Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie,
K.V.U.Gruppe St Vaast,
K.V.Gr. Cotentin Ost.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

Situated along an ancient track in the small town of Quettehou is the Allée de L'Église leading up hill to the Église of Saint Vigor where a batterie of field artillery was situated here, around 1942/3 and then on to Wn28 at the cross roads by the church at the beginning of 1944, a battalion command post was established here1st battalion of the Grenadier-Regiment 729 (709.ID).

10.5cm field artillery.

10.5cm horse artillery.

Road blocks.

 

 

 

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Information

Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

c - Wn28.
d - Quettehou
It seems that at the time of the air photo was taken, either the batterie did not show up or was in a different position. b - looks to be where the interpreters were looking at.
The batterie gun positions were we think in concrete ringstands and a few ammunition niches.

4902W/J/198 - Quettehou - Field Battery:   - 4902W77/n  -   4250    -  363174 - blank - (?) 4 (?) 105mm Guns.    
                                             6E/3, 3617A.     4902W/93/b      6E/3 & 4
Details on the document ADM 199/1601.
In allied terms, all metric guns were in mm.
In German terms all guns were in cm.

Spitfire camera ports.

analysing photos.

Placing a camera into a Spitfire.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

Field batterie of four 10.5cm guns.

Plan of the Field Batterie position.
Tranchées bétonées couvertes.
Covered concrete trenches.

 

 

 

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

Walking up the Allée de L'Église and you see how old the track way is, or we would call it a 'Hollow Way'. If you brought your ammunition limbers up this track, there is no way they would be seen by air reconnaissance aircraft.

Ringstand.

 

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

This is a 10.5cm leFH18.
The 10.5 cm leFH 18 (German: leichte Feldhaubitze "light field howitzer") is a German light howitzer used in World War II and the standard artillery piece of the Wehrmacht, adopted for service in 1935 and used by all divisions and artillery battalions. From 1935 to the end of the war, 11,848 were produced. Designed in the late 1920s, it represented a major advance on its predecessor the 10.5 cm leFH 16. It was superior in caliber to its early opponents in the war, with adequate range and firepower, but the modern split trail gun carriage that provided it with more stability and traverse also rendered it overly heavy for a mobile role in the largely horse-drawn artillery battalions of the German army.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

This is the first entrance through the high bank, this one has a slight kink in it halfway along.

Plan.
7 a "U" en Béton on the plan may be ammunition niches.

An ammunition Niche near Arromanches..

A field ammunition niche.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

This is the first entrance through the high bank.

Plan of Turm 1 may have looked.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

This is the first entrance through the high bank.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Information

Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

This is the first entrance through the high bank.
This one kinks in the middle.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

The view towards the sea a and Saint-Vaast-La-Hougue.

 

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

Carrying on.

Artillery horses.

 

 

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

Sebastien showing us another entrance. You can see how hard they are to find. He managed to find and show us all four.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Wn28 Quettehou ville

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This is the Abri on the second plan. This one could have been built as the batteries command post earlier on in the war and later used as a command post for Wn28?

Plan.

 

 

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

This is the Abri on the second plan.
The best picture I could get.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

Details

The top of Allée de L'Église and the start of Wn28. The Abri bunker is just down behind the house.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville

Details

My Manchester United fan of a Grandson and Sebastien looking over what could be a bunker of some kind.

At the beginning of 1944, a battalion command post was established here, the I/729 (1st battalion of the Grenadier-Regiment 729 (709.ID)

Plan of Wn28
1 - Abri (Shelter).
2 - Abri Habitatio (Shelter Living bunker).
3 - Soute (Hold or defended position).
4 & 5 unknown but could be access points through the hedge.

Plan.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville

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The wall has been demolished here and re built.

The type of animal tie usually in this part of France is not so heavy as this one. Perhaps this is a German military type??

Plan.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville

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On the left the bank has a concrete structure cut into it.

The view down the road leading northwards.

Plan.

Plan for the top picture.

Plan for the bottom picture.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville

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4 & 5, they could be access through the bank.

Plan.

 

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville

Details

German plan of where their units were based around April 1944.

A 1944 air photo of the area with what look like trenches and another road block (which we did not visit) on the main Quettehou to Valgnes road the D902.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville

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Google view of where the other road block that was not visited, there is nothing to see here as the road has been widened.

A Bigot Allied map of the area, showing the extent of the defences around the church. The xxx are barbed wire defence and probably minefields. The arrows are shooting directions of what the interpreters thought were defences. The zzz lines were trenches.

Wn28 Quettehou ville +
Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie

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Wn28 Quettehou ville

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© 2013 Richard Drew