Azeville Battery
I’d arrived at Azeville Battery the previous evening, but it was 7pm and the lass in charge was just closing for the night. So, the next day, after Omaha, I rode up the coast and inland to Azeville in time for opening. I’m glad I did. The site gives a superb insight into how the Atlantic Wall was used, but also how the occupying forces sometimes integrated a little into the French villages where they were posted.
Azeville is - guns aside - an almost complete battery complex. It still has its tunnels, casemates and blockhouses. It’s well worth visiting if you’re anywhere near Cherbourg.
Azeville had four H650 casemates that carried four 105mm**Schnieder K331 guns, made in 1913, each with a range of*11kms.
Originally mustering 170 men (although most were housed in the village itself) Azeville Battery is interesting in both its state of preservation and in the way it was camouflaged against Allied air reconnaissance.
A photo showing how the German troops had painted the most conspicuous bunker to make it appear like a ruined Normandy farmhouse:
And the same bunker today. Most of the painting was re-done in 2006, but some of the original paint still remains.
You can see how the complex of tunnels is laid out:
By all accounts, Capt. Dr. Hugh Trieber - the complex’s Commander, seems to have been a decent man. There are stories in the village about him taking a pretty relaxed attitude to things like curfews but a distinctly hard line with his own troops if they were caught stealing from the locals or even failing in courtesy to them.
Trieber was constantly concerned about the danger he exposed the villagers of Azeville to just by the complex being there. It meant the entire village was a target for allied bombing strikes.
I had the place to myself. As you walk down the stairs into the tunnels linking each casemate, it’s remarkable to think that the site was the base for 170 men.
Although the first part of this tunnel has been restored and re-concreted, the other sections are all the original Todt Organisation work:
The Germans had built a large wooden mess-hall they called “The Casino”. They furnished it accordingly:
In fact, the locals living in Azeville were invited - on a standing basis - to make use of the Casino for village events. As you can imagine, there weren’t many takers, although one wedding breakfast was held there.
The foundations of The Casino are all that remain:
This is the view of The Casino from inside the bunker - from a door designed to allow the troops to leave the building as quickly as possible and get to safety underground:
You can see the two openings from the outside here:
The bunker was controlled through an internal telephone system. This allowed commanders to call up shells for the guns, range the guns and hear reports from forward artillery spotters on how closely they’d fallen to target.
This is all that remains of one of those telephone exchanges:
Some local vision was possible through a series of periscopes - here’s the hole for the ‘scope:
And speaking tubes like this one allowed communication internally:
Conditions were pretty cramped:
But I suspect there were worse places to sit out the war:
The site had its own anti-aircraft defences - this is the base for an anti-aircraft cannon:
More to come...
,was it?
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