German Artillery

Gun Battery Graf Spee [1]

NCY-152

During World War I the German Navy built a gun battery on the island Wangerooge at the entrance to Wilhelmshaven. The gun battery was named Graf Spee and was equipped with four pieces of 280 mm. naval guns. After the German conquest of France in 1940, these guns was moved to Brittany to defend the entrance to the port city of Brest. The port of Brest was one of the few, deep enough to receive the German battleship Tirpitz and Bismarck. Simultaneously Brest was an important base for the German u-boats and were therefore naturally protected. Three of the guns were set in open ring positions, while the last was built into a bunker. To manage and direct fire from the four guns there were 1000 meters closer to the coast, built a large fire control bunker on 4 floors. After the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944 and subsequent advance, the guns came for real in use. In late August 1944 dismissed the guns, the British battleship HMS Warspite and subsequent the three guns in open ring positions rotated 360 degrees and open fire against the attacking American forces. Superior force was too great and the guns were in late September 1944, along with the rest of the german forces in Brittany, surrender to the Americans. The fire control bunker is today used by the French navy and the rest of the gun battery scattered around in various fields with grazing cattle.