Et02 Étretat Gare

WN · K.V.Gruppe Etretat · AOK 15 Haute-Normandie · France

Et02 Étretat Gare

Driving into Étretat from Yport we passed by the railway station. Now not part of the main French railways and run by railway enthusiasts. We did not know if or where any defences were here, so we were not looking for any. It may be worth having another look around one day.
Hidden away to the south of the station is Et02 with a Tobruk & Vf Unterstand.

Et02 Etretat Gare

The army were obliged to update plans to inform their HQ what and where the defences were. These were regularly done over the years they were in occupation.

1 x R612. ?

1 x Unterstand.

1 x Vf67.

1 x Pz.T 3.7cm KwK 144(f).

1 x 7.5cm F.K.231(f). ?

1944 defence plan

Et02 Etretat Gare

The station is on the outskirts of the town where most local troop movements would have come and gone and also where a lot of the materials like the steel & concrete would have come in.

Geoportail 1945

Et02 Etretat Gare

Etretat Gare

03 March 2012

Et02 Etretat Gare

A very early picture of the station. The Ifs to Étretat line is a short, 15 km, single-track, standard-gauge French railway branch located in the Seine-Maritime department which served the seaside resort of Étretat from the Ifs station located on the line from Bréauté-Beuzeville to Fécamp. Inaugurated in 1895, it has been closed to all traffic since 1972, but not being deferred, it has experienced a new life as part of a small tourist railway. (Wiki)

03 March 2012

Et02 Etretat Gare

The station, now a private house and the rails have been removed. In WW2 this would be the station for Leave trains, the soldiers would queue for hours awaiting a train to take them back home to Germany.
WW1 and here British, Canadian, later American and many other nationalities wounded soldiers, would arrive to be looked after in its hospitals. Converted from hotels, private mansions and public buildings.

03 March 2012

Et02 Etretat Gare

The railway heading out of the station where it turns quite a sharp right along the ridge. Full steam trains must have huffed and puffed up this hill.

03 March 2012

Et02 Etretat Gare

Looking at the 1945 air photos I can see where a barbed wire defence ran around the south side of the station the defensive Tobruk and a Vf Unterstand.

IGN 1945

This is how it would look, also as the grass grew. The line of the defence would show up very well on air photos. That way the Allies new the size of the defence..

Et02 Etretat Gare

SHM plan of Et02.
4. Tobruk tank turret + abri.
5. Citerne was the railways reservoir.
9. possibly a quarry tunnel re used. (or the Vf Unterstand).

SHM 1946

Et02 Etretat Gare

WW1 many hotels in Etretat became hospitals first for the British and then the Americans. Casualties would arrive by train and taken down the the sea front hotels that were turned into hospitals to be cared for.

Internet