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FORTRESS STUDY GROUP
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Casemate 77 |
Brittany, in the top left hand corner of France, has a long and often rugged coastline, broken by sandy beaches. One of France's sea frontiers against her enemies, Britain foremost, Brittany has a crust of coastal fortifications built over many centuries, the final act being the Atlantic Wall structures of the Third Reich. These many and varied forts were the object of this year's Study Tour, organised by Keith Phillips and Tom Bell in the UK and organised in France and guided by Professor Nicolas Faucherre, whose reputation precedes him with FSG members, and Guillaume Lécuillier, who as the tour progressed seemed to have gathered many of the attributes of Nicolas.
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Thirty seven members converged on Portsmouth to catch the overnight ferry to Ouistreham, receiving our only Tour paperwork, a highly entertaining translation from French, illustrating the perils of relying on computer translation. This caused much amusement trying to decipher exactly what was meant by such terms as, Extremely detached (Detached Fort), Extremely of the Bull ( Fort du Taureau), and Extremely of the Pussy (Fort du Minou). There were more. The tour handout was in the form of a CD for the Brest part of the visit, somewhat to our consternation (more on this later), and a copy of the splendid book, Les fortifications du Littoral - La Bretagne sud, by N Faucherre, P Prost and A Chazette, which was given to each of us for the southern part of our visit.
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En route to Brittany the group made a visit to two sites of special importance to the D-Day landings in Normandy. First was the German Battery of Longues-sur-Mer, of four 150mm naval guns which continued to fire on the invasion beaches into the second day and were only suppressed by land assault. Three of the four bunkers appear virtually intact and 3 guns and the remains of the fourth are in position. The battery is one of the best presented, having the original guns and a rather sculptural fire control block, cleared of vegetation and easily accessible.
Fire Control block, Longues-sur-Mer battery.
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The second visit was to Arromanches, site of the prefabricated Mulberry Harbour B, larger than Dover when complete and designed and built on the assumption that any established harbour would be heavily defended or destroyed. The units were built in an astonishing seven months and assembled in Normandy in a matter of 14 days and the harbour remained in operation for some 5 months. The town has a museum devoted to the Allied landings of 6 June 1944 and a history of the artificial harbours.
Dinan; Tour du Gouveneur.
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On to Brittany and a lunchtime stop at Dinan, a mediaeval town full of delightful timber framed buildings on a plateau 75m above the River Rance, completely surrounded by C15th ramparts, with some massive artillery interval towers and gates, displaying many early artillery features. Foremost of these is the mighty C14th Donjon some 34m high and forming a strongpoint detached from the enceinte.
Brest has been France's main Atlantic Naval base since the time of Louis XIV, with a dockyard founded by Colbert and fortifications by Vauban. A century later it was to be Revolutionary France's main base against Britain. The dockyard installations were initially set on the banks of the narrow and deep River Penfeld with the castle overshadowing its mouth.
Outside the river mouth is the Rade de Brest (Brest Roads), the enormous area of sheltered water which leads out to sea through the narrow gap of the Goulet. This gap was both a great advantage, as it was narrow enough to be commanded by batteries on both sides, and a major disadvantage as the prevailing westerly wind blew directly into it making access to the open sea very difficult for much of the year, to such an extent that the British fleet was able to successfully blockade the French fleet for long periods during the Napoleonic Wars.
Brest was to be our base for the next three days to explore the whole fortified complex, and here Nicolas Faucherre, Guillaume Lécuillier and Pierrick Brihaye (from the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles Bretagne), joined us as our guides.
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Brest was devastated during the war and most of the Vauban enceinte destroyed. Some vestiges remain and our first stop was at the foundations of the entrance gate into the east side of the town. Discovered only 8 years ago, the remains have been imaginatively displayed, at the instigation of Nicolas, as part of the city's heritage in the Place de le Liberté. A very nice bronze relief of the city's plan forms part of the monument.
Sites visited are in black; very little of the once extensive fortifications, shown in grey, remain.
