German WW2 command bunker: Le Grand Blockhaus
German WW2 command centre in Batz-sur-Mer, Brittany. It was built to direct the aim of four huge 30.5cm guns with a range of 51km (which were to be located 800m away, on a site now occupied by a water tower). These guns pointed towards any potential Allied warships that might have attacked the Côte Sauvage, and were placed so as to be able to cross fire with another set of big guns at Bégot near Quiberon and so control the whole coastline.
However the guns were still being made in Germany when the D-Day landings cut short the fortification of the Atlantic Wall. Batz-sur-Mer became caught up in the 'St Nazaire pocket', an enclave still under German control even as the rest of France was being liberated.
German WW2 command bunker: Le Grand Blockhaus
German WW2 command centre in Batz-sur-Mer, Brittany. It was built to direct the aim of four huge 30.5cm guns with a range of 51km (which were to be located 800m away, on a site now occupied by a water tower). These guns pointed towards any potential Allied warships that might have attacked the Côte Sauvage, and were placed so as to be able to cross fire with another set of big guns at Bégot near Quiberon and so control the whole coastline.
However the guns were still being made in Germany when the D-Day landings cut short the fortification of the Atlantic Wall. Batz-sur-Mer became caught up in the 'St Nazaire pocket', an enclave still under German control even as the rest of France was being liberated.