Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
One of the defences of Gatteville Batterie.
Horse artillery.
7.5cm gun sight.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
Wn125a covers the Southern side of StP152. 7./Heers Kusten Artillerie Regiment1261. This was a huge, six open emplacement (Geschützstellung) for 15.5cm K.420(f) guns and then four R679 casemates plus ammunition and crew bunkers. All round defence were four Wn's123, 124, 125 & 125a.
15.5cm K.420(f).
R679 casemate plan.
FCP, Leitstand/SK.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
1 x R612 Casemate.
1 x 7.5cm F.K.
R612 Casemate plan.
75cm F.K. 235(b).
Crew inside a bunker.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
This is a 1975 air photo of the casemate showing the flanking wall and the glasses plate in front of the guns embrasure.
R612 Casemate plan.
Bunker construction.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
Side view.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
The area the gun would cover is Gatteville lighthouse to the edge of Barfleur.
Plan.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
The rear wall.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
Camouflage hooks
Camouflage nets were extensively used and the reinforcing rods were left proud and then bent over so that a net could be hooked over them.
Nets being laid out.
Reinforcement rods.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
The full rear view. There may have been a 494P2 door fitted to the rear.
494P2 type door.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
Rear (Ventilation)
Before firing the rear doors are opened, gun fires, fumes from the gun fill the gun room. A fan in the rear corner would be started up and the smoke & fumes sucked out of the gun room via the rear vent. The vent is a heavy steel construction and a perforated cove is places over the top to stop explosives placed into to the system. Hand grenade.
Rost 200mm.
The ventilation system plan.
Extractor fan.
Mo86c Batterie, Versendoket 2/A.R.266., St-Pol de Leon, Brittany.
Turm 3
This is the information stencilled to the casemate wall in Brittany, explaining to open the rear doors.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
Extractor fittings
An electric fan would have been fitted between these two pipes.
Another fan fitting.
Extraction hood in the gun room ceiling.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
Rear door with two ammunition niches each side.
Gun room.
494P2 type door.
10.5cm ammunition.
StP Ruin, Mont de Neufchâtel, Pas-De-Calais. K.V.A. D1 Hardelot to Merlimont.
R669 casemate door fitting
Door frame fittings. If they were fitted they may look like this.
494P2 type door.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R669 casemate
Ammunition niches in the side.
Ammunition storage.
10.5cm ammunition.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
Gun room
There would have been a turntable, often made of a metal frame that the gun pivoted on.
details
Turntable for a field gun..
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
Gun room plan
Plan.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
F.K. Field Kannon about to shoot. The sort of field Kannon that may have been used here.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
View out of the rear door.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
Slightly extended side walls on this model with earth piled up around the sides to add to camouflage and also some extra protection..
R612 Casemate
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
The concrete in front of the embrasure is the Glacés plate. This was designed to deflect incoming shells away from the embrasure.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
How the gun may have looked inside the casemate.
Gun room.
Crew.
Gun room.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
R612 Casemate
The gun would have been part of a four gun batterie of horse artillery split up and placed in different bunkers along this coast. The horse and limber may have been retained and the horse used to collect the rations and the limber to store extra ammunition. And they all may have been kept in the stable of the local farm house Also the men of the casemate may also have been billeted in the farm house..
Horse artillery.
Wn125a Gatteville les Vastines
Old Normandy.