— Et06Étretat beach

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

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Etretat a lovely small channel town. In the late 1800's it became a very popular holiday destination, four hours by train from Paris. In WW1 many of the hotels were used as British and then American as hospitals. WW2 and the Germans arrived and started to defend between the high chalk cliffs. First with small bunkers and gradually increasing with tunnel systems to link up the larger gun casemates and lots of beach defences. Most of the bunkers were made locally only one or two were regular designs. One certainly is an R612 casemate for a WW1 type field gun.

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1 x R612 casemate.

1 x SK/casemate for a 5cm KwK.

1 x Schnabelstand Observation bunker.

1 x SK-Lla.

1 x 7.5cm F.K.235(b).

1 x 5cm KwK L/42.

1 x 5cm KwK L/60.

30 September 1945 Geoportail

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In the town there were several anti-tank walls built to stop or slowdown any attacker from the sea.

1940's

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The French military like other allied armies visited many of the defences and drew maps and photographed of bunkers.

8 - Casemate pour Mitrailleuse.

11 - Casemate ' p ' campagne avec abri et souterrain.

12 - PC (Commander).

13 - Encov ' p ' 50mm.

14 - Casemate 612.

15 - 6 Abri personnel.

16 - Abri avec tobruk.

SHM

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Placed up on the hill behind the beach was a 5cm KwK set in a field style position and not in the usual concrete emplacement.

1945

Gun mounting set into the ground not in an emplacement.

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Placed up on the hill behind the beach was a 5cm KwK set in a field style position and not in the usual concrete emplacement.

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The second pillbox of this style, the first was in WnEt05. Also the Belgian gate road blocks behind.

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The area the pillbox covered.

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The next set of defences of Et05.

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An anti-tank gun bunker made locally and of no regular design.

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1944 the barbed and in 1945 the barbed wire has gone and the beach defences are starting to be cleaned up.

Bundesarchiv 1945 American

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The Americans had camps at the end of the war to pass troops from Europe back to America. LeHavre was one of the major ports of embarkation. The American camps were called cigarette camps and were named after their major cigarette companies. The men in their spare time came down to Étretat beach for R&R.
Étretat's camp was Pall Mall.

US Signals Corps

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After capture and it looks like mines piled up after being removed off the beach area.

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The side entrance into the casemate.

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First you enter a small lobby room with a door on the right into the casemates gun room.

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Note the very low roof with a long thin embrasure at the front.

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The gun barrel sticking out of the casemate, it does not have a muzzle break, so is it an anti-tank gun or not?

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In the middle just below where the gun would have sat is a hole. It could be a pit to drop fired shell cases down after firing. A way of storing them out of the gun room when in action.

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Around the rear a trench in the concrete recess in a half moon shape. This was for the trails of the anti-tank gun to sit to stop the gun from flying backwards when the gun is fired.

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3.7cm Pak and you can see the trails sticking back from the gun.

It would have to have been a small anti-tank gun that was low to the ground to fit into the casemate.

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The small room on the way out.

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The observation/command post was linked to the gun casemate by a tunnel.

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Relaxing troops.

Bundesarchiv

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Then

Google

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And Now

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Continuing up the cliff to a machine gun pill box.

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This machine gun could have cut to pieces any advance up the beach, it would have fired down about half the length of the beach.

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The small entrance.

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Looking inside the room.

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How the machine gun would have been able to fire down the beach.

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Above is the R612 casemate for a field gun, a 7.5cm F.K.235(b).

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The flanking wall and its camouflaged concrete.

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An American soldier being used to show the size of the casemate, or he is sheltering from some very bad weather.

Unknown

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This is the rear of the casemate and a trench entrance into it. This casemate cannot be seen now as a wooden observation platform has been built over it.

1944

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Trenches up on the cliff top. Behind here, now on the golf course, were six small group shelters of unknown type and probably an earth/wood supplemented by concrete to strengthen them. All these have been covered over by the golf course.

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05 March 2012