Fort Des Dunes, and other WW1/2 buildings - Dunkirk-Calais Feb 09

[LittleMadam]

Hi guys,

After a few days spent in the lovely city of Lille we decided to take the scenic route back to Calias and try and find some of the old forts that are dominant on this side of the coast.

Our first visit was the "Fort Des Dunes" truly a spectacular fort, part of it seemed in use we only saw a minute part of this grand structure. Please see below for a translated history of the fort;

Building
The establishment of Fort des Dunes met, following the 1870 war, the need to protect the border towns with a strong belt.

In 1874, General de Rivières Séré director of engineering services was prime contractor for the construction of a system of fortifications.

One strong ground type Séré of Rivers "was built on the coast: The height of the dunes was to become one of the mainstays of the defense strategy of the territory and the Dunkirk area.

We choose the mouth of Bray-Dunes trained dune and polder primitive, with a canal, two roads and a railway from the Belgian border, to build the fort.

The dune area to incorporate the landscape a work fortified. Who could doubt that the mountain of sand out of a strong home Leffrinckoucke twelve hectares and produced more than 40 000 000 bricks made on site?


Fort
The fort could accommodate 13 officers, 22 NCOs and 416 soldiers [1].
It included accommodation, bakery, slaughterhouse, shop, powder magazine, wells and tanks, hospital, prison ...
It was surrounded by a moat fitted with caponiers.
Access was by a drawbridge.


Operation Dynamo
In June 1940 the fort was the command post of the 12th Motorized Infantry Division (DIM)

Its commander, General William Janssen was killed on 2 June 1940 in an inner courtyard, with some of its managers, by aerial bombardment.

On 3 June 1940 a new aerial bombardment caused the death of a hundred soldiers and caused extensive damage.

Following from this fort there are pictures of Petit Fort Phillipe and also other random bits we found. We only scratched the smallest of surfaces and since looking on Google Earth there is so much left to see, in which a day trip is in order if anyone would want to come along....

Hope they are ok!!!

Now onto Petit Fort Philippe (there are only 2 pics of this) then onto the other random parts which I am afraid I have no information on....

There is a picnic table directly under where this tower is leaning, I wonder if anyone was there when it moved!!!

Can anyone explain what was under this tower? It almost seemes as there were rooms and this is why the bottom has caved in?

 

[DigitalNoise]

Lovely, there's nothing like the battle scarred fortifications of france. Although it's a good thing ours are intact (!) There's so much more atmospere there.

 

[Trinpaul]

That looks like a great way to spend a Saturday............just wandering around that place great pics!

 

[Foxylady]

Fabulous site, Tamasine. Loads of interesting things to see...looks like a huge area too.
Cheers.

 

[LittleMadam]

Hi peeps,

Thanks for the comments, this was all along the coast, and yes a great way to spend the day, not really knowing what your going to find.

I totally love the WW2 stuff out there