Wn Bruneval Sud

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

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

Valleuse de Bruneval a steep sided valley, running down to the sea. At its head is a large house that must have been quite elegant. But now somebody has tried to improve it and either run out of many or fallen foul of the local planners. Although above to the north is a very large radar station, it is surprising how small the defence is here. Especially as in 1942, the British sent in an airborne force to capture one of the radars and remove items and then retreat back down the Valleuse to be evacuated by LCA's and back to Newhaven on the southern English coast.

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

This is all I can find. It is from SHM and states that the only defence item at Sud was No.14.

SHM

Plan details.

SHM

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

I have started at the sea and working inland. I am sure that the beach would have had the usual defences to stop landing craft coming ashore. Plenty of barbed wire and inland, many mines.

25 October 2014

Concrete block with a mine inside. The arm is hit by a craft and the mine activated. BOOOM!

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

A modern sea wall now protects the Valleuse from erosion.

25 October 2014

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

In front of the rather derelict house, is a small (what I think) is a strengthened shelter for living and defence.

25 October 2014

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

Looking out of the front windows.

14 October 2022

Inside the side room.

14 October 2022

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

View from above. There are no othere defences around here that I could see.

25 October 2014

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

Continuing up the steps to the memorial.

14 October 2022

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

The Memorial to the Bruneval Raid.

14 October 2022

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

In 2022 we visited and a builder was there repairing the monument. I asked if I could crawl in where he had been working. As you see I did!

14 October 2022

A 5cm KwK open emplacement is buried under the memorial, its a later addition to the defence, probably 1943.

14 October 2022

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

The view in 2012.

05 March 2012

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

The view 2012.

05 March 2012

These living shelters were here on the raid and this is where the local defence infantry lived.

14 October 2022

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

A living bunker/shelter.

14 October 2022

It was not a defence bunker, just for living.

14 October 2022

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

Memorial to the six German soldiers killed in the Bruneval Raid.

Inside the bunker.

14 October 2022

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

The LCA (Landing Craft Assault) derived from a prototype designed by John I. Thornycroft Ltd. of Woolston, Hampshire. During the war it was manufactured throughout the United Kingdom in places as various as small boatyards and furniture manufacturers. Typically constructed of plywood planking and selectively clad with armor plate, this shallow-draft, barge-like boat with a crew of four could ferry an infantry platoon of 31 and five additional specialist troops, to shore at 7 knots (13 km/h). Men generally entered the boat by walking over a gangplank from the boat deck of a troop transport as the LCA hung from its davits. When loaded, the LCA was lowered into the water. Soldiers exited by the boat's bow ramp. (from Wiki)

14 October 2022

Via D-Day Museum

WN Valleuse de Bruneval Sud

14 October 2022