Fe08 Sémaphore

We are on the top of the hill at the semaphore, plenty of parking and on a nice day a very pleasant walk. From here you can walk around Fe09/Fe08/Fe07/Fe06/Fe05/Fe04 and Fe03. So quite a lot to see.

The view down to the town and the coast. The radars were here to defend the harbour, if an attacking force as in the Dieppe Raid came about. They would have ample warning. A British scientist, RV Jones. Studied the German technology and tried to keep one step ahead of it. The raid on Bruneval radar station in 1942, was one of his ideas. A lot was learnt from the parts they brought back and talking to the radar operator. A young Luftwaffe radar crew member. With the buildup for D-Day, Jones would drive down to RAF Tangmere. Where there were several squadrons of RAF Typhoons. He would ask them to fly off to France and knock out a radar station. Gradually they started to shut down a lot of these radars, closing the eyes of your enemy. As the war progressed several radars stayed alive, the pilots had no idea that this was a secret plan to use these radars to spoof the enemy into thinking D-Day was about to happen in their area. Ships made to look bigger on a radar screen, using tethered balloons with radar reflectors. Many Lancasters and British B17's with either 'Window '(small strips of silver paper) or radio jamming devices. Flew towards France's north coast. Exactly where the invasion was expected. This radar was left alone until the 5th June 1944 and then sixteen Typhoons carrying 500lb bombs and twelve rocket firing planes. attacked the radars. All these radars were in place and working, except the Mammut César Fu.MO 52 radar. This only had the three upright gantries in place and had not been filled with their arrays.

Allied target documents that the RAF pilots would have used.

Fécamp.

View Point on concrete looking back on Fe08 where a search light would have been mounted.

Le Sémaphore, Fécamp

R621 with its two defence Tobruk's. This would have been a crew room for either the radar operators or the defence troops.

R622 with two Tobruk's A new and novel use for a Tobruk.

Field bunker entrance A bit wet and muddy.

Inside the field bunker.

 

V143 Mammut César Fu.MO 52 radar Mammut radar, an array of eight smaller Freya antennas made into one large panel and could detect aircraft taking off in the south of England, although this one was used by the Navy to detect mostly naval traffic in the channel. I employed a lovely man from Southampton, who was in the Navy in the war, he would have been no older than 17. He was on Peter Scott's boat SGB. He would tell me how Scott would very slowly creep under the cliffs of France. When all was very quiet, Scott would say "Engine room, make sparks'. With that the power would be put on and as it was steam gun boat, (a small destroyer almost). It was very fast and powerful and powered away. Oh and 'ALL HELL WOULD BE LET LOOSE'. The Germans on seeing the sparks shooting up, would turn on all their searchlights, every gun in the are would fire at the very fast moving target. Well at this precise moment, a lumbering old Vickers Wellington, full of electronic gear would just happen to be flying over and they could count the search lights, see the gun flashes and mark every thing on maps. The other is, the radars would all be turned on and so the Wellington knew exactly where they were situated. A war of Cat and Mouse.

R621 group shelter with its Tobruk on the left side and two entrances.

R621 group shelter with its Tobruk on the left side and two entrances.

V143 Mammut César Fu.MO 52 radar 3J2. Funkmess-Abteilung.

V143 Mammut right entrance.

V143 Mammut left entrance. Left hand entrance with access to the Tobruk and then the main entrance in the middle of the picture.

V143 Mammut César Fu.MO 52 radar.

V143 Mammut César Fu.MO 52 radar. Mammut César Fu.MO 52 radar manufactured by Gema was originally used as an early warning radar against air attack, but this type was used to cover shipping in the channel by the navy. There are two types of radar, one that scans the sky in a 360°. Then there is is this type. Its like a floodlight. When switched on it just floods the area in front and any plane/ship coming into view can be followed and reported on. Very like the RAF's Chain Home system.

Shelter just outside the R612 is what looks like an earlier shelter.

Shelter Inside , it may have held the sleeping quarters for the defence troops covering the radars before the stronger R612 and R622 series bunkers were built.

Trench. There must have been trenches all around this area behind the barbed wire and mine fields

Emplacement for Seetakt Fu.MO2 radar

Emplacement for Seetakt Fu.MO2 radar.

More trenches

R636a Command post for an army coastal battery. How it may have looked with an Würzburg See Riese Fu.MO 214, sat o the top of the R636a's rangefinder space. The Freya radar searched the sky and when it picked up a contact, it passed it onto the Würzburg system and the information then was passed to a fighter control centre and fighters would be scrambled, anti-aircraft gun sites informed and civil defence units also informed.

R636a command post for an army coastal battery.

R636a command post for an army coastal battery looking into the observation room. The rooms inside would probably have been used for the radar that was above.

R636a command post for an army coastal battery.

R636a command post for an army coastal battery. A V229 type radar socket in the rangefinder space

R636a command post for an army coastal battery. A V229 type radar socket in the rangefinder space

R636a command post for an army coastal battery. Tobruk attached to the command post.

R636a command post for an army coastal battery. Panoramic view from the roof of the R636a.

R636a command post for an army coastal battery.

Unterstand on the cliff. Some where here there may have been one of the two 2cm Flak guns..

Tobruk covering the right flank.

Tobruk Vf58c type Tobruk for two men, their ammunition and a machine gun.

Trench system with a Field bunker at the end.

These types of defences probably were built before the Atlantikwall was envisaged and the newer defences and radars were built around them.

Trenches continuing on.

The second Seetakt FMO 2 position with a blast wall surrounding it..

Tobruk on what may be a medieval mound.

Possibly another gun position.