Mimoyecques (V3 bunker)
The underground V3 bunker of Mimoyecques is located west of the village of Landrethun-le-Nord between Boulogne-sur-Mer and Calais , 8 km from the Channel coast. From here, during the Second World War , London, about 160 km away , was to be bombarded from fifty 140 m long V3 gun barrels. The individual cannons had a smooth-walled barrel, caliber 15 cm.
Building history
The plan was to build two such batteries, each with five shafts, each of which should contain five tubes lying one above the other. Only the eastern battery, which is still accessible today, reached an advanced stage of construction; the western one had to be abandoned in November 1943 after being severely damaged by Allied bombs.
The Todt organization began in September 1943 under the code name Wiese with the construction of the underground tunnels in the chalk rock. In addition to thousands of forced laborers , around 350 to 450 miners from the Ruhr area and Central Hesse also worked as skilled workers. First they dug a 600 meter long main gallery with a railway track. From there they drove cross tunnels to another 300 meter long connecting tunnel. The five launching channels began on a level 80 meters lower, which reached into the connecting tunnel via elevator shafts.
After the first bombing in November 1943, further air raids by the 8th Air Force took place on March 19 and on May 1, 15 and 21, 1944 as part of Operation Crossbow .
Even before the first shot, the bunker was severely damaged in a British air raid on July 6, 1944, including three 5.4-ton Tallboy aircraft bombs . At this point in time, only shafts 1 to 3 were covered with concrete, the steel covers were completely missing. Two shafts received direct hits. A bomb fell into shaft 4, which was not yet covered, and exploded on the bottom of the shaft. The 80-meter-deep, nine-storey underground facility was severely damaged. The pumps immediately failed and there were countless deaths that could never be recovered due to the rapidly rising water table.
At the end of August 1944, the Germans gave up the project. After the region was liberated by Canadian troops, Colonel Sanders investigated and recorded the site. In May 1945 British pioneers blew up parts of the bunker.
museum
Since the 1980s, the main tunnel of the eastern facility and several connecting tunnels on the first level have been accessible and opened up as museums. There are multilingual explanatory boards in the tunnels.
After extensive restoration work, the museum area has been accessible again since July 1, 2010 under the direction of the La Coupole Museum - Center for History and Remembrance in Helfaut - Wizernes . Some of the 20 cm thick steel plates, each supposed to protect a group of 5 cannon muzzles, had been stored at the cathedral bunker in the Hydrequent quarry since 1944. A set of four elements is now on display at the museum entrance.
memorial
Various memorials in the tunnel commemorate the dead of the Allied air forces - including Joseph P. Kennedy junior , the older brother of the later US President - and the countless forced laborers from 18 nations who died.
literature
- Karsten Porezag: Secret matter of command: History of the "V weapons" and secret military actions of the Second World War on the Lahn, Dill and in the Westerwald; Documentation . Verlag Wetzlardruck, Wetzlar 1997, ISBN 3-926617-20-9 .
- Steven J Zaloga: GERMAN V-WEAPON SITES 1943-45 (68 pages online PDF) , p. 14 ff.
Web links
- Museum homepage
- French side to the Mimoyecques bunker
- Description and history on the museum pages of La Coupole
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reopening July 1, 2010 ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 50 ° 51 ′ 11 " N , 1 ° 45 ′ 32" E