Wn28 Quettehou ville + Art. batterie.
BATTERIE · K.V.Gruppe Cotentin Ost · AOK 7 Normandy · France
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Situated along an ancient track in the small town of Quettehou is the Allée de L'Église leading up hill to the Église of Saint Vigor where a batterie of field artillery was situated here, around 1942/3 and then on to Wn28 at the cross roads by the church at the beginning of 1944, a battalion command post was established here1st battalion of the Grenadier-Regiment 729 (709.ID).
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
c - Wn28.
d - Quettehou
It seems that at the time of the air photo was taken, either the batterie did not show up or was in a different position. b - looks to be where the interpreters were looking at.
The batterie gun positions were we think in concrete ringstands and a few ammunition niches.
ADM 199/1601
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Field batterie of four 10.5cm guns.
Remonterletemps May 1944 SD
Wn28 Quettehou ville +Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Plan of the Field Batterie position.
Tranchées bétonées couvertes.
Covered concrete trenches
SD plan
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Walking up the Allée de L'Église and you see how old the track way is, or we would call it a 'Hollow Way'. If you brought your ammunition limbers up this track, there is no way they would be seen by air reconnaissance aircraft.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
This is a 10.5cm leFH18.
The 10.5 cm leFH 18 (German: leichte Feldhaubitze "light field howitzer") is a German light howitzer used in World War II and the standard artillery piece of the Wehrmacht, adopted for service in 1935 and used by all divisions and artillery battalions. From 1935 to the end of the war, 11,848 were produced.
Designed in the late 1920s, it represented a major advance on its predecessor the 10.5 cm leFH 16. It was superior in caliber to its early opponents in the war, with adequate range and firepower, but the modern split trail gun carriage that provided it with more stability and traverse also rendered it overly heavy for a mobile role in the largely horse-drawn artillery battalions of the German army.
Bundesarchiv
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
This is the first entrance through the high bank, this one has a slight kink in it halfway along.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
This is the first entrance through the high bank.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville +Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Plan of Turm 1 may have looked.
Plan.
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
This is the first entrance through the high bank.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
This is the first entrance through the high bank.
This one kinks in the middle.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
The view towards the sea a and Saint-Vaast-La-Hougue.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville +Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Observation.
Bundesarchiv
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Carrying on.
21 July 2024date
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Sebastien showing us another entrance. You can see how hard they are to find. He managed to find and show us all four.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
This is the Abri on the second plan. This one could have been built as the batteries command post earlier on in the war and later used as a command post for Wn28?
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
This is the Abri on the second plan.
The best picture I could get.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
The top of Allée de L'Église and the start of Wn28. The Abri bunker is just down behind the house.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
My Manchester United fan of a Grandson and Sebastien looking over what could be a bunker of some kind.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville +Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Plan of Wn28
1 - Abri (Shelter).
2 - Abri Habitation (Shelter Living bunker).
3 - Soute (Hold or defended position).
4 & 5 unknown but could be access points through the hedge.
SD
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
The wall has been demolished here and re built.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville +Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
The type of animal tie usually in this part of France is not so heavy as this one. Perhaps this is a German military type??
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
On the left the bank has a concrete structure cut into it.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville +Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
The view down the road leading northwards.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
4 & 5, they could be access through the bank.
21 July 2024
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
German plan of where their units were based around April 1944.
Wn28 Quettehou ville +Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
A 1944 air photo of the area with what look like trenches and another road block (which we did not visit) on the main Quettehou to Valognes road the D902.
IGNF
Wn28 Quettehou ville + Quettehou Allée de L'Église Batterie
Google view of where the other road block that was not visited, there is nothing to see here as the road has been widened.