Die010 Mont Robin
On a hill to the left of Dieppe is a large hill, almost plateau and from the Dieppe to Pourville-sur-Mer road looking south Die010 runs all the way to the main D925 Route de Dieppe. A vast area with scattered bunkers, defending the Luftwaffe radar that was situated there. Before the Germans arrived, the French had a batterie of heavy guns up here to protect Dieppe's left flank. Now a Golf course to its right flank and quite a lot of ground work carried out, it may look a little different today.
French artillery soldiers.
Luftwaffe guard.
Radar operators
Die010 Mont Robin
Plan of the whole site
Radar Station "Dickhauter"
15./Luft. Nachr,Rgt.52.
1 x R114A neu
1 x L485 (2) Mammut radar bunker.
1 x R501 Group shelter.
1 x R621 Group shelter.
2 x R622 Twin group shelter.
9 x R630 Machine gun casemate with an armoured plate.
1 x R631 Casemate for a 4.7cm Festungspak(t).
1 x R632 Three embrasured steel turret bunker.
1 x R633 Emplacement for an M19 mortar.
2 x R634
Six embrasured steel turret bunker.
1 x R644
Six embrasured steel turret bunker.
1 x R660 Accumulator charging station.
15 x Vf2a Group shelter.
1 x Vf7a Ammunition bunker.
1 x Vf51a Half group shelter.
1 x Vf54a Anti-tank gun garage bunker with shelter for six men.
1 x Wasserbunker.
1 x V229 (2x) Radar concrete base (Würzburg Reise Fu.SE 65).
3 x Vf67 Tobruk for a tank turret.
4 x Vf58c Tobruk.
10 x Feldm Just small shelters/bunkers.
1 x Soldatenheim/barracks
1 x Ringstand Gr.W, 4.7cm Pak 36(t)
6 x 2cm Flak.
1 x 5cm M19 Mortar.
2 x Pz.T. FT17 - 3.7cm 144(f)
1 x Radar, Fu.MG F.
1 x (2 x) Würzburg Riese Fu.SE65
15./Luft.Nachr.Rgt.52
R114A neu, six embrasured steel turret.
L485 Mammut radar bunker.
R501
R621 group shelter.
R622 twin group shelter.
R630 machine gun casemate with steel plate.
Die010 Mont Robin
Plan
A plan of the area we covered on both our trips, 2007 & 2012. The routes we covered were slightly different and as its a few years ago I will do my best to name the bunkers correctly.
R631 casemate for a 4.7cm Festungspak(t).
There were at least two FUMO 214 Wurzburg Riese radars.
Mammut radar (Hoarding the Allied code name).
Die010 Mont Robin
The Mammut Fu.MO 52 radar in the far distance. British code name "Hoarding" as it looked like a massive advertising hoarding. The way it worked is that it could search in front and behind but not at the sides. The altitude of the radar was 8,000m (24,00ft) x range of 300km (186mls). It could scan from left to right and up and down not by moving but by using different arrays of its large frame.
Mammut Fu.MO 52 radar range.
Mammut Fu.MO 52 radar.
Wiring of the Mammut arrays.
Die010 Mont Robin
Pourville-sur-Mer beach photographed at very low level.
Photo reconnaissance USAAF Lightening twin engined fighter.
Photo reconnaissance variant of the Lightening fighter.
Pilot.
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Looking from the road.
Plan.
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Trenches.
Die010 Mont Robin
Eisenpfahel German barbed wire post with the points missing.
Eisenpfahel pointed top.
Die010 Mont Robin
More trenches Zig Zagging up the hill.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a
When we arrived here there had been a lot of earth moving and I am sure a lot was covered up.
Plan.
Vf2a plan.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a
The passage way, blocked at the other side. Hooks on the roof to attach a camouflage net to.
details
details
Camouflage net.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a
Bunkers door.
Speaking tube fitting.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a
Crew room the chimney hole on the far wall..
Chimney outlet.
Heating in a Vf2a.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a
Escape.
41OP9 escape door.
Escape plan.
Plan of the escapes.
Die010 Mont Robin
John contemplating trenches.
Die010 Mont Robin
Wasser Bunker NO its another Vf2a.
Vf2a.
Plan.
Die010 Mont Robin
Wasser Bunker NO its another Vf2a.
One wall is completely missing, you can see why I thought it could have been a wasser bunker..
Die010 Mont Robin
Entrenchments and a radar on the horizon.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a No.8
Trench entrance.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a No.8
One of the numbered bunkers
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a No.8
Chimney outlet on the far wall and the escape on the right.
Vf2a.
