
Belgian Gates look exactly like a a steel gate, only mounted on a flatbed made of concrete with 4 wheeled-rollers on the bottom. The gate consists of three sharp points at the top which would pierce the bottom of Allied landing craft.
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Because of how far they were placed from the
shore, these gates put many
landing craft in danger and as a result they were the
primary target of the
NCDU (
Naval Combat Demolition Unit), which drew their volunteers from the
Navy SeaBees. The NCDU eventually formed into the UDT, which eventually became what is known
today as the US
Navy SEALs
please excuse my ascii drawings, a better picture of the gate can be seen at this URL:
http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/james.dion/images/obeachcrossLG.gif
navy seals tidbit found at these two URLs
http://hooyah.8m.com/history.html
http://www.geocities.com/navyseals_2002/history.htm