Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673
Marine Artillerie Abteilung 4./264 (E.573).
1 x S487 Fire control post.
4 x
SK/Gefechsstand, Geschützstellung. S215 large open emplacements with two ammunition stores.
1 x V229 radar socket for a Würzburg-Riese.
1 x R118b large dressing station (hospital).
3 x Fl242 standard emplacement for medium/light Flak.
2 x S231 ammunition depot.
2 x S381 ammunition depot.
4 x SK/Machinenstand
(generator bunkers).
12 x SK/Marine (36 Mann bunker).
1 x SK/Marine (6 Mann bunker)
8 x Flakstellung.
10 x Vf58c Tobruk's.
2 x VF/MG Stand.
1 x 5cm KwK Ringstand.
1 x Gr.W mortar.
1 x Geschützstellung Lag, emplacement for field gun.
1 x Feldm bunker.
3 x 34cm K.W.E. 674(f) railway guns. (340mm St-Chamond).
3 x 2cm Flak 28.
1 x 15mm
Flak MG.151 Zw.
4 x 2cm Flak Vierl 38.
1 x 5cm KwK38.
8 x 7.5cm Flak M17/34(f).
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fire Control Post 20m high and six floors.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Here I am just going to look at the northern Geschützstellung (emplacement ). All four are very alike and It would be
repetitious to cover all four. Turm 3 was badly damaged, Turm 4 has a 2cm Flak on its roof. All have a generator house, crew quarters and the odd Tobruk's scattered around for local defence.
Marine Artillerie Abteilung 4./264 were equipped with four very large
34cm K.W.E. 674(f) railway guns. (340mm St-Chamond). They were made in France for WW1 and were kept after the war either in storage or to use behind the Maginot line. The four guns were designed for a new class of French battleships in there bid to modernize in 1909. These were to be armed with 340mm caliber guns. At the outbreak of WW1 six barrels were re located from the navy and turned into railway guns. By 1915 they were starting to be delivered to the Army and were used on many fronts throughout WW1. Then stored at Mailly Saone et Loire after the war.
WW2 - after France capitulated in 1940, the guns were retrieved by the German forces and taken to Krupp's works and Germanized. In other words they were checked over, mended where necessary, up graded and modern electrical equipment added. They were then brought to Bégo.
The site being run by the Navy as a ship with a Captain in the control tower when fighting. All the firing plans would have been worked out in the SK Kommando bunker, then sent out by an armoured underground telephone cable to each gun. The settings made on the guns, ammunition drawn from the local munitions bunkers behind the guns (replenished from the four more on the NE side of the batterie). And then the guns would fire. Oh! what a noise. The sound of an express train flying over.
Shells could be fired in a 360° radius and with the guns on the Ile de Groix, their fire would overlap.
Cx322 M.K.B. Seydllitz , Ile de Groix.
Gx322 Fort du Haut.
4 x 15cm S.K.L.L/45 guns in two turrets.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Area 6 on the plan or Turm 1.
The German Navy took over the defence of all the ports in occupied areas and then started planning for batteries all around those ports to defend them. They did not include the land between and that was left to the army (Heer). The navy got on with their defences and the army got on with running the war (from behind a restaurant table and the good life in Paris).
Early in 1941 work began here with over 1000 Belgian, Dutch and Polish workers being drafted in and also many workers from the local Morbihan region. Work was scarce during the war and they needed to feed their families.
Four huge positions were built running north to south. A new set of railway lines was laid to each position. By late 1942 two guns arrive 918959 and 918960. They are placed at Turm 1 & 2. Early 1943 the third cannon arrives for Turm 3, 918962. The forth gun 918961 which has been in Crozon Cr342 covering Port of Brest's U-Boat pens, now starts it journey here, via workshops in at Ruelle but never makes it to Bégot due to the early arrival of American force in 1944.
French battleship Provence.
St-Chamond steel works.
Paris.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1
Lorient harbour was chosen by the Kriegsmarine as a large U-Boat base very early on after the area was captured in 1940. Work started on some small U-Boat pens which over time were added to, to make a massive area under concrete. Then a scheme to defend the pens from attack by an allied fleet was actioned. 4 x 15cm guns in two ships turrets were placed on the Île de Groix at Gx322 and here at Va300 Plouharnel batterie on the Quiberon peninsular.
The moorland of Bégo they decided was ideal to site four railway guns. Super heavy weapons that could be moved around on large carriages. Four guns were procured from captured French stock and the German Navy had them upgraded. Quiberon has excellent railway links with the mainland and ultimately Germany and the site was cleared and four purpose built emplacements (Geschützstellung) were built, with each having a direct railway siding to their position coming off the main line.