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The seaward walls of Vauban's enceinte also survive, with a promenade on top looking out over the 58 square miles of Brest Roads, the Goulet channel, 3 miles long and a mile wide, and the modern Naval port of Lanion, at the west end of which the Germans built their submarine pens. A short walk brought us to the Citadel of Brest on the site of the original settlement. Early defences were adapted for artillery in the C16th and given a tenaille front by Vauban, now lost. The site is partly occupied by the Préfecture Marine but the fortified front is restored and contains the naval museum within its various towers. The high ravelin remains with its curious rounded and elongated shape.
Brest Citadel.
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From the towers there are magnificent views into the docks and structures of the original Arsenal which was founded on both sides of the Penfeld river valley, and still very much in use by the Navy.
Across the river is the Tour Tanguy, dominating the harbour entrance, a sole remnant on the medieval defences of Recouvrance on that side of the river.
During the American War of Independence the defences were substantially extended and a visit followed to the end of the bastioned front of the Bouguen crownwork built on the heights above a tributary valley to the Penfeld, which had been the site of a powder magazine. The valley had been protected by a loop-holed wall across its floor, of which little remains, but the Corps de Garde to the Porte de la Brasserie exists. There is a German bunker built into the hill side. The Quéliverzan hornwork was on the opposite side of the Penfeld valley and terminated on the side of a steeply wooded valley; parts of the bastions remain, with a loop-holed flank enfilading the ditch to the river.
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During the Reign of Louis XVI and the war of American Independence (1775-1783) France sided with the American colonies. Fearful of a British attack, as well as the extensions to the bastioned fronts of the city, a ring of seven detached forts was built to deny the heights within range of the city, of which 3 remain, all built to a different plan. Ft Montbarey could only be viewed from the outside. It is a local museum but closed at the time of the visit. The fort has a demi-bastioned trace on one front.
Ft Penfeld was heavily overgrown, gate locked with a notice Terraine Militaire - Défense d'Entrer, which proved no deterrent to your intrepid fellows.
Fort du Questel was the best preserved, being set in a park with all the outworks cleared and sharply defined by closely clipped grass. The plan is an unusual distorted box, a rhomboid, with the places d'armes of the covered way set at right angles to the curtains.
Fort du Questel; plan.
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Fort du Questel; place d'armes, loopholed wall, traverse and entrance to counterscarp gallery.
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There are several excellent features; traverses to the covered way at the places d'armes; counterscarp galleries, and a loopholed wall set on top of the main masonry enceinte of the fort, with earth behind up to the level of the terreplein. The main entrance is through a barrack block with ramps up to the terreplein.
A late final visit was to view the Brest submarine base from the exterior.
The defences of the Goulet were explored by land and from the sea. The Rade de Brest has numerous large inlets penetrating far inland and en route the opportunity was taken to visit a Vauban powder magazine on an island, connected to the mainland by a causeway at low tide.
The heavily buttressed magazine is enclosed by a wall. Cannon barrels mark the causeway.
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Being tucked away the magazine was not hidden from attack and was constructed high and large; it was in the course of conversion so access was permitted. The architectural details were well preserved.
This was one of the numerous occasions when our coach driver, Dave, was obliged to turn the coach around on a sixpence, or in this case on the beach, a feat he managed frequently with great aplomb.
The Roscanvel peninsula is cut off from the Presqu'ile (peninsula) de Crozon by the lines of Quélern, a bastioned trace extending from coast to coast with a large bastioned fort set back slightly at the centre of the lines, but the whole complex is in military hands and was only seen in passing.
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At Roscanvel a stop was made at was what to be the first of many of the coastal towers which would be seen. These Tours-modèles were constructed from 1811 onwards, following a basic design in five sizes; No 1 for 60 men, No 2 for 30 men, No 3 for 18 men, Nos 4 & 5, much smaller with pitched roofs and acting as defensible corps de garde. Roscanvel was a type 2 of a later design with splayed machicolations designed for a Chassepot rifle.
Tour-Modèle, Roscanvel.
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Next was the Pointe des Espagnols, a fortified complex of many periods commanding the mouth of the Goulet from the Crozon side. A bastioned trace, by Vauban, cut off the headland, but nothing was seen of it; and a battery at sea level. A Tour-modèle to the rear of the Pointe had had its machicolations removed when it was used as the base for an AA gun.
Anti-clockwise round the peninsula on its NW coast is the Pointe de Cornouailles.
