Wn39 de Saint-Côme
1. u. 2., Grenadier-Regiment 916. 352nd Inf. Div.
1 x R677 casemate.
1 x R612 casemate.
3 x Lc116 Tobruk´s.
1 x Vf2d bunker.
4 x
Felmässig.
2 x Geschützstellung open ringstands for F.K.
2 x 7.5cm F.K.38.
1 x 8.8cm Pak 43/41.
R677 casemate.
8.8cm Pak 43/41.
R612 casemate.
7.5cm F.K.38.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme
Wn39 de Saint-Côme
Allied air photo of Wn39.
Spitfire photo reconnaissance.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme
R612 from the new road that has been cut through this Wn.
Red dotted line is the new road.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme
Plan of the Wn.
S Mine.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme
The area the guns covered. They could and did shoot strait down on Wn38 & Wn37 doing a lot of damage to the landings and latter on in the attack on Arromanches.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Defence map
German map at the time of the landings showing where the Wn's are and also the mine fields.
Mf. . 1 covers the beach area.
Mf. 88 the rear areas.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Artillery map
German artillery map showing black circles are the Wn's. and numbered. The red circles and squares are targets and Eisenach, Dresden & Cottbus are beach drenching targets for the artillery to fire on landing craft coming ashore. The red dots (one has 502) are inland spot targets for important cross roads.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Bigot Map
This is a Bigot map dated May 44 and shows what the allied intelligence had managed to gather on Wn39. [I have added cm, R numbers and the legend mines and barbed wire].
A mine field Mf.88 covering the left flank and the site is encircled by barbed wire, Vf bunkers show up, casemates and gaps in the minefield and barbed wire. Nice to know these small details when you are attacking a defended area.
Bigot was a code name for given to anybody who was in the know of D-Day secrets.
Bigot stamp.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
Vf2d Wellblech bunker.
Wellblech - Corrugated.
Plan.
Plan of a standard Vf2d.
Plan of the Wn39 Vf2d.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
Vf2d Wellblech bunker right hand entrance.
Wellblech elevation.
Plan of the Wn39 Vf2d
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
Second entrance leading down to a passage.
Plan of the Wn39 Vf2d
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
Passageway. It looks as though there would have been wooden doors and frames.
Wooden door.
Schwere Holztür 800x1700mm
Links Öffnung.
Left -- Opening..
Plan.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
The first Wellblech (corrugated) room has higher walls and half round roof, a window to the left that can also be used to escape
The paintings I believe are post war art?? but recently I have read they maybe contemporary.
Plan.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
Looking back at the door and another window in the side wall.
Plan.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
Back to the passage and the next room. The second exit is up the stairs to the right.
Plan.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
This one is a full Wellblech with two sheets bolted together. On the right side is an escape.
Plan.
Inside a Wellblech bunker.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
The start of the escape.
Plan.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
This is the view from the top looking into the escape and its steel ladder rungs.
Plan.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
Looking back at the door with a window in the end.
Plan.
Marines in a Wellblech.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Vf2d Wellblech
Back up the stairs.
Plan.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R612 casemate
R612 casemate for a 7.5cm F.K.38. This one dates from February 1944 and made of Bauform construction, a breeze block.
7.5cm F.K.38.
Bauform construction.
Bauform and steel mesh reinforcement.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R612 casemate
The back looking along the beach. There were two 7.5cm F.K. 38 guns I believe here. One in the casemate and one in a field positions. Another casemate would have been built here next to this one.
Post war air-photo. A second gun position to the left.
How a Geschützstellung (open emplacement) would have looked.
7.5cm F.K.38 a horse drawn gun.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R612 casemate
This is the southern side bullet marks from either fighters or the battle to take the Wn.
Horse drawn artillery.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R612 casemate
Wn39 and the direction of fire from the two guns.
The Royal Hampshire Regiment landed on D-Day and moved across country to take Arromanches and would have taken Wn39 before moving on west to Wn40 the radar stations and into the town below the cliffs. The map is of the 2nd Dorsets who continued on to take the Batterie Longues.
Royal Hampshire Regiment.
1st Battalion the Royal Hampshire Regiment landing on D-Day. A painting.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R612 casemate
R612 casemate.
Construction.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R612 casemate
R612 casemate the wall on the seaward side covers the embrasure from attack. But it looks as though this one was hit from the front.
Possibly a tank gun.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R612 casemate
Quite a large hit at that. The embrasure on these R612 casemates is very small.
Casemate with wooden doors.
Leighte Holztür 600x800 possibly two of these would cover the embrasure.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R612 casemate
The gun room, it had two ammunition niches each side at the back but this one has had the right hand knocked
Inside an R611 similar to this gun room.
Plan R612 showing the two ammunition niches each side at the rear and a flanking wall to protect the embrasure.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R612 casemate
Hook set into the concrete to hang a camouflage;age net onto.
Laying out camouflage netting.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme
Part two - this is now on the other side of the road in the housing estate.
An R677, a Tobruk and a Vf bunker possibly two.
Part 2.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme
Small Vf bunker hurriedly built. The local troops also made their own bunkers at times as the TODT and army engineers were busy with the main defences. They also laid beach defences and anti-glider posts.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme
Lc116 Tobruk to cover the rear of the R677 casemate giving all round protection and even some anti-aircraft protection.
Lc116 Tobruk.
Lc116 Tobruk.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R677 casemate
R677 casemate rear entrance, now closed off but it would have been quite a large double door entrance to allow a 7.5cm Pak 43/41 to enter.
R677 plan.
An 8.8cm Pak 43/41 inside an R677..
8.8cm Pak 43/41.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R677 casemate
The side wall and flanking wall would have had earth pushed up to roof level and it would also give the bunker added protection from an enemy shooting in from he sea.
8.8cm ammunition.
8.8cm Pak shooting.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R677 casemate
Embrasure for the gun to shoot out and it did do a lot of damage on D-Day firing down onto Gold Beach.
R677 plan.
Damaged landing craft.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme R677 casemate
Bauform or Breeze Block construction using a pre formed concrete block that inter linked with the next one. When the inner and out wall was built around steel reinforcement, concrete could be poured filling the gap and making quite a strong casemate. This was a quicker and cheaper way of making casemates than using wooden shuttering, but I feel that Bauform was not a strong as the earlier types.
Details2
The inside of an outer wall.
Another picture of a bunker being built using Bauform.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme 1947 air photo
Tobruk, R677 for an 8.8cm Pak 43/41, field gun ringstand for a 7.5cm F.K.38, R612 for the other 7.5cm F.K.38, Mg - machine gun, Fm - Feldmässig and a Vf2d bunker.
7.5cm F.K.38 in field ringstand.
M.g. position..
Tobruk.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme “Piste Anglaise”
This was one of the very many vehicle access roads leading from the Mulberry Harbour onto land. Many thousands of lorries, tanks, Jeeps, etc. came ashore here and also ambulances arriving to load hospital ships with injured soldiers.
How the road was connected to the Mulberry harbour floating pier.
The ambulance dock.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme “Piste Anglaise”
A Red Cross ship tied up the ambulance “Spud” pier head.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme Phoenix
A Phoenix section of the harbour, a concrete box floated across the channel and then water pumped in to sink it on the sea bed making a very good harbour wall. The structure sitting on the top is a Bofors anti-aircraft gun mounting (Flak Tower)
Phoenix caisson with Flak..
Phoenix caisson.
Caissons with Flak.
4.0cm Bofors gun AA.
4.0cm Bofors gun AA.
Wn39 de Saint-Côme