(cm/mm - All German guns are measured in cm's and all Allied in mm's)
The main U-Boat pens in Lorient.
Rail links.
S215 plan.
34cm Mle 1912 L47 French railway gun.
Submarine pen..
Loading a shell.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Plan of Turm 1.
SK Generator building.
The Siemens hut may have looked like this one.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
SK/Machinenstand (generator bunkers). Large ventilation vents to allow the heat from generating the electricity. They may have had mains electricity and if so that would be used. If the mains was lost, then a standby set could start up and supply the area. Each Turm had a generator bunker to itself.
SK Generator building.
They would have been very large generator to run a gun site probably two, one to use and one standby.
Plan.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
SK Generator building entrance.
SK - Sonderkonstruktionen (Special constructions).
SK Generator building.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
SK Generator building.
Viewing into the entrance and the rooms beyond. One may be for fuel and the other for generation. Note the large rectangular vents in the wall. Usually they are Rost or elliptical.
SK Generator building.
Oil tanks.
Large square outer vents.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
SK Generator building.
Another view but also showing the railway bed running to the Geschützstellung.
Plan.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Water reservoir.
Each gun had its own reservoir of water, it maybe for drinking, the generator or for fire precautions?? This one is smaller than the other three?
Plan. There were also wells with pumps to fill the tanks.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Bunker for 15 men on the right.
Plan.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
On the left is the bunker for 15 men, on the right is the M127 Gruppe bunker 26 men. All crew rooms, so that makes about room for 41 men.
Plan.
Bunker for 15 men..
M127 Gruppe bunker with forward apron.
Gas lock, crew room, ammunition and store room.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
M127 Gruppe bunker.
An old design almost goes back to the West Wall designs. In northern France I have found a couple of twin group bunkers of this design but nothing in Normandy.
M127 Gruppe bunker with forward apron.
Gas lock, crew room, ammunition and store room.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Bunker for 15 men.
Just the entrance in view on the right. The entrance was added later, due to heavy bombing that gradually increased over time.
M127 Gruppe bunker with forward apron.
Gas lock, crew room, ammunition and store room.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Autumn 1942 and the gun is in position but plenty of work still to do. There were many narrow gauge railways used, with and without engines. Man power was freely available.
details
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Looking into the emplacement.
Plan.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
SK/Gefechsstand, Geschützstellung. S215 large open emplacements with two ammunition stores either side. An entrance allowing the railway gun to be pushed inside. Then the rear and front bogies were removed and the gun set onto a turntable. The front bogies would go forward into a garage for storage and the rear set would be shunted back to near the main line for their storage.
Railway gun arriving on its wheels.
Now on its turntable.
Front bogie.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673
Google view of the gun site.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
The entrance showing off the wooden sleepers set into the concrete for the railway lines.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Railway sleepers.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
To load the gun, the barrel had to be wound down to allow access to the breach and then loading can commence..
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Turm 1 the first set of test firing.
Ranging.
Loading.
Firing.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
The entrance. I am not sure what these slots are, they may have been to place bulks wood to close off the entrance when under attack.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Ammunition room.
Plan.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Ammunition delivery.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
The S215 emplacement.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
The line moving forward and at the far end is the garage for the front bogie.
Front bogie.
Plan.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Looking back over the garage at the emplacement.
Plan.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
The central mount of the turntable. Note a galvanized tube protruding from the ground, it carries the armoured cable from the command centre bunker.
Also the ground behind the mound has been dug out to one meter deep. This is to allow the gun to be elevated and the recoil moving downwards into the trench safely. Now you see its not all the way around. This was a big mistake by the Kriegsmarine engineers. They only envisaged an attack from the west. They never thought an attack would come in from the north. When the Allies arrived, that was the direction of the attacks and only once from the west. A small naval action around one of the islands to try and get food to it in 1944/45..
The trench cutaway.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
The first ammunition room. Both are the same basic design in mirror image.
November 1942 and the first cannon is to be fired, due to an accident in Russia on a railway gun, the navy decide to fire it with a smaller powder charge. A very long firing cord is attached and when pulled the gun splutters and the huge shell lands 200m away. Lots of laughs and snigger's from the French workers on the site. Then another problem is found. When firing, the shock wave from the gun reflects off the ammunition rooms straight walls and hits the guns frame and shakes the barrel and could cause damage. A rectification is to angle the walls slightly to alleviate the problem. They use jack hammers to cut away the concrete to make a slope. Turms 3 & 4 have not been built yet, so modifications to the walls plans are carried out. The guns now can fire on a 180° but still not 360°.
The left hand door when Rommel inspect April 1944.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Most railway guns had a small crane attached to lift up the ammunition singularly. First the shell, then powder bag and third the case. Here they were replaced by a larger hoist system and could cut down loading time.
