Calais to Normandy and then north

Most of this article concerns the 55th anniversary of D-day meet held in and around the invasion beaches.

If you want to do military touristy things in France then you REALLY need to buy Michellin maps (they were good enough for the allies in WW2 and they are still the most comprehensive maps available today FF32.00ea ~ AUD$8.00). Or the Michellin map book covering all France which is really a bargain at about FF110.00 (~AUD$29.00), the only problem being it is quite heavy so you may not want to risk it blowing your luggage allowance. BUT, if you want to see military sites, you need one or the other, otherwise you will miss heaps as the tourist maps are mostly useless!

The V3 Super Gun

A short side trip from Calais is the site of the least known of Hitler's "V" weapons. Situated inside a very non-descript hillside is what could have been London's demise had it not been for the heavy bombing which destroyed this installation before it was put into use.

The hardest part is locating it! If you get a map of the Pas De Calais region and find the A16 which goes from Calais to Boulogne-sur-mer (NOT the coast road) then Mimoyeques is about half way in between. You can pick up a brochure at the Calais tourist office.

Once you have found Mimoyeques then you need to find the V3 site, thats where the brochure came in handy. Look at the photo below and you will see what you are looking for, a hole in a hill with an old railway goods wagon out front.

BE WARNED, it is bloody freezing in there, take plenty of warm clothing otherwise you will make the same mistake we did and walk in in summer clothes and regret it!

Inside is basically a huge network of tunnels built by slave labour. You can only access the upper most level due to the bombing damage which sealed off the lower levels and roughly 1000 people, they never got out.

A section of super gun has been excavated and put on display. The gun itself is not all that big ~6" bore, but each barrel was very long and there were 4 barrels per group and I think 25 groups. The projectile was around 2' long. Imagine hundreds of these droping on London each day!
The gun looks more like a piece of sewer plumbing than any gun I am used to, multiple charges and hence multiple breeches were used to give a ripple propulsion affect to give the necessary boost needed to get a warhead all the way to London.

Battery TODT

Travelling westwards from Mimoyeques takes you to the TODT Battery - Audinghen (3 km from Cap Gris-Nez). This place seems to have a bit of an identity crisis as it also goes under the names of "Musee de l'atlantique" and "Le Blockhaus D'Audinghen", whatever you choose to call it, it is well worth a look. There used to be a 380mm naval gun here in its concrete bunker. Unfortunately the gun is long gone. The bunker is still there to which has been added an extensive private collection of militaria (pretty secure place to house it!). Then, sitting outside is a German Railgun (280mm), which is a treat to see. If you go up on top of it you can see that it has been demilled, but it is still an impressive device.

Some of the shells on display outside the bunker.

La Coupole (near St Omer)

Not much to look at on the outside; which is the reason we sat there and debated whether to bother paying to see the inside or not. We were glad we decided to make the effort. On discovering it was another one of Germany's subterrainian marvels we retreated to our vehicle and got some warm clothing, once frozen, the second time wary! For those who would like the official French name of this place it is "Centre D'Histoire de la Guerre et Des Fusees"! What it is, is a huge concrete dome that is 5 metres thick, it is set into a hillside and was intended as a safe assembly, preparation and launch site for V2 rockets. Just like the V3 it never fired a shot as the RAF and then the invasion upset the 3rd Reich's plans. It it part museum, part edu-info-tainment. In the photo look to the top right, the grey area on the hillside is all that can be seen of the dome.

Hill 62

From St Omer onwards briefly into Belgium as we wanted to have a look through the WW1 area and Ypres (Ieper - the first letter is a capital "i" but this shows on the internet as a lower case "L" - the closest I can get to the pronounciation is "eeP", the "tommies" called it "Wipers", as in "wipe your window clean"). In Ypres is the "Menin Gate" a place known to many Australians, both in WW1 to the "Diggers" and due to this also the current generation. Keep heading east and you get to Hill 62, which is advertised as the best preserved of the WW1 trenches. Even when we were there at the beginning of June, the trenches were wet, muddy and stank; one can only imagine what it was like in wartime...........

A pile of shells that have been dug up in the area.

When you first walk into the entrance you find yourself in what gives the impression of being a pub bar/museum. This photo shows one of the displays, made from hundreds of items of ammunition. We needed to visit the toilet whilst here and that was an experience. Lets just say it's plumbing can best be described as basic, but it is the layout that really gets your attention! When you walk in, on one side of the room is the urinals, on the other the "stalls", so basically it is a variation on "unisex". As we were on our way out a group of school children headed in. So we stopped and waited for the reaction; we never did figure out their nationality, but the confusion, embarrassment and horror at what they discovered was worth seeing. At this point we left them to sort out their priorities and we headed for Normandy.

To continue, click = France 99 part 2