Ephemeral memories - German gun emplacement found in Normandie
A big find in France -- from the
UK Telegraph:
Amateur historian unearths Nazi battery
An amateur British military historian has unearthed a vast underground Nazi gun battery complex thought to have caused carnage during the D-Day landings.
Gary Sterne, 43, discovered the huge "Maisy Battery" after he found a crinkled map which fell out of an old pair of US serviceman's trousers at a military memorabilia fair in Stockport.
It turned out to be an invasion map for Omaha Beach, which included an area marked "area of high resistance". Mr Sterne, a publisher and collector, believed that this could show the "lost" Nazi gun emplacements, which became buried by nature after the war and could not be located.
Experts were divided about the battery's location and most believed that the area where Mr Sterne was looking was nothing but fields. But after travelling to Normandy to search for himself he stumbled across an entrance to the complex in undergrowth.
He said: "It sparked my curiosity, because that area was previously thought to be just fields."
The thing is huge - a large field hospital, lots of ammo storage, bunkers, offices, etc...
Google Map is here:
Maisy Battery
The website is here:
Maisy Battery but no content as yet.
A nice article can be found over at:
The Armourer
Sterne has purchased all the land around it and is excavating it to preserve it as a museum. Very cool!
Posted by DaveH at January 7, 2008 7:58 PM