Atlantic Wall Guidel

 

A post Xmas lunch walk on the beach this afternoon, so I took the opportunity to check out a crew bunker that I hadn't looked over before, as well as a machine gun bunker close by covering the coast road. Both have been sealed up and fenced off so there was no way of looking inside, which is a pity but just as well. 

Doelan

 

                     

Atlantic Wall Isle de Sein

We went on a boat trip to the Isle de Sein off the Western tip of Brittany a couple of days ago. It's a lovely place but a bit on the small side, with a port and lighthouse being the main attractions, although there is also a memorial to De Gaulle, who took a boat from the island in 1940 to get to the UK. There is an equally small section of the Atlantic Wall consisting of two bunkers situated to cover the port and beach. These are unusual, being more like British pill boxes than the usual Tobruk Stands that you'd expect to see in this sort of location. It really is a lovely place and well worth a visit.  

Atlantic Wall Pointe de Pen Hir

We got back from camping near Camaret this afternoon, during which we visited more of the coastal defences of Brest including the battery on the Point de Pen Hir. This consists of a mortar battery of the 1890's on top of which the Germans constructed a series if coastal artillery casemates and bunkers, all linked together by a command post. One of the artillery bunkers has been converted into a museum of the Battle of the Atlantic and there are several large anchors outside two of which came from the battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg, no less. There's also a very impressive monument to the liberation of France and the Free French armed forces, which is pretty impressive. The weather was amazing and I got very sunburned but it was worth it just for the view!