StP 'Ruine' Batterie 6./A.R.149. PART1.
STP · Hardelot - Merlimont K.V.A. D1. · AOK 15 Nord Pas de Calais · France
StP Ruin, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Batterie 6./A.R.149.
4 x 669 casemates.
4 x Stolen, underground.
1 x R658 water supply bunker.
4 Vf58c Tobruk's.
1 x Wellblech shelters.
1 x Garage.
4 x Feldm.
4 x Geschützstellung open emplacements.
1 x 5cm KwK Ringstand.
1 x R119 batterie commanders bunker.
4 x 10cm le.F.H.14/19(t).
2 x 2cm Flak.
1 x 5cm KwK.
Stab II./A.R.149.
Plus: -
1 x R119 batterie commanders bunker.
1 x R609 battalion & regimental HQ.
3 x R622 twin group shelter.
2 x Zisterne.
Stab Gren.Rgt.148.
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Mont de Neufchâtel.
The track lading to the rear of the battery.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
An RAF reconnaissance photo of the area.
1947
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
4 x 669 casemates.
4 x Geschützstellung.
4 x 10cm le.F.H.14/19(t).
2 x 2cm Flak.
Souterrain.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
This battery was always sighted just over the hill on the rearward slope, it had no direct firing positions. When the casemates were built, they were placed just in front of the old gun line.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
A side view of the battery.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Direction of fire Mont St-Frieux.
It covers the area around the Mont St-Frieux complex of batteries and bunkered head quarters and then the beach from St-Cecile Plage to Hardelot-Plage.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The official entrance.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
1 to 4 white - Casemates.
1 to 4 red - Geschützstellung, open gun emplacements.
4 x White squares - ammunition storage.
White road - the German concrete roadway (this part now removed).
Yellow lines - the Souterrain (underground).
Geoportail
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Turm 4 an R669 casemate.
Camouflaged and protected with earth piled up and over the casemate made it a harder target to see and thus a harder target to hit.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
A side view of the gun line.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Turm 2
A very narrow embrasure and I am never sure what the large concrete block built into the side.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The view inside the embrasure.
All these casemates have the same camouflage inside and out. We think that it maybe used as a test for noise deadening?
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Interesting shape set into the wall?
It may be to take a different style of gun, one with a split trail?
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
10cm le.F.H.14/19(t).
This is where the gun would have sat.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The left ammunition niche.
The left ammunition niche with the fan to remove smoke from the gun room.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Vents in the roof.
When the reinforcement bars are wired together, the pipes placed between them before the concrete is poured.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The second ammunition niche.
The second niche in all these casemates seems to have a lower floor level. I have never seen this in any R669 casemate before.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Rear door frames.
All these casemates had rear doors but two are I think 494P2 and two completely different frames.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Steps into the Tobruk. I am quite broad shouldered and carry a bit of weight and I struggle to enter and leave these Tobruk's without hitting my head, I have always wondered how a fully armed and helmeted soldier could charge up or down these steps?
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Inside the Tobruk.
The two niches, one is for a voice pipe to connect with the inside, the larger one I am not sure.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Looking up into the Tobruk.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The view from the Tobruk.
It has a 360° view around the battery.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Could be a 2cm Flack field position. There were two 2cm Flak guns here.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Behind each casemate is an open emplacement, Geschützstellung. These positions allowed a 360° field of fire. But were vulnerable to air attack, so the guns were put into casemates.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
A nice view of the rear of one of the R669 casemate.
The Tobruk on the left side and camouflage set into the concrete.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Close to each Geschützstellung is an ammunition store.
It looks like a trench dug into the ground and a brick and concrete roof put over the top, Stollen. Self made probably by the batteries own soldiers.
Also a new found push-me-pull-you cow.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
A shaped barbed wire support post called an Eisenpfahel and it has a flat plate base, so a hole is dug and the post is placed in and the hole filled and tamped down. Easier that banging into the ground and can be carried out very quietly so not disturbing an enemy.
The whole site would have been behind a defence of barbed wire and mines, if there were mines available.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Three casemates have Tobruk's. The round hole by the door is to allow the foul gases to be removed from the gun room via a fan extractor in the left hand ammunition niche.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Inside another casemate.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Why the camouflage was continued inside the casemate as well as outside, I have no idea. An explanation could be that an order came down to camouflage the walls and the builders did exactly what they were told. I do not know exactly how these shapes were produced so evenly, usually a cement bag would be screwed up into a ball and set into the concrete. But this is too even and must have taken quite a lot of working out.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Rear door frame.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Note the hinge pin has a bolt to stop the removal of the pin.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
There must have had several different door frames of the correct size in the stores. At Merville Wn01 the gunners were told to open the doors when firing the gun.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Note the hinge pin has a bolt to stop the removal of the pin.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Note the pieces of concrete to hold the earth and grass on the top bunker.