Again fortified over several periods the surviving remains start at sea level with a battery by Vauban comprising a simple curved platform with 36 embrasures, later modified to mount 47mm cannon c1885 and rapid firing guns in 1900; a battery described as a Batterie de rupture, constructed in1888 under the extreme right of the battery, for two 320mm cannon buried in deep casemates. There were four such pairs on this coast, firing through very narrow embrasures buried in the rock face, with no field of fire. There would only be time for one low level shot at passing ships trying to force the Goulet passage; on the cliff, a French searchlight block; and above the cliff a Tour-modèle, type1 constructed 1812-1813, and a German Flak battery, buried in the bushes.
Vauban's battery, Cornuailles (1690-95); the original embrasures are filled in; at bottom left are the two fire channels for the batterie de rupture, in casemates under the cliff. The arrow marks the entrance. (From Sentinelles de Pierre; Forts & Citadelles sur les Frontières de France). |
Vauban's battery, Cornuailles (1690-95); the one of the fire channels for the batterie de rupture, in casemates under the cliff. (From Sentinelles de Pierre; Forts & Citadelles sur les Frontières de France). |
Camaret occupies a bay at the neck of the Crozon peninsula and offers one of the few landing places to attack the peninsula. An Anglo-Dutch fleet tried to make a landing in 1694 but the defenders, well prepared in the partially completed fort and hastily erected batteries and beach defences, in the form of stakes, decimated the attackers.
The Tower (below) is one of those delightful little gems of isolated towers which Vauban designed. A mixture of functionality and art, the square tower is given a design statement by being set with one of its angles protruding into a semi-circular low battery.
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(Guillaume Lécuillier). |
Small pavilions top the entrance drawbridge and close off the end of the battery. The whole is constructed in grey granite with pink plaster, and surrounded by a moat.
After lunch in the fort, the group took to a boat for a view of the forts from sea level on both sides of the Goulet. An overcast day and an Atlantic swell made for an interesting ride before gaining shelter of the land but the helmsman knew his stuff and took us close in under the towering cliffs to see features at close quarters.
In order of viewing the fortifications observed on the Crozon coast were:
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Next, across the Goulet to view the Brest submarine base from the sea and along the opposite shore and back to Camaret, seeing:
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A choppy crossing took us back to see just the seaward end of the wall cutting off the Toulinguet peninsula, and the Petit Gouin with redoubt and battery of 1859 facing north into the bay of Camaret.
Fort du Taureau, in the estuary of the Morlaix river, required an early start to catch the high tide and reach by inflatable boat. In the C16th Morlaix was the third port in Britanny, after Nantes and St Malo. It was attacked in 1522 by the English Admiral Howard and between 1542 and 1544 the first fort was built on the island of Taureau. Louis XIV took possession of it in 1660 and the threat of conflict resulted in its rebuilding by Vauban in 1689; the fort was not finally completed until 1745.
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The tactical requirements determined the plan; to the west the curved face enabled batteries to be deployed following the movement of a ship in the main channel. There are two levels of cannon, the lower in casemates. Living quarters are built against the east wall, which has a blank face with a redan. The fort was modified in 1780 to take Gribeauval cannon on pivoting carriages and the embrasures blocked up. Our guide Guillaume has been heavily involved in the superb renovation of the granite fort, and has written a very nice book on the fort, full of colour photos and high quality artwork; information boards are up and the fort is nearly ready for its official opening.
To the West of Morlaix lies the town and estuary of Aber-Wrac'h, with another good invasion beach; here Vauban built Fort Cézon. Good planning ensured we arrived at low tide, the only time the island is accessible on foot.
Remains of Skoda 47mm.
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The fortifications comprise a low level battery, tower and a bastioned front facing the landward approach, much of it heavily overgrown and difficult to see apart from the tower.
There are substantial remains of German batteries: two Skoda 47mm bunkers, several Tobruks and a tank turret position; on an adjacent island the pattern is repeated. On the drive into the area numerous German bunkers could be seen, intended to cover every potential point of attack.
A local Association is working to maintain and restore the fort.
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South to Quimper for a single night's stop before Day 5.
