Atlantic Wall, V-bases, Pas de Calais

    

NOTE: this is really a redundant old page, which has been left in place only because various other pages on this website still link to it. But content-wise it has been superseded by separate individual chapters. These linked from below. 

  

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All along the coast from Dunkirk to the west and onwards south to the border with Spain, the northern and Western coast of France is still littered with remnants from the German occupation and WWII, in particular those enormous fortifications and bunkers that the Nazis left behind here.

  

Collectively these fortifications are known as the Atlantic Wall – a (too) literal translation of the German "Atlantikwall".

In addition, there are numerous memorials to particular battles (esp. Dunkirk) and a whole host of associated WWII museums, some of them excellent (e.g. in Caen), and especially in Normandy, summarized on this page: D-Day museums & memorials in Normandy.

 
Of particular interest to the dark tourist may also be the unfinished launch facilities for Hitler's V-weapons, the V1 and V2 in particular, especiall the Blockhaus d'Éperlecques and the visually most stunning site now known as La Coupole. 

But there was also the unique site of the planned V3 "supergun", which never became operational either, namely at Mimoyecques.

  

[btw. the photo given here, however, was not taken in France, but at the place where the V1 and especially the V2 were developed and tested, namely Peenemünde in north-eastern Germany]