The original crane or hoist.
Loaded trolley.
Loading.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
At the entrance was a French crane that had been used on its construction. It was now set by the entrance to lift shells, case and powder bags off the ammunition train and place them on smaller trollies to be man pushed into the bunker. There they would be picked up by a traveling crane that ran around the ceiling. This would have to be done for each shell, case and powder bag individually as they had no means of transporting them more than one at a time. Once the rooms were full, if the gun was needed. A shell was extracted, taken to the fuzing point and the fuze fitted and set. Then taken out into the corridor. The door opened and the shell placed on a cart. The cart pushed out to the gun. This was then continued for case and powder bags.
Overhead traveling crane..
Case, shell & and powder bags on a trolley leading out to the gun.
Some gun sites had narrow gauge rails and others used a push cart. Here I believe it was a push cart.
Fuzing.
In the British forces a Fuse is an electrical item. A Fuze is the pointy end of a shell.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
The entrance.
details
Powder bag being hoisted up.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
There would have been two large steel doors on both sides here to protect the ammunition from a sympathetic explosion by a blast around the gun or an in coming shell.
details
They could be 722P3 type door.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Ammunition room.
details
Shell, case and powder bags.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
"Main cartridges only for anti-tank grenades".
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
"Hands off gas protection devices".
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
This area here looks like it had a plinth for small generator. Maybe to power the gun position?
details
Small generator set.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Small store.
Plan.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673Area 6 Turm 1.
me used the small store for 7.5cm ammunition.
This may have held the spare ammunition for the 7.5cm Flak M17/34(f).
Plan.
Flak gun.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
The way out.
Plan
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
The second ammunition bunker. There were no external doors on these bunkers.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
"Bullets".
"Cartridges".
"pre-cartridge".
"Main cartridges only for anti-tank grenades".
"tinder room". Could be powder Room.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Now in mirror image this side has the small store on the right.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fittings for the overhead railway.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Main ammunition store.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fuzing room.
Fuze.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Better detail of the overhead rails.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Centre with the two sets of large doors.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Way out.
"Gas stimulus room"??.
"Smoking and naked flames forbidden!"
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
View before drones.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
The S215 emplacement.
Turm 1 with the first gun in place and the camouflage net over the top. The pit can clearly be seen under the gun, a very important feature.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Lorient Pocket.
On 1 August 1944 the third army of general Patton entered Brittany by breaching the front at Avranches. In the face of the Allies advances that were supported by the French resistance (FFI). The Germans withdrew towards there strongholds of Lorient and Saint-Nazaire.
General Farmbacher, commanding officer of the Lorient fortress, left his headquarters in Pontivy and fell back to Lorient. From there, on Hitler's orders, he reorganized the troops. On 7 August 1944, close to 26,000 German soldiers were holed up in Lorient pocket. He then had the bridges and roads leading to the town mined and supplies from nearby stores brought in. On 7 May, 1945, the ceasefire was signed in Etel. For eight months these pockets of resistance held out. They were surrounded by American troop and Free French of the Interior.
On 7 May, 1945, the ceasefire was signed in Etel.
Free French of the Interior.
FFI.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
By the end the Germans rotate the guns to look north and depress the barrels to -8°. The Americans and Free French enter the batterie and then later so do the scrap men. For the full story you must buy "Le Mur d l'Atlantique dans la presqu’île de Quiberon" by Jacques Tomine.
Le Mur d l'Atlantique dans la presqu’île de Quiberon.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fl242 Flak bunker, emplacement for medium and light flak.
From above.
Elevation.
Plan of crew and ammunition room.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fl242 Flak bunker, emplacement for medium and light flak.
Note the odd defence position for a machine gun or rifle.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fl242 Flak bunker, emplacement for medium and light flak.
The nice chicane entrance. Ready ammunition niches around the walls.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fl242 Flak bunker, emplacement for medium and light flak.
Crew area where their connection with the command bunker to receive and relay fire information.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fl242 Flak bunker, emplacement for medium and light flak.
3 x 2cm Flak 28. There are two Fl242 emplacements and on more is on the top of Term 4.
2cm Flak 28.
Magazine.
Ammunition boxes.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fl242 Flak bunker, emplacement for medium and light flak.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fl242 Flak bunker, emplacement for medium and light flak.
Crew and ammunition entrance.
Flak crew.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
Fl242 Flak bunker, emplacement for medium and light flak.
Crew on the left ammunition on the right. All ammunition would have to be hand carried down to this room and then in the heat of battle, the ammunition used by the gun had to be replenished form here. The amount of steps you have to tread to go up and down.
Va300 Plouharnel M.K.B.Hella E.673 Area 6 Turm 1.
That concludes Area 6.
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