The Glénan archipelago consists of 9 islets surrounded by reefs and lies 12 miles off Concarneau, providing a safe anchorage and fresh water, for a long time the haunt of pirates. The ferry lands at one of the larger islands, St. Nicholas, and a smaller boat took us across to the island of Fort Cigogne (1755). Choppy seas and a difficult landing made for an interesting trip. The fort is in an unusual shield shape, with casemated and open batteries and a remarkable round latrine tower.
Fort Cigogne plan.
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Fort Cigogne latrine tower.
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On return to Concarneau the walls of the "ville close" were explored. The old town stands in the harbour completely surrounded by water at high tide, with massive walls and towers commenced in the C14th and completed in the C17th. The gate is approached over two bridges through an advanced redan and what can be described as a demi-lune but attached to two massive towers on each side.
Concarneau, entrance defences.
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There was originally a moat in front of the gate, now filled in, but the connecting walls, batardeau, are surmounted by a dame. On the opposite side of the town there is a small landing place constructed in 1785 with a gate overlooked by loop-holed walls, la porte du Passage. At the entrance to the bay of Concarneau is Fort du Cabellou (1746), a semicircular battery, a loopholed wall on a demi-bastioned land front and a neat magazine with a stepped roof. As ever a German gun battery stands behind the fort and a beach defence emplacement flanks it.
Fort du Cabellou.
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The area to be explored over the next 3 days would be Lorient and en route the rest of the day was spent seeing some of the defences of the wide and sandy beaches west of the city, a path to a rear attack on Lorient.
Two early forts were visited; Fort Bloqué (1749-1871) on an offshore island is in private ownership and could only be viewed from the outside; a rising tide made for rapid deployment and retreat (below).
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The main visual elements were a corps de garde of 1846 and a semicircular battery. There are numerous German fortifications in the area and a rather interesting beach bar had been built over one of these blockhouses, in new concrete, but designed to look like the real thing.
Redoute du Loc'h (1756), about half way along the beach, is set on heathland at the highest available point behind the beach, and so placed that approaches to its flank were protected by natural lagoons. Again in private hands the external features were of great interest, in particular small caponiers with pitched roofs and the machicolated entrance gate (below).
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The Novotel at Caudan on the outskirts of Lorient was to be our base for the next 2 days.
First stop was the Lorient U-boat base, the largest of those built on the Atlantic coast by the Germans:
Known to the Germans as Keroman, it was unique in bringing the U-boats on to dry land for servicing.
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Initially two Dombunkers were built beside the small slipway into the civilian shipyard with a turntable at its centre, but construction of the huge complex of 3 buildings called Keroman I, II and III was commenced in February 1941. The structures are massive and were hardly damaged by bombs during the war and were taken over intact by the French navy, who renamed the base The Stosskopf Submarine Base in commemoration of a marine engineer officer who pretended to collaborate with the Germans, informing the Allies of enemy movements. He was executed.
KI has a dock to open water which the submarine entered. On draining the dock the submarine was winched in a cradle onto a trackway between KI and KII and rolled into one of the vacant pens.
A dock in KIII.
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KIII faced onto the open water with wet and dry docks.
(On the last day, a small party who were happy to get up early, were taken for a tour inside and onto the roof of K3, arranged at the last minute by Nicolas. The docks were seen and the spaced beam roof, so effective against bombing.
One of the huge blast spaces, showing the only bomb damage, a slight sag in the upper roof.
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Our guide took us on into town to a tall C18th watchtower, 216 steps up, from which there was a fine view out over the docks, Skorff bunker (the earliest U-boat bunker here, for just two vessels), rivers and Port-Louis. Ed)
Next came the citadel of Port-Louis situated on the opposite bank of the estuary a short distance from Lorient. The citadel was originally constructed by the Spanish engineer Cristobel de Rojas (engineer of the Cadiz fortifications) in 1591 when the Breton League asked for Spanish assistance and the original town of Blavet was occupied by Spanish troops. The Spanish occupation ended in 1598 and the town was re-founded by Richelieu as the headquarters of the French East India Company in 1616.
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The two bastions facing the town, and the gatehouse are from the Spanish period. The interior has a large parade ground surrounded by barracks which now house the Naval museum and the French East India Company museum, and a large powder magazine, set low behind the seaward front, and protected by a high wall.