Die010 Mont Robin
R622
The roof of an R622 and still with its camouflage showing up.
Concrete camouflage.
Plan R622.
Plan.
Die010 Mont Robin
R622
Aerial fittings.
Aerials.
Aerial fitting into their slots in the bunker.
Die010 Mont Robin
R622
Steps down into the bunker.
Plan R622.
Die010 Mont Robin
R622
Heavy hinges of a 434P01 door.
Plan.
434P01 door.
Die010 Mont Robin
R622
Crew room. Anti gas. The half round piece of metal coming out of the wall is to hold the spare anti gas filters. Above would be the 1ML 4 HES 1.2meters-cubed pump filter. A filter would be set into the machine like a cassette and the handle turned. By keep turning the handle it increases the air pressure inside and seals the bunker from the ingress of gas. The air passing through the filter is cleaned and the air can be breathed quite freely.
Plan.
Filters.
1 ML 4 HES 1.2m3. MKB Bunkertour.
Die010 Mont Robin
R622
This is the other room. Same fittings in this room.
details
Bunker beds. MKB Bunkertour.
Die010 Mont Robin
R622
It looks like there was a cabinet on the wall in the recess.
Plan.
Up the steps there would have been, not a door but a 491P2 Gittertur gate. MKG Bunkertour.
491P2 Gittertur gate.
Die010 Mont Robin
Soldatenheim/Barracks
Plan.
Soldatenheim/Barracks Cherbourg region.
Die010 Mont Robin
Soldatenheim/Barracks
May have received direct hit.
Barracks.
Die010 Mont Robin
Soldatenheim/Barracks
How it may have looked inside.
How it may have looked inside.
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Military road.
There were several roadway built out in the fields.
The road layout.
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Vf2a No7
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a No7
Entrance.
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Vf2a No7
Passageway.
Elevation.
Plan.
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Vf2a No7
Standard inside layout.
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Tobruk
Vf58c Tobruk.
Vf58c Tobruk plan.
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R621
Ringstand defence of the bunker.
R621 with added Tobruk.
Die010 Mont Robin
R621
Ringstand defence of the bunker.
Die010 Mont Robin
R621
Bunker and Tobruk entrance on the left, an addition probably after the bunker was built and they found it may be needed.
Plan.
Die010 Mont Robin
R621
Heading down the steps.
491P2 Gittertur gate that would close off the entrance. MKB Bunkertour.
Die010 Mont Robin
R621
19P7 thin steel door and small window, gas tight door.
19P7 door.
Plan.
Die010 Mont Robin
R621
Crew room.
Close combat window.
Frame for a 1 ML 4 HES 1.2m (cubed). MKB Bunkertour.
1 ML 4 HES 1.2m (cubed) anti gas filter. MKB Bunkertour.
Die010 Mont Robin
R621
Crew room. The hooks on the walls are to hold folding bunk beds.
Bunker beds.
details
MKB Bunkertour.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
A huge block of concrete. R630 type Machine Gun casemate with a 78P9 metal plate for a fortress mounted MG.34.
Gun room, Ammunition space, Gas lock, 48P8 Close combat defence embrasure in its room, exit and a Tobruk defence.
Plan.
48P8 close combat embrasure.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Gun room where a steel plate was bolted in ans the concreted over.
78P9 metal plate would have been fitted in here.
Metal plates and steel domes stacked ready for transportation.
Fitting a steel plate.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Gun room looking out. The gun port has a heavy closure that can be swung back and the machine gun placed through the aperture. Then the gunner can fire at his enemy, the second window is for the guns commander, who would spot for the machine gunner, also the Tobruk above and behind the bunker, by using a speaker tube, could call fire orders also down to the crew.
The gun room inside the 78P9 Pz schartsnplattemg for an MG.34 machine gun.
Heavy machine gun for a fortress mounting.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
434PO1 heavy armoured door would have been here.
434PO1 heavy armoured door.
Top of the door detail.
Tobruk observation.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
There would be wooden, possibly home made by the crew, shelving and boxes of machine gun ammunition with some tracer, to be used at night.
details
MG.34 tools.
Fortress mounting.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Crew room. This is where they would eat, sleep, relax and be ready for instant battle to protect the radar sites that these bunkers surround.
Cupboard for all their kit.
Bunks and folding table would be used.
They would be allowed a dog, An attempt at a small recon landing in Normandy in 1942 was foiled by a dog barking, so Hitler said that the men could keep a dog.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Crew room with an escape in the far wall.
Escape.
Plan of an escape.
