Merville Gun Battery

Merville Gun Battery
Part of Atlantic Wall
Normandy, France
The Merville Battery today
Type	Artillery battery
Site information
Owner	France
Controlled by	Germany 1944, France 1944–present
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Several casemates and trench system
Site history
Built	World War II
Built by	Organisation Todt
In use	1942-1944
Materials	Concrete, steel, barbed wire
Battles/wars	Normandy landings, Operation Tonga
Garrison information
Garrison	Wehrmacht

The Merville Gun Battery was a coastal fortification in Normandy, France, in use as part of the Germans' Atlantic Wall built to defend continental Europe from Allied invasion. It was a particularly heavily fortified position and one of the first places to be attacked by Allied forces during the Normandy Landings commonly known as D-Day. A British force under the command of Terence Otway succeeded in capturing this position, suffering heavy casualties.

The Merville Battery was composed of four 6-foot-thick (1.8 m) steel-reinforced concrete gun casemates, built by the Todt Organisation. Each was designed to protect First World War-vintage Czech-made leFH 14/19(t) 100 mm (3.93-inch) mountain howitzers, range: 8,400 m.

Other buildings on the site included a command bunker, a building to accommodate the men, and ammunition magazines. During a visit on 6 March 1944, to inspect the defences, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel ordered the builders to work faster, and by May 1944, the last two casemates were completed.

The battery was defended by a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun and several machine guns in 15 gun positions, all enclosed in an area 700 by 500 yards (640 by 460 m) surrounded by two barbed wire obstacles 15 feet (4.6 m) thick by 5 feet (1.5 m) high, which also acted as the exterior border for a 100-yard-deep (91 m) minefield. Another obstacle was an anti-tank ditch covering any approach from the nearby coast.

Coordinates: 49°16′10″N 0°11′52″W / 49.26944°N 0.19778°W / 49.26944; -0.19778