Va300 Plouharnel, M.K.B.Hella E.673, K.V.Gruppe Vannes, KVA C2, AOK 7. Area 6 Turm 1.

Marine Artillerie Abteilung 4./264 (E.573).
1 x S487 Fire control post.
4 x SK/Gefechsstand, Geschützstellung. S215 large open emplacements with two ammunition stores.
1 x V229 radar socket for a Würzburg-Riese.
1 x R118b large dressing station (hospital).
3 x Fl242 standard emplacement for medium/light Flak.
2 x S231 ammunition depot.
2 x S381 ammunition depot.
4 x SK/Machinenstand (generator bunkers).
12 x SK/Marine (36 Mann bunker).
1 x SK/Marine (6 Mann bunker)
8 x Flakstellung.
10 x Vf58c Tobruk's.
2 x VF/MG Stand.
1 x 5cm KwK Ringstand.
1 x Gr.W mortar.
1 x Geschützstellung Lag, emplacement for field gun.
1 x Feldm bunker.
3 x 34cm K.W.E. 674(f) railway guns. (340mm St-Chamond).
3 x 2cm Flak 28.
1 x 15mm Flak MG.151 Zw.
4 x 2cm Flak Vierl 38.
1 x 5cm KwK38.
8 x 7.5cm Flak M17/34(f).

Here I am just going to look at the northern Geschützstellung (emplacement ). All four are very alike and It would be repetitious to cover all four. Turm 3 was badly damaged, Turm 4 has a 2cm Flak on its roof. All have a generator house, crew quarters and the odd Tobruk's scattered around for local defence.
Marine Artillerie Abteilung 4./264 were equipped with four very large 34cm K.W.E. 674(f) railway guns. (340mm St-Chamond). They were made in France for WW1 and were kept after the war either in storage or to use behind the Maginot line. The four guns were designed for a new class of French battleships in there bid to modernize in 1909. These were to be armed with 340mm caliber guns. At the outbreak of WW1 six barrels were re located from the navy and turned into railway guns. By 1915 they were starting to be delivered to the Army and were used on many fronts throughout WW1. Then stored at Mailly Saone et Loire after the war.
WW2 - after France capitulated in 1940, the guns were retrieved by the German forces and taken to Krupp's works and Germanized. In other words they were checked over, mended where necessary, up graded and modern electrical equipment added. They were then brought to Bégo.
The site being run by the Navy as a ship with a Captain in the control tower when fighting. All the firing plans would have been worked out in the SK Kommando bunker, then sent out by an armoured underground telephone cable to each gun. The settings made on the guns, ammunition drawn from the local munitions bunkers behind the guns (replenished from the four more on the NE side of the batterie). And then the guns would fire. Oh! what a noise. The sound of an express train flying over.

Area 6 on the plan or Turm 1.


The German Navy took over the defence of all the ports in occupied areas and then started planning for batteries all around those ports to defend them. They did not include the land between and that was left to the army (Heer). The navy got on with their defences and the army got on with running the war (from behind a restaurant table and the good life in Paris).

Early in 1941 work began here with over 1000 Belgian, Dutch and Polish workers being drafted in and also many workers from the local Morbihan region. Work was scarce during the war and they needed to feed their families.
Four huge positions were built running north to south. A new set of railway lines was laid to each position. By late 1942 two guns arrive 918959 and 918960. They are placed at Turm 1 & 2. Early 1943 the third cannon arrives for Turm 3, 918962. The forth gun 918961 which has been in Crozon Cr342 covering Port of Brest's U-Boat pens, now starts it journey here, via workshops in at Ruelle but never makes it to Bégot due to the early arrival of American force in 1944.

Lorient harbour was chosen by the Kriegsmarine as a large U-Boat base very early on after the area was captured in 1940. Work started on some small U-Boat pens which over time were added to, to make a massive area under concrete. Then a scheme to defend the pens from attack by an allied fleet was actioned. 4 x 15cm guns in two ships turrets were placed on the Île de Groix at Gx322 and here at Va300 Plouharnel batterie on the Quiberon peninsular.
The moorland of Bégo they decided was ideal to site four railway guns. Super heavy weapons that could be moved around on large carriages. Four guns were procured from captured French stock and the German Navy had them upgraded. Quiberon has excellent railway links with the mainland and ultimately Germany and the site was cleared and four purpose built emplacements (Geschützstellung) were built, with each having a direct railway siding to their position coming off the main line.
(cm/mm - All German guns are measured in cm's and all Allied in mm's)

SK Generator building entrance.
SK - Sonderkonstruktionen (Special constructions).