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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Here in 1942 a batterie of four 10.5cm K331(f) guns arrived and set themselves up to cover the east side of the Cotentin peninsular. They would have dug their guns in in the good soil of Normandy. Camouflaged in, they would be very hard to see from aerial reconnaissance. 1943 and a complete set of new guns are substituted by four 12.2cm K390/2(r) guns. From captured French guns to captured Russian guns. These guns were gradually set into concrete Geschützstellung, Ringstands. and ammunition bunkers dug in behind. Trenches, barbed wire and mines. Then the Hitler order to casemate all guns meant that four R669 casemates were to be built, and this is what was happening when D-Day came along. With D-Day there was a massive bombing campaign by the Allied airforces and both the RAF and the USAAF attacked the site, so well that the guns were removed and placed away from the emplacements. When the American Airborne arrived on D-Day morning expecting a stiff fight. There was nothing there. They had all gone. Where too I do not know yet.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville,
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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The battered and bombed batterie.
Avro Lancaster.
Mosquito.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
SHM 1946
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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1/.H.K.A.R.1261 (ex St.B.K.316.
4 x R669 under construction.
3 x SK.
5 x Vf2b.
1 x Vf7b.
2 x Vf58c.
4 x Open emplacements for F.K.
4 x 12.2cm K.390/2(r).
100.jpg)
12.2cm K.390/2(r).
R669 under construction.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
Bigot map dated 12 May 1944
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Allied BIGOT map showing the defences known on the 12 May 1944. These maps were updated on a daily basis as more intelligence came in. Some intelligence came from air photography and others from local people passing information down to the French underground, who sent it via radio, secret agents (boats/planes) or Pigeons. The problem with Pigeons was that the Germans realized that a Pigeon flying due north probably was a homing Pigeon and carried a secret message. The Army command sent orders down that shot guns should be issued to beach defence units and one had to be ready at all times to shoot at and stop the Pigeons. They could eat the Pigeon but please send the coded message to HQ.
Pigeons would be placed in special boxes and parachuted into France to send information in coded messages.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
WW2
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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On the other hand it was made illegal to shoot homing Pigeons in Britain.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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In 1942 a batterie of four 10.5cm K331(f) guns arrived and they were Heer's Küsten Batterie 316. Four open emplacements were built in field positions and camouflaged. 1943 and a complete set of new guns are substituted and four 12.2cm K390/2(r) guns. From captured French guns to captured Russian ones. These were then set in concrete Ringstands with ammunition niches and ammunition bunkers behind with crew accommodation and living bunkers. The guns had a range of 20Km and may have been able to reach the Pointe du Hoc but by no means Omaha beach. With the casemating of artillery, four casemates of R669 were being built, but by D-Day they were still in their reinforced steel internals and no concrete laid.
/105mm331(f)100.jpg)
10.5cm K331(f) modernised version with pneumatic tires.
/19029228_100.jpg)
10.5cm K331(f) the original 1913 type horse drawn artillery.
12.2cm K390/2(r) guns.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
Victor Alfred Lundy
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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‘French farmer, St. Martin d’Audeville’ not far from here. He would have lived through the bombing and then the shelling from the Navy. And on top of that may have been involved in the French underground, like a farmer I met many years ago. Who as a young man on the eve of D-Day went out that night and fought and helped the American airborne soldiers that were lost and needed to find their way around.
Victor Alfred Lundy was 21 years old when he was shipped out to Europe, in August 1944. D-Day and the army had changed his plans from architecture, to an infantryman.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
WO 219/5208 ETOUSA War Observers Report Vol. 1. 17-2
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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The church of St Martin De Varreville as seen from the ruined emplacements. Utah Beach in a direct line beyond the church.
Showing naval fire and aerial bombardment, "I consider this an excellent example". Pinpoint bombing of the batterie at Varreville. ETOUSA.
The document.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
WO 219/5208 ETOUSA War Observers Report Vol. 1. 17-4
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Note penetration of concrete in comparison with height of 6' man. ETOUSA.
The document.
