Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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This defence was placed on the site of a French fort, Fort Le Polygon.
A defence against the English invader.
Then the Germans turned up and started building trenches and gun positions. As extra weapons arrived, new defences were built. A concrete Ringstand for a 5cm KwK, a Tobruk for a tank turret. Mine fields and beach defences. All to hold back an invasion. The doctrine was to defend, defend everything. So this small corner where the Allies had NO intention of landing, for several reasons. The main one is that:
When the tide receded. It left first an area of marsh land with sea grasses and tussocks.
Second a large area of open sand, where the French locals grew Oysters and Moules
So basically, there was absolutely no need to build here. But that would be against doctrine.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
SHM
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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1 - Tobruk's.
2 - Encuv- 50mm.
4 - Abri st soutes.
5 - Tourelle de char.
919 Gren. Regt.
2 x Vf2a. shelters.
1 x Vf69 mortar Tobruk.
1 x Ringstand 5cm KwK.
1 x Ringstand Gr.W.203
mortar(f).
5 x Vf8 Tobruk's.
1 x Vf/MG.
1 x Pz.T. R35 tank turret.
1 x 3.7cm KwK 144(f).
1 x 4.7cm Pak 181(f).
1 x 5cm KwK L/60.
Vf2a. shelter.
Ringstand 5cm KwK.
Pz.T. R35 tank turret.
3.7cm KwK 144(f).
/5cm-grw-203-100.jpg)
Gr.W.203
mortar(f).
Vf69 mortar Tobruk.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
Google
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Red arrow - the frontal defence of the Wn.
Red circle - Vf2a bunker.
Yellow circle - a bomb crater.
Blue circle - old French earth (dirt) fort, re fortified by the Germans with many bunkers.
Yellow arrows - the anti-tank ditch.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
IGNF 1920
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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1920 air photo of the French Fort le Polygone that once stood on this site. What the other two huts were for, I have no idea, They could be barracks.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
IGNF 1942 - RAF
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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1942 the year the Atlantikwall was being expanded due to the heavy fighting in Russia. Weapons and troops started to expand and defences were starting to be concreted in. Small Vf bunkers, trenches, anti-tank guns set into open emplacements covering the beaches.
This picture looks to be a construction camp set on the railway line. A lot of sand for construction of bunkers, was removed from beaches and loaded into trains for bunkers, V rocket sites and building repairs.
Chemin de Fer, railway closed by 1940, but re opened as a military freight service by the occupiers.
A camouflaged railway line in Manche.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
IGN 1978
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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An air photo that I have add details to.
A trench system can still be seen, one 5cm KwK Ringstand is prominent in the south.
In the north, a 3.7cmcm KwK 144(f).Pz.T. R35 tank turret.
Bunker 1, is a Vf2a, no access.
Several Tobruk's cover the seaward and the north sector.
A mine field would surround the area and barbed wire.
Also the wet ground would have been used as a defence.
The French fort Polygone, was re modeled with L shaped concrete slit trenches, ammunition niches. A Vf2a shelter and at least two more bunker/shelters. A Vf69 mortar Tobruk and an open emplacement for a 4.7cm Pak 181(f). There maybe more but its overgrown and back filled with sand.
Bunker 1.
/278_fcrew100.jpg)
Mortar crew.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
IGN 1982
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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The entrance from the south along the old sea road.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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A zoomed in picture of the French fort area. You can see its been built up above the surrounding wet lands.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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An Nr1694 Ringstand for a 5cm KwK L/60 anti tank/landing craft gun. This gun could fire 360° and was very effective against Allied tanks and landing craft. As so many were issued. On D-Day they did an awful lot of damage.
5cm KwK L/60.
Nr1694 Ringstand.
Vulnerable parts of a Sherman Tank.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Ringstand for a 5cm KwK L/60 anti tank/landing craft gun.
Note the four ready ammunition niches, big enough to take one wooden box full of 5cm ammunition.
Ammunition box.
5cm round.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Ringstand for a 5cm KwK L/60
The base or swiveling part of the gun that sat in the centre hole and was held down by a ring of bolts.
Once bolted in, then the gun would slot on the top.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Ammunition niche. The slots in the concrete are for slithers of wood, set into the concrete when built.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Looking North along the beach.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Damaged bunker?
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Ringstand 5cm Gr.W.203
mortar(f).
A Tobruk with a central shaft yo hold a small table that a Gr.W.203 French captured mortar could sit on. Thousands of these mortars were made by several manufacturers just prior to WW2, to arm the French army. The Germans captured a massive stock of guns and mortar ammunition and re used a lot on the Atlantikwall. The ammunition would be stored in their carrying boxes, inside the Tobruk.