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The citadel is an astonishingly beautiful example of a bastioned fort, having had all of the German accretions removed, and the fabric restored, though Nicolas was uncomfortable with some of the work. Surrounded by a blue sea, and fortunately for us on a sunny day, it just demanded to be photographed: and so it was!!!
Following lunch and the group photograph at Port-Louis the peninsula of Gâvres, further out into the estuary of the river, and the site of Fort de Port-Puce and Batterie de Gâvres was next to be visited.
The fort was built in 1695 as a forward defence of Port-Louis. Rectangular in shape the fort is composed of a bastioned front with batteries for cannon on the seaward faces. In 1847 a corps de garde modèle 1846 for 60 men was constructed in place of the earlier barracks on the North side. The superstructure was much reduced when the Germans constructed two gun platforms and associated structures on the terreplein.
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The German 105mm battery of Gâvres starts some 200m along the coast and the fire control bunker and four gun emplacements are in excellent condition (beow).
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Further down the coast between the River d'Etal and the Quiberon peninsula is a long sandy bay, eminently suitable for invasion and covered by The German Batterie du Bégot at Plouharnel.
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It consisted of four emplacements for 340mm guns (above), widely dispersed behind the sand dunes with a high direction finding tower dominating the complex (below). The guns were brought in by rail and the emplacements reflected this in their design.
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As a surprise extra bonus Nicolas had arranged for the Forteresse de Largoët to be opened for us. This is a castle (one wonders why the term forteresse should be applied in this case both on maps and in the guide book), consisting of two very large towers and gatehouse connected by curtain walls, surrounded by a deep ditch. At 57m the main tower, or Donjon, (below) is the tallest in France, built high as the castle is in a deep valley which had been dammed to create a lake to one side. Our attention was drawn to the machicolations which are unique to Brittany in being of an inverted V shape, enabling a much wider than normal downward field of fire.
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En route to the Belle-Île ferry a brief visit was made to Fort Penthièvre, much to the surprise of the sentry on duty. Some of the external walls are open to the public as the ditch contains a memorial to the victims of a German mass execution.
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The fort (above) was built to protect the approach to Quiberon at the point where the connecting spit of land is narrowest. Our attention was again drawn to the Brittany type machicolation on a bastion dated 1841.
Belle-Île is the largest of the Breton islands, and as an outlying citadel off the French coast, with plentiful supplies of fresh water, has been attacked many times by British and Dutch fleets. The last of these was the British invasion and siege of 1761 following which the island was occupied for two years. (For full account see FORT 18, by F J Hebbert).
Citadel; model in museum, copied from Plan-relief.
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The main town on the island is le Palais, and towering above the harbour is the Citadelle Vauban. Built initially in 1549 the fort has been rebuilt several times, the penultimate works being that of Vauban. Planned in 1683-1689 it was finally completed by 1761. The enceinte and outworks display all the elements of the bastion system. Of particular note is a unique circular powder magazine, probably of 1658-1661 date, of magnificent stone domed construction.
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The citadel (above) is in private hands and the main buildings in the courtyard are being restored to become a hotel, but the owner, who greeted our group on arrival, intends to keep it open to the public together with its excellent museums on the history of the citadel and island life.
A local coach then took the group on a tour of some of the other island defences in ever worsening weather. First were the batteries at the Batterie de la pointe de Taillefer the principal work on the North-west coast. A distance of 16km from Quiberon, the battery became of great strategic importance when guns became of sufficient size to crossfire with Quiberon and defend the straits (1886, 4x240mm). There are batteries and structures of many periods and Nicolas Faucherre had suggested that it is probably the battery most worthy of conservation on the island. However after the municipality took it over from the military 6 months ago, it is already suffering depredation.
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Remarkably there still remained a sandwich type roof construction to the fire control; concrete/timber/armour plate, the last still there.
Reduit des Poulins at the extreme Northern end of the island is a corps de garde type 1846 No 3. Sarah Bernhardt acquired the site in 1891 and lived there until 1923. It was under refurbishment.
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At the opposite end of the island is Port-An-Dro. The beach here was the site of the first attempt by the English troops to disembark in 1761, and was later protected by a tour crenelée Type 1846 No 2 (above). In an excellent state of preservation as a home, the owner permitted free access to the exterior and demonstrated the single-handed operation of the drawbridge to great effect.