R669 under construction.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
Air 14/1215 Enemy Batteries.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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I have found this in a later page in document (Air 14/1215 Enemy Batteries).
These photographs cover the attached between 29.5.44 and 7.6.44, two by Bomber Command and one by the 9th Air Force 6.6.44. (this I am unsure, the 9th did not target the batterie but it did the beach of the same name). The whole area is covered with craters, two of the casemates have been severely damaged and one destroyed. Command post, communications and signal installations and personnel accommodation have all been severely damaged. All this is substituted by A.D.I.(K) Report No.272/1944 which also supports the observation by crew of a large explosion apparently caused by an ammunition store exploding. A large crater behind the casemates is probably the site of the explosion.
Lancaster.
D-Day 1944 Stephen A. Bourque..
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
WO 219/5208 ETOUSA War Observers Report Vol. 1. 17-1
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Photo showing cratering around the batterie. ETOUSA.
The document.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
WO 219/5208 ETOUSA War Observers Report Vol. 1. 16-12
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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And here the overlapping of craters. These photos were used to show the Allied military officers what shelling and bombing can do to a target when attacked correctly. ETOUSA.
The document.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
WO 219/5208 ETOUSA War Observers Report Vol. 1. 16-10 WO 219/5208 ETOUSA War Observers Report Vol. 1. 16-11
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Photo 16-10and 16-11 show the abandon ammunition and supplies which resulted when the Germans were driven from this position by aerial bombardment. ETOUSA.
The document.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
Air 37/864/2 Coastal Def. Fort. in the Cherbourg Peninsular. 12.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Remains of an R669 casemate under construction.
R669 casemate.
Rear of a finished R669 in northern France.
Cleaning rods.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
Air 37/864/2 Coastal Def. Fort. in the Cherbourg Peninsular. 10.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Possibly a Vf shelter pushed in by a direct hit, showing that they were not strong enough to take heavy bombing and that is why they were replaced by 600 series bunkers.
Vf2b troop shelter.
Vf2b entrance.
Vf7b ammunition bunker.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
file unknown
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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This may have been an ammunition bunker and looks as though the internal (right side) wall has been pushed out of true.
Vf7b ammunition bunker.
Vf7b ammunition bunker.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Vf2b personnel shelter for sleeping up to six men probably the crew of one gun.
Vf2b personnel shelter.
What a Vf2b would look like inside.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Vf2b personnel shelter.
Another view of this R501 showing the entrance with two wings added on, constructed after the bunker to allow access into a trench system now long gone. Earth would have been heaped up around the entrance and over the top of the bunker as extra protection.
Trenches.
Trenches.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Vf2b personnel shelter, the entrance from a trench system, note the hooks each side that a camouflage net can be draped across.
Camouflage hooks.
Camouflage.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Between the Vf2b and the farms garden are several more concrete structures.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Reinforced building which could be the refectory or kitchens.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Large open emplacements or Geschützstellung.
Geschützstellung.
Plan of how to make one.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
WO 208/2293 War Office Technical Summaries - No162.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Geschützstellung a War Office Allied plan.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
WO 208/2293 War Office Technical Summaries - No162.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Geschützstellung.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Ammunition niches each side.
Box of 10.5cm ammunition.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Ammunition niche details.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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More damaged bunkers and the intrepid bunker hunter in red, John Flaherty.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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A close combat defence, normally hidden deep in an entrance, now very close to the surface.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Close combat defence embrasure. This is inside with the embrasure shutter handle pulled open. The whole bunker internals have disappeared.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Eisenpfahel German barbed wire stake.
Eisenpfahel barbed wire stake.
Eisenpfahel point.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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More in the trees with the cows.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Just one lump left in the middle.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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One of the Geschützstellung possibly, showing through.
Geschützstellung.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Plenty of old steel and barbed wire. There was a lot of barbed wire around this position.
The wire around the batterie and also minefields in between.
Wire.
Mines.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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The last stone.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Probably ammunition bunker.
Vf7b ammunition.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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Norman hedgerow.
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
20 March 2006
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Battr St Martin de Varreville
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France
Great Britain
