Wn Tre012, Plateau de la Croix au Bailly.
Batterie 1./H.A.A.1148.
4 x R669.
2 x Feldm.
5 x munitions bunker.
1 x 3.7cm Pak 35/36.
4 x 10cm F.H.14/19 (t).
Image Caption
10cm F.H.14/19 (t).
Wn Tre012, Plateau de la Croix au Bailly.
Take the D952 towards Abbeville, the road winds out of EU up the hill and joins Roman road at the top. There is a cross roads and take the right turn and drive down the track. We parked where it st safe and walked the rest of the way.
Wn Tre012, Plateau de la Croix au Bailly.
Plateau de la Croix au Bailly, the guns are just over the horizon on the back slope of the hill.
Horse artillery.
Wn Tre012, Plateau de la Croix au Bailly.
They are laid out in front of the woods.
Plan.
Gun line.
4 x 10cm horse drawn artillery, There would have been probably a team of six horses to a guns team making 24 or more. The gun commander may also have had a horse and the forward observation office (FOO) would also have a horse if it had not been replaced by a small VW type vehicle. These are the same as details in Tre011 as they had the same guns and casemates except this battery position was up graded to casemates slightly earlier than Tre011.
Kübelwagen.
Or horse.
The type of fire control post that may have housed the forward controller for this battery. A long cable would have been buried in the ground and linked the battery with the observer. Radio would only be used if they had one or if the cable was broken.
Turm 1
As in Tre011 these casemates are huredly built.
10cm artillery had a range of about 10,500meters with a rate of fire of four rounds a minuet. Made by Skoda of Czechoslovakia (t) and captured by the Germans in early 1940 and re used here. 4,000 meters from the sea the guns would have covered from Ault, Mers, Le Treport to Criel-Plage.
Turm's.
Fire plan.
Turm 2
Turm's.
Turm 3
Turm's.
Turm 4
Turm's.
Turm 1 R669 casemate.
The slots set into concrete around the embrasure I think are for fitting a frame to hold a door on the front.
10cm F.H.14/19 (t).
Turm 1 R669 casemate.
Gun room.
10cm F.H.14/19 (t).
Image Caption
Turm 1 R669 casemate.
Showing the shocking state they are in.
Turm 1 R669 casemate.
Rear entrance.
Turm 2.
Turm 2.
Turm 2 note John pointing out that there are four extra holes in the wall by the air vent. Could this have been the command bunker to run the other guns?
Turm 2.
Details of the rear entrance.
Turm 2.
Extraction fan fittings.
Bunker extraction plan.
Bunker extraction.
Turm 3.
A nice rear end.
Turm 3.
The slot above the entrance may have had a piece of wood to act as a gutter for water to run off. And is that a light switch on the right fitting? or a door bell.
Light switch.
Turm 3 inside.
Gun room.
Turm 3.
Extractor fan fittings.
Turm 3.
Rear Door.
Turm (1,2) and 3.
The gun line.
Turm 4.
Turm 4
Guard post.
With a Red Guard in place
Guard post & gun line.
Woodland camp.
Defence wire fence.
Most sites would have been wired and possibly an extensive mine field.
Eisenpfahel barbed wire defence post.
Command bunker.
This looks to be a Vf command post.
Command post.
Inside this Vf bunker.
Plotting table.
Command bunker.
Command bunker.
Ladders up the the observation room.
Observation room.
Three slits and one small pistol port.
Observation room.
View along the gun line.
The view west.
The way down to the command post.
The way down to the command post.
Command post.
Looking out of the entrance.
Behind the battery in the woods.
Eisenpfahel barbed wire fence post..
Eisenpfahel.
One of the five munitions bunkers.
Small munitions bunker.
Powder charges.
Small munitions bunker.
And low and behold the statuary refrigerator in a bunker. How many refrigerators and freezers do we find in bunkers.
Munitions bunker.
Emergency escape hatch.
Some very odd bunkers with escapes.
The second escape hatch.
Odd bunker arrangement.
A plan of how they may have looked
This could be a flak position?
The track back from the woods.
Anti-tank position.
3.7cm Pak 35/36 position covering the rear entrance to the battery position..
The walk out of the woods and then turn right up the track and you find this position for a 3.7cm anti-tank gun.
The observation bunker.
Spring