5cm Gr.W.203
mortar(f).
5cm ammunition.
Tobruk design.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Ringstand 5cm Gr.W.203
mortar(f).
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Unsure, I believe there was a Machine gun position here..
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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More machine gun Tobruk's. The records say Vf58c Tobruk's. But these look to be Vf8. Naming a Tobruk is a nightmare and even experts get it wrong.
Vf8 type.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Vf8 type Tobruk.
Named after the Germans found these sorts of bunkers built by the Italians in the defence of Tobruk, in North Africa.
Looking into the fighting compartment. You can see where a steel ring was fitted to allow the machine gun to swivel 360°.
The ring.
Machine gun fitting.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MKB Bunkertour
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Vf8 type Tobruk.
MKB Bunkertour
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Concrete trench arrangement and an ammunition niche.
Every Wn is different, the ones either side do not have theses concrete trenches. It maybe they are there as its so low lying and likely to flood, or its a design that the officer in charge of this Wn wanted to construct.
Plan of the concrete trench.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Vf2a shelter.
2008 the chimney was uncovered.
The two entrances from an air photo.
details
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Vf2a shelter.
Entrance, one either side.
details
Inside would have been very basic, a heater, folding bunks, a table and chairs.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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More Tobruk's in the north sector.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Pz.T. R35 tank turret 3.7cm KwK 144(f).
Pz.T. R35 tank turret.
3.7cm KwK 144(f).
3.7cm KwK 144(f) ammunition.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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View looking south and a row of concrete Rommel's Asparagus used as fence posts.
Assembling the pyramidal concrete anti landing devices.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Rommel's Asparagus.
This is a picture of Utah beach area.
Pure abuse of a beach defence.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Trenches still showing up in the landscape.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Trenches still showing up in the landscape.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008 JF confused again
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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D-Day morning, just before the landings were to take place. A fleet of USAAF Marauder bombers flew in from the sea. Turned left and ran down the coast bombing the defences. Wn5 took the brunt of the bombing. Here it looks as though yhey too were bombed. There are very large bomb/shell craters all around the area.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Fort Polygone.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Damage to bunkers on the mound.
A lot of the damage was carried out by American engineers, they would fill bunkers with mines & ammunition and then blow the lot up. What fun.
US Army engineer.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Possibly a Vf2a.
Vf2a.
Heating.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Vf2a chimney.
Heating.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Another Vf2a.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Vf69 observation Tobruk. Doubling up as an observation for the mortar and a machine gun defence.
Vf69 mortar Tobruk.
Observation.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Vf69 mortar pit.
Vf69 mortar Tobruk.
Vf69 mortar pit.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Concreted trench covers the south side of the defence. A threaded bolt for the machine gun mounting. The yellow lines shows a sort of glacis giving the trench some more frontal protection.
My plan.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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This trench is covering the west side of its defence.
My plan.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Trench and ammunition niche.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Bunker entrance. The hooks were used to attach a camouflage net across.
My plan.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Inside the bunker.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Another bunker.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Inside.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Damage inside.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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More damage.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Gun pit for the 4.7cm Pak 181(f) A/T gun. Ready ammunition niche set into the wall. Literally all the defences in Wn23 were captured French (Booty) weapons. Withe the ending of WW1, the French never wanted another war like that. So their idea was to build a wall of steel around France, this was the Maginot line. It needed backing up with a strong army. So they went all out to arm themselves with new weapons. Here we have a 47mm anti-tank gun, a 37mm tank turret, the mortar was a 50mm light mortar. Probably some of the machine guns were French origin.
(The Germans used cm in gun sizes and the French and Allies used mm).
4.7cm Pak 181(f) A/T gun.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
13 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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There looks to be an anti-tank ditch cut across the flank.
Behind the straight hedge would have been flooded by closing the lock gates at high tide on the river Sinope at Quineville. The Americans came up the coast to take Quineville and then stopped to re group before attacking the north to Cherbourg. I think Wn23 may have been by-passed when the attack re started ( 24th RCA). By then the German garrison of the 919. Gren-Regt and elements of the 709th Div. had the order to fall back into Festung Cherbourg.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Screw pickets still holding up a farmers fence, these could be German or French. Probably taken from stores, or the WW1 trenches, or the Maginot line.
Screw pickets.
Barbed wire.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
07 October 2013
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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Panoramic beach defences & trenches.
Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
10 May 2008
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Wn23 Aumeville Lestre Plage
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France
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