German battery at Longues sur Mer

The batterie de Longues-sur-Mer (German MarineküstenbatterieLongues-sur-Mer) is one of the firing batteries of the Atlantic Wall, located in the coastal commune of Longues-sur-Mer in Calvados.
The site included 4 long-range 150 mm naval guns, each protected by a reinforced concrete casemate, and various facilities to serve and defend them.
Located in the area of the Allied landings in Normandy, between the beaches of Omaha Beachand Gold Beach, the battery was subjected to intense air and then naval bombardment preventing it from coming fully into action on D-Day, and was taken the very next day by British troops.
Classed as a Historic Monument, it is in a good state of preservation. The site has been developed and has become a popular stopping-off point for visits to D-Day sites.

On June 6, 1944, when the Normandy landings began, German defenses were unable to prevent the Allies from gaining a foothold on the beaches and establishing bridgeheads. The Atlantic Wall, which was supposed to repel the assault, held out for only a few hours, with the exception of the Omaha Beach sector. In addition to defenses on or just off the beaches designed to prevent the landing of troops, German defenses also included several long-range gun batteries, positioned along the coastline, more or less behind it, and tasked with preventing the approach of Allied ships and barges but also able to fire on the beaches. The Marine-Küsten-Batterie (MKB) at Longues-Sur-Mer was one of twelve batteries of this type capable of reaching, on D-Day, the landing beaches or Allied ships offshore.

On the morning of June 6, 1944, at 5:30 am, the British cruiser HMS Ajax opened fire on the battery without causing any major damage. At around 6 a.m., the battery opens fire on the HMS Bulolo, the Allied command ship for the Gold Beach sector, forcing it to change position. The HMS Ajax and HMS Argonaut then closed in and resumed firing against the German battery. The fire ceased at 8:45 a.m., 2 guns having been put out of action by direct fire into the casemate embrasure. The two ships fired more than 179 shots at the battery.

The German soldiers took advantage of the morning's respite to put back into operation and repair what could be repaired, and opened fire in the direction of Omaha Beach. This fire attracted the attention of the French cruiser Georges Leygues, then in support of the difficult American landing on the beach, which put the battery out of action, having fired 115 times that day. During the day, German servicemen also used the poorly protected Soviet 122 mm gun to fire on Gold and Omaha beaches.

The next day, the German infantry protection battalion was recalled to Bayeux. In the morning, the battery underwent another aerial bombardment by the RAF and was taken in the late morning by Company C of the 2nd Devonshire Regimentwithout difficulty from Germans whose will to continue fighting had probably been largely dented by the bombardment, the disabling of the guns and the isolation from the rest of the German army. The remaining 120 men of the 180-strong garrison surrendered.

Photo credit Julie Grasset & Brice Monroig