Le Blockhaus

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Le Blockhaus d'Éperlecques
(Kraftwerk Nord West, KNW)
Part of Nazi Germany
Foret d'Eperlecques, France

Exterior of the Le Blockhaus d'Éperlecques
Type bunker
Coordinates 50°min′N 2°min′E / <span class="geo-dec geo" title="Maps, aerial photos, and other data for Expression error: Unrecognised word "min" Expression error: Unrecognised word "min"">Expression error: Unrecognised word "min", Expression error: Unrecognised word "min"
Built March - September 1943 (major work completed)[1]
Built by Organisation Todt
Construction
materials		 120,000 cubic metres ferrous concrete
Height 28 m (~92 feet)
In use captured September 1944
Current
condition		 heavily damaged[2]
Open to
the public		 yes (protected by law)[citation needed]
Battles/wars Operation Crossbow, Operation Aphrodite
Events captured September 4, 1944
Le Blockhaus d'Éperlecques
Le Blockhaus d'Éperlecques


Le Blockhaus d'Éperlecques[3] is a bunker built by Nazi Germany under the code name Kraftwerk Nord West (KNW) (Powerplant Northwest)[4] as a V-2 rocket facility. The site was an Operation Crossbow bombing target ("