Nearby Batterie Kerdonis is a corps de garde No 3, protecting the beach at which the English disembarked successfully 20 days later. This was viewed from the road across dense gorse; also seen only from the coach were the beach defences of Grands-Sables and Samzun and a distant view only of the island battery of Gros Rocher.
A stop was made to see the Belle Fontaine, built under Vauban to ensure supplies of freshwater with access from the sea. Built like a magazine the cistern was still full of water. The site was later protected by a corps de garde Type No 3, Port-Larron. A short walk along the beach was the Barrage de plage de Bordardoué, a simple beach defence in the form of a redan with retrenchment.
The town enceinte of le Palais: Vauban in his plans for the citadel had also proposed enclosing the town within a bastion trace which would have taken in the high ground on the Southern side of the town; during the siege of 1761 temporary bastion shaped fieldworks were hastily erected here by the defenders. The town was eventually given a front of fortifications on this side early in the C19th. A wall with bastions on the sites of the early fieldworks was fronted by three rare Napoleonic detached redoubts with two levels of fire. The redoubts are joined by a counterscarp wall with counterforts rather crudely filled in to form a loopholed wall.
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The redoubts are connected to the inner curtain by postern and covered way (above).
The main gate of the enceinte is Porte Vauban, with fine architectural features.
The long coach trip back through Brittany was broken up at lunchtime by an extended stop at the magnificent Château de Fougères. Standing on the border of what was the independent state of Brittany and France the town was of great military importance in the Middle Ages and the site of the stronghold of the Dukes of Brittany.
The site is curious. Most of the town, encircled by ramparts, much of which remain, is perched on a promontory overlooking the Nancon Valley, while the castle stands in the valley floor. A loop in the river, around a rocky peninsula, was turned into a powerful fortress, and further enhanced by short diversion of the river at the neck of the peninsula to create a moat. A complex of towers, gates and water defences combines with two huge C15th artillery towers, much bigger than anything in the UK, to form a formidable castle.
Tour Coigny (C13-17th) Fougères.
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Arrival early in Caen enabled a foray into the citadel; badly damaged in the war it has been heavily restored with works ongoing in the bright cream Caen stone. Ample time was available to have a meal in Caen before catching the ferry.
Caen, main gate.
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Having quoted freely from the tour notes on the towers to be found at the various locations, I am somewhat confused as to their description. The following has been gleaned from Les Dernier Châteaux Forts by Philippe Truttman.
Tours-modèles of 1811 - had a loopholed roof parapet with a single machicolated protrusion on each face for flanking fire and first floor loopholes.
Reduits de Batterie de Côte. Type 1846. Tours Crenelées. Crenellated roof parapet and two machicolated boxes on each face. Casemated gun positions on first floor.
Reduits de Batterie de Côte. Type 1846 Corps de Garde Crenelées. Reverts to loopholed roof parapet and first floor.
It was unfortunate that the Tour Notes took the format they did. The CD has an enormous amount of information on it relating to the Brest area of the tour. A single printed copy was available on the bus, but it was a large document of two thick loose leaf volumes. The book La Bretagne sud is excellent but neither are field books and both are in French. One cannot always cling to the tour guides even if this was desirable or possible!!
It will take a number of months to absorb all the information in these publications, and with the aid of a translator.
But let this not detract from the quality of the tour. The sites visited covered all periods and were excellent choices; timing was also spot-on for tides and ferries and took full advantage of the available daylight. By some dint of divine intervention, attributed to Tom Bell, the weather stayed mainly dry and often sunny for the site visits. Keith and his team were fully deserving of the thanks expressed at our last night's dinner together in the Lorient hotel.
(My thanks to Steve for writing this Report and apologies for wielding the Editorial knife. There were so many sites seen or visited on this longer than usual Tour that there is not space enough to do justice to them all.
Guillaume Lécuillier's book, Le Taureau; forteresse Vauban, costs €38, about £27. ISBN 2.915623.14.7, Editions Skol Vreizh, La Manu, 41 Quai de Léon, 29600 Morlaix; www.skolvreizh.com. HB, large format, 143pp, full of cracking colour photos and plans. A great book, lots of members bought one. Ed)
