Longues sur Mer

The Batterie at Longues sur Mer


Major Werner Pluskat, 352nd Coastal Artillery Division- 4/HKAA(Heeres Kusten Artillerie Abteilung)

I first saw this bunker and the Atlantik Wall, watching the film "The Longest Day".....and made a promise to visit one day!.......

3 miles to the west of Arromanches, installed by the Germans in September,1943. The Batterie is in an ideal position, 215 feet above sea level and was well able to threaten the Invasion fleet. It consists of 4 Krupp 150mm,TbtsK C/36 (L/45) cannons from a de-commissioned destroyer, in type M272 Casemates with a range of 12.5 miles and a large, range-finding and observation post type M262. (no.83)

From late 1943 onwards, the site was bombed several times including two heavy raids in the week before D-Day when 1500 tons of bombs were dropped on it.

At 05:30 hrs on D-Day, the batterie was engaged by the French cruiser, FFS Georges Leygues and the American battleship USS Arkansas.The batterie opened fire on the destroyer Emmons stationed off Omaha beach. Due to the fact that the underground cables from the Fire control bunker had been destroyed by the previous bombing raids, the gunners used their direct sights to engage the invasion fleet.


The batterie then engaged the Arkansas..The French cruiser Montcalm also became involved in the exchange of fire.
30 minutes later, the guns then turned their attention to Gold sector and engaged HMS Bulolo, the Gold flagship with the Army Corps commander on board.The accuracy of the batterie forced the ship to weigh anchor
After a further 20 minutes of bombardment, it fell silent. Ajax was joined by HMS Argonaut in shelling the batterie which was put out of action at 08:45hrs.It had taken 179, 6" and 5.25" shells from the two cruisers. Two of the casemates received direct hits through their embrasures....
The French and the British both claimed the defeat of the batterie as their own....

The two remaining guns opened up again in the late afternoon but were silenced by the French cruiser, FFS Georges Leygues The batterie's 120 survivors out of 184 crew , surrendered the next day to the British 231st Infantry Brigade. The batterie had fired a total of 115 rounds.

"Turm 4" is the first to see from the visitors centre, so we will start there.....

First view of 'Turm 4'

An interesting story.......After the batterie was captured, a forward airstrip(B11) was constructed nearby. "Turm 4" was used as ammunition storage for the Bofors gun emplaced on it's roof....According to the Official Batterie guide book, there was an 'accident' which caused the ammunition stored, to explode and kill four soldiers,destroying the casemate and the gun being blown apart! but.......

A good friend of mine, Wing Commander 'Abbo' Harrison, has done some research prior to his visit this month(Mar,2003) and found a story that states, a shell from HMS Belfast actually went down the gun barrel and blew the gun apart! I have asked 'Abbo' to give me the details of where he read the story. However, if you examine the following photos, it is quite obvious even, to the Uninitiated(myself!) that the explosion which destroyed the gun was ,Internal!

Trunnion and breech      What remains of the gun mounting

Can you see the 'split' on the far side of the trunnion?      The breech of the barrel, has exploded from the inside !!!

Here is the serial no. of the gun      The breech block is partially closed!

Some of the damage caused by the explosion      Remains of the gun's armoured shield

Part of the gun barrel partly buried      The muzzle of the barrel, it would be interesting to see if there was any damage to the rifling?

Turm 3

Turm 3 was one of the two guns actually put out of action on D-Day

This is where the shell that put the gun out of action, entered.      The blast from the explosion penetrated the shield from inside.

The shell glanced off the gun mounting(arrowed) before exploding.       Close-up of the groove shell made.

Presumably, this area is where the shell exploded.      ...and set off the ammunition stored in the left ammo room, which blew off the roof!.

The elevating mechanism is largely still intact and has been coated to stop further erosion.      A piece of signal wire cable remains....Elevation & azimuth data would have been transmitted from the Fire control bunker through this.

Turm 3 gun is the only one(apart from damaged Turm 4) to have it's muzzle collar in place(Looks like someone has tried to take it home tho !).      The manufacture's matching marks.

Turm 2

Turm 2 photos coming soon!

Turm 1

Turm 1 Photos coming soon!

Please keep checking back for more updates !