Die010 Mont Robin
Plan of an escape
In an emergency: -
First a 410P9 door would be opened, then crawl in and remove the two rows of several galvanised slats. Then gravel or sand had been placed into the outer escape shaft to stop an enemy getting in and so all this has to be removed by hand. Quite a substantial task and only then could you crawl through the tunnel (about 2meters) and then negotiate a 90° turn and climb up a set of steel ladders to the outside.
410P9 escape door.
Plan of an escape.
Steel ladder.
MKB Bunkertour.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Gas lock. All doors would have had rubber seals around them and with a gas filter pump inside working, an over pressure inside would stop gas entering the bunker. Also if there was heavy smoke and then a smoke filter would be substituted.
ML 4 HES 1.2m3 (cubed) anti-gas filter pump.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Gas lock and a small drain. This would have had a cover and underneath a zinc bucket that can be used either to catch large items if dropped.
Sinkkasten bunker drain in Zinc.
Drain cover & zinc bucket.
Details.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Close combat defence room.
48P8 close combat embrasure.
48P8 close combat embrasure.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Way out.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
The entrance with the close combat embrasure that if attacked would have taken the attackers legs off. Then a drain to stop rain water entering the bunker. The step into the bunker, gas is heavier than air and tends to lie down just around ground level, so the step would help to stop old gas entering into the stair well. Just inside a speaking tube to contact the men inside and a small vent. Althogh gas was never used but in case it was used it had to be built into the defence.
Outside drain.
Sprachrohr speaking tube.
Die010 Mont Robin
Die010 Mont Robin
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
L485 (2) Mammut radar bunker: -
There are two types of L485 bunkers, this one (2) and another more square type (1).
L485 (2) Mammut radar bunker.
Controls in the compressor room from plan 0-43330 Mammut F.
L485 (1) type
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
L485 (2) Mammut radar bunker: -
How the array would have looked (more about the attacks later)
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
L485 (2) Mammut radar bunker: -
The Mammut Fu.MO that the British code named it "Hoarding", as it looked like a massive advertising hoarding. The way it worked is that it could search in front and behind but not at the sides. The altitude of the radar was 8,000m (24,00ft) x range of 300km (186mls). It could scan from left to right and up and down not by moving but by using different arrays of its large frame (Phased array). A very complicated structure, it was immovable but to get the radar screen to sweep from L to R, it needed to move connections from the different sensors. So an arc of about 80° to 130° (I think) looking either forward or behind. And then by electronically switching from sensors to sensors across the array, a scan could be generated without the large panel needing to move. It did suffer from a blind spot and that was about 50° on the left and the same on the right. But by sitting Mammut's in a a chain, they would over lap at a pre determined distance.
Plan L485 (2).
An arc of about 80° to 130° in front and rear.
Bomber stream.
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
L485 (2) Mammut radar bunker: -
By dropping a plan over the top it gives an idea of how the bunker was formed. As bunkers go, its quite large with three main rooms.
Starting from the top to the bottom:
a - Compensator.
b - Gas Lock.
c - Antenna Room.
d - Workshop.
e - Emergency Current.
f - Ventilation.
g - Gas Lock.
h - Heating.
i - Engine Room.
j - Fuel Storage.
k - Close Combat Defence.
Blue arrow - Entrance.
Yellow arrow
- Machinery entrance.
Red arrow - large air vent.
Large generator.
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
Geheim - Secret
Ûbersichtsplan Mammut F Luftw.-Anlage 1 - 15
General plan Mammut F Luftwaffe - Investment 1 - 15
Details captured
at Tregastel in Brittany by Royal Naval staff (probably 30AU).
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
Grundrise - Floor plans: -
Abluft - Exhaust air.
Nutstrom Raum - Slot current space.
Vorhof - Forecourt.
Heizung Lüftung - Heating ventilation.
Umformer - Converter.
Gasschleuse
- Gas lock.
Verteldigung - Defence.
Betriebs Raum - Operating room.
Lager - warehouse (storage).
Kompens Raum - Compensated space.
Die Schalttatel -
The switch panel.
Die Abgleichmittel -
The matching means.
Die steuersaule -
The tax column (control?).
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
Air Scientific Intelligence Technical Translation. No.1. Mammut F.
30 AU Commando collected secrets throughout WW2.
They often were in advance of the front line troops and captured towns, villages, bunkers, HQ's.
They captured Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben in his HQ in Cherbourg.
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
The scientist R.V. Jones worked in Military Intelligence at the highest level and in his book "Most Secret War" he tells about visiting fighter squadrons and asking them to attack certain radars. Since then I have found out that six Hawker Typhoons were stationed at RAF Holmsley South in the south of England that were used, away from their squadron to attack German radars along the French coast before D-Day. It would be nice to know if these were the pilots that he talked to.
