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France/Belgium Trip Post 01
As promised here are the write up's and photos of our latest trip to France and Belgium. I will try to give a military and historical background to the locations visited. This year there was six of us in the party, me, PK, Lol, Nobby, Gaz and Ginger. We travelled south overnight, onto the shuttle at Folkestone, then straight into the programme the next morning visiting sites of interest as we made our way south through France from the Pas de Calais down to the Somme Region where we stayed for two nights before heading north up to Flanders. This year we decided to incorporate some WW2 sites into the itinerary as well.
Our first port of call was the WW2 Atlantic Wall Museum located in the hamlet of Haringzelle, near Auginghen, some 15 miles south of Calais.
The museum is located in one of the Batteries' gun emplacements. The Todt Coastal Battery consisted of four 15 inch Krupp guns in concrete casements and had a range of approx 35 miles. Construction started in July 1940 and the guns became operational in June 1942. Known originally as Battery Siegfried, it was re-named Battery Todt in Feb 1942 after the death in a plane crash of German engineer Fritz Todt who designed and built the Atlantic Wall defences, he was also responsible for the construction of Hitler’s new Autobahn system.
The battery was used to harass convoys in the English Channel and the bottleneck of the Dover Straits became known as Hellfire Corner to British seamen. Between 1940 and 1944 they fired over 1000 rounds but only sank two merchant ships.
The Battery was taken by Anglo Canadian troops in Sept 1944 after an intense aerial bombardment as part of Operation Undergo. After the war the guns were shipped to Norway and installed in German built gun battery emplacements. They were later used to protect NATO's northern flank.
Of the fate of the four turrets today, Turret No.1 Now a museum. No.2 is sealed and now a bat cave. No.3 was destroyed after locals triggered an explosion in the ammo chamber scavenging for precious metals. Turret No.4 is still open to visit.
Outside the battery on display is a K5 (E) Railway Gun. This was originally situated at Wimereux, a couple of miles south of the gun battery at Audinghen.
In WW2 Germany fielded 25 of these huge guns, including five in France. Three of the guns were in operation in the Cap Gris Nez area and were only used against land targets.
Its limited traverse required the K5 to operate along curved stretches of track, from a cross-track or from a Vögele turntable, if available. Late in the war the Germans tried to free the K5 from the rails by replacing its two pairs of 12-wheel bogies with two modified Tiger II tank chassis, but the war ended before they could field-test the concept.
For those technically minded:
Calibre: 11 inch (280mm)
Range: 40 miles
Rate of fire: 15 rounds per hour.
Weight: 240 tons
Length: 105 feet
Barrel length: 70 feet 8 inches
Shells: weight 562 lbs containing either 67 or 98lbs of TNT.
I took a bearing on it’s gun barrel, it’s pointing to the NE of Hastings in Sussex.
Two guns survive today, one at Audinghen, the other is at the US Army Training & Heritage Centre at Fort Lee, Virginia. This is the famous gun that harassed the Anzio Beach Head in Italy and was nicknamed 'Anzio Annie' by the American troops. They eventually found it in a tunnel at Civitavecchia and shipped it Stateside to Maryland.
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