Another first here to see these concrete pieces to hold the earth and grass on the roof.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The gun line.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Souterrain, tunnel system No.3.
The entrance into a tunnel system that runs down to the valley.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The nicely earth camouflaged entrance.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The entrance is blocked to us humans but open to Bats.
Steps going down a long way.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Sitting on the top is an attached Tobruk.
This Tobruk protects the tunnel system and can be used in local defence and anti-aircraft role.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
A heavy piece of steel sticking out of the concrete, I am not sure what it was for.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The whole area around here was bombed heavily throughout the latter part of the war.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
There was a bunker or part of the tunnel system No.3.
An area defence Tobruk is behind it.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
This whole area would have been wired off from outside.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
This is upside down, as you see it has a flat plate riveted on. This means you dig a hole, place it in and then fill in and tamp down and can be carried out quietly.
The other reason it could be like this is to sit a lamp on it shining in one direction so the enemy cannot see it.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The German concrete military road under the grass.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Built with local French bricks.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The front with a blast wall.
Possibly a battery office where all the paperwork was done?
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The inside at the front.
Note the white pained dado line and pink underneath.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Inside at the rear.
This would be quite a dark room with only small windows.
It could also have been a guard room for the batterie.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
And one large room.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The first entrance to this tunnel system No. 2.
This is the right hand entrance and on the right above should be a Tobruk.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
This is inside and a Bat heaven.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The view over the wall.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Looking out.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
This is the second entrance and hard to clamber through to get in.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Looking inside.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
This is looking up, an escape hatch or a way to a defence Tobruk??
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Looking back.
I think this tunnel system is very like the next one that we entered.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The military road.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Above the straw bales you can see a square piece of concrete and that is the next set of tunnels. The trees are where the rubble removed from the tunnels and dumped there. The trees have subsequently grown up there.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Straight in front is the second tunnel. Its two entrances and continuing on the road to the right are two more small garage tunnels.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The roadway coming in.
The woodland on the right is the spoil heaps from the tunnels.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The first garage tunnel.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The inside.
Probably for the commanders car.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The second garage.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The inside.
These two tunnels are slightly different? this one is more rounded.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The view from the last garage.
Looking back up the valley with the roadway running off with the battery on the hill.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Tunnel No.1 the second entrance now blocked off.
There was or is a Tobruk defence to the right and above the entrance. We did not find this one.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Tunnel No.1 the first entrance defended.
A large defence block at this entrance, this was the main entrance and would have been a guard room where soldiers entering and exiting would sign in and out.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Close combat window.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Close combat/guard room.
Make sure you sign in when you enter and out when you leave.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Close combat and guard room.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Continuing into the tunnel.
Tunnel No.1 was accommodation for (we think) 80 fully equip troops. Ten rooms for eight men.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
A second line defence with another close combat window and a chicane entrance. This probably would not be manned unless there was an emergency and any of the soldiers inside could man it.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Going through the chicane entrance.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
A 19P7 door entrance.
A gas tight thin steel door.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Close combat room.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Continuing into the tunnel.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
This may have been a water cistern or a stove.
There is a stove pipe going out of the wall.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
There is electrics inside the tunnel as we have seen cable fittings on the walls. We think this is part of an exhaust pipe for a generator that would have been at the far end of the tunnel as this pipe runs right through. It also may help with heating? In a small way.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Continuing to the end.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The view down the main accommodation tunnel.
There are ten rooms along here, all may have had a wooden door.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Accommodation room.
We counted four bunks each side. The pipe on the far wall may have been a fresh air ventilation system.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The four bunk fittings.
Four bunks on each end wall.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The floor has a thermoplastic tiles.
This would be a warmer floor than just concrete.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The far few rooms were painted.
You can see the exhaust pipe running through and clips on the wall for lighting.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
The last one has been demolished???
The recess in the end wall I think is where the generator sat.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Now walking along the second exit.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Another 19P7 door entrance.
19P7 door had a small glass pain in it so you could see what was on the other-side and a rubber seal around the edge to seal against gas.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Close combat room 483p2 type.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
483P2 embrasure.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Looking back at the chicane and the close combat embrasure.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
And onwards and out - but its closed off.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Looking back along the accommodation.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Way out.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Looking up the valley
The next items are in the bushes on the far right.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
This is the end of PART 1.
23 October 2014
StP Ruine, Mont de Neufchâtel.
Part 2 will be the bunkers on the hill.
Click here to continue.