Prof. R.V.Jones.
Typhoons on and after D-Day.
Typhoons on and after D-Day.
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
A plan showing all the radars around Mont Robin.
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
A very low level attack by RAF Hawker Typhoons on the radar at Mont Robin. The small white glow low down in the photo is a cannon shell tracer round, just before it hit the radar. Right behind the radar are three 2cm Flak guns and out on the flank another three. A hot reception.
The Typhoon gun camera sequence photos.
Hawker Typhoon.
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
Cannon shell marks on the concrete.
Bombing up.
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
Part of the rear of the L485 (2) Mammut radar bunker.
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
Possibly the entrance.
Die010 Mont Robin
Mammut Radar
Cannon shell still inside.
20mm Hispano cannon shells.
20mm MK.-2 1943 A.L.
Die010 Mont Robin
Found in the very wet grass??
Die010 Mont Robin
Plan of the area around the radar bunker.
Die010 Mont Robin
2cm Flak position
There are at least six 2cm Flak positions around the radar.
2cm Flak 30.
Die010 Mont Robin
2cm Flak position
Ready ammunition niches.
2cm ammunition magazine box.
Flak crew.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a
Entrance.
Die010 Mont Robin
More bunkers, there were a lot of V2a's around here.
Vf20 plan group shelter.
Die010 Mont Robin
Die010 Mont Robin
Die010 Mont Robin
2cm Flack position
Die010 Mont Robin
2cm Flack position
Looking back at the radar, if a Typhoon was attacking the radar, this gun would have been in a good position to try and shoot it down,
Die010 Mont Robin
Bunker Vf2a?.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a
Entrance passage.
Die010 Mont Robin
Trenches.
Die010 Mont Robin
2cm Flak position.
This gun would cover the area of the valley and any aeroplane that would try and attack up the valley.
Die010 Mont Robin
2cm Flak position.
This looks like a whole section has been blasted out.
Range finder.
Die010 Mont Robin
2cm Flak position.
The view out to sea.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a Hospital
Entrance.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a Hospital
Entrance with red lines to accentuate when entering that you are at the hospital bunker (casualty clearing centre).
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a Hospital
The passage.
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a Hospital
There may have been a doctor, but I would think it was just two Medics and casualties would be moved into Dieppe hospitals as soon as they can.
details
details
details
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a Hospital
Escape in the right wall.
details
details
details
Die010 Mont Robin
Vf2a Hospital
A Red cross on the wall.
Die010 Mont Robin
Site of where a bunker was under construction.
Die010 Mont Robin
Tobruk
Tobruk covering the valley.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
This bunker is almost complete.
Plan.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
78P9 PZ Schartsnplatte MG.34.
78P9 PZ Schartsnplatte MG.34.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Side entrance.
Plan.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Close combat defence embrasure, where a machine gun, a rifle or a sub machine gun could be used to defend the entrance.
MG.34.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
The stairs down into the bunker running into the gas lock. The small window would have had another gun defending the stairs.
details
MP.38.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Gas lock.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Water reservoir.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Crew room still with its pipe work in place. Escape on the left and close combat defence window covering the stairs on the right. The rectangle on the far wall was where the anti gas pump would have been placed.
410P9 door covering the escape.
ML 4 HES 1.2m3 (cubed) gas filter pump. MKB Bunker tour.
Wall mounting bracket. MKB Bunker tour.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Crew room with door to the ammunition store and gun room. On the left wall would have been a heater.
The heater that can be used not only to keep the bunker warm, but to cook their food on it.
Heater and chimney layout.
Chimney outlet.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Ammunition room.
Ammunition boxes.
Ammunition belts.
Special tools for an MG.34.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Gun room. The centre hole is for the machine gun and on the left is the guns commanders position.
MG.34 fortress mounting.
MG.34 fortress mounting in its mountings.
Gun commander.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
78P9 PZ Schartsnplatte MG.34. The gun mounting would be held to the plate by heavy metal bolts.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Not a drain but this is where, when the gun is firing,. The bullet cases can be passed down a flexible tube into a chamber in front of the bunker.
Bullet cases.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
Heading back out.
Die010 Mont Robin
R630
At the entrance, two small niches, one for a voice speaking tube and the other maybe a light switch and a vent to suck in fresh air to the bunker and gun room, that when the gun is firing, the anti gas filter would be used to clear away the smoke from the gun room.
Sprachrohr speaking tube.
Light switch.
Extraction steel vent.
Die010 Mont Robin