Just after the war, English families wanted to visit the grave of a son or father. My father was helped by my grandfather to buy a car and take the clients of the hotels to the war cemeteries. Then a WW 1 truck was bought and altered with wooden benches into a bus. I have many photographs.

During WW2,the RAF men slept in the Hotel Normandy until two days before the German troops arrived in Wissant.
The Germans were on the square in front of the hotel and my father and grandfather just left in time. In fact they saw us going. As this was a French car they didn't bother. Father and Grandfather , mother and seven of the eight children with a lot of luck got to Calais. They were the last civilians to get into the last fishing boat that left Calais.

Three years ago , back in 1998 a lady came over from England to tell us the story .She and her parents were with us on that boat. Her name is NULTY.

When this bunker went up for sale I bought it to make a museum. I have letters and photographs of British and German troops who were in and around Wissant.

Hoping to meet you sometime to talk about this.

David C. Davies.

After a year long operation to pump out 3.5 m of water and sludge, then re-painting the lower levels, the bunker was ready for the public, and opened in 1971.

This was when I first read about Mr Davies and his 'Bunker' in the magazine 'After the Battle' when I was 17, and vowed to visit if I ever got to France! Nearly 30 years later, thanks to my Fiancee Lindy,I did get to go to 'Batterie Todt' and we have become good friends of Mr Davies and his Family.

'Batterie Todt', is the name given to the four casemates,command (including Radar) and observation posts,ammunition storage,anti-tank and anti-aircraft posts and personnel shelters to accommodate over 600 men (18 men and 4 Officers to each of the four gun positions! ).
This is a very large site,See large scale map and Excellent diorama and we intended to photograph all the principal, remaining structures this November but the weather was so bad (continual rain and snow!), we only managed to get photos of Turm 3 and 4.So a return trip is planned for June/ July, 2002.

	Turm 1 is of course, the Museum.
The Museum

	Turm 2 is completely invisible and surrounded by trees! New Pics!! UPLOADED 05/12/02
Where?

Turm 3 is over grown but accessible(surrounded by wire fence). Just after it's capture, two Frenchmen decided to explore inside and, to see their way, lit a couple of pieces of cordite from an abandoned shell-case. It must have burned so quickly, that one of the men holding it,dropped it to the floor and caused a huge explosion! This completely obliterated one man, and blew the other,minus his legs, outside! This explosion lifted the roof and blew out a huge piece of the rear of the casemate!(see photos) More damage was done in this accident, than any systematic demolition action could have done!

Turm 3

Turm 4 is virtually undamaged and contains excellent graffiti drawn by the gun crew nearly 60 yrs ago! Although most of the inside of the bunker is daubed with more recent graffiti and empty beer cans.The original bunker 'art' has, thankfully remained untouched. Access to the lower level has been blocked off! This casemate, along with the elusive Turm 2, has a Flak position on it's roof, access to this can be seen on the side of the tower.

Turm 4