Merville Gun Battery

The Merville Gun Battery was a coastal fortification in Normandy, France, in use as part of the Nazis' 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.

Defences
The Merville Battery was composed of four 6 ft steel-reinforced concrete gun casemates, built by the Todt Organisation. Each was designed to protect First World War-vintage 14/19 Tschechisch 100 mm guns. 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 surrounded by two barbed wire obstacles 15 ft thick by 5 ft high, which also acted as the exterior border for a 100 yd minefield. Another obstacle was an anti-tank ditch covering any approach from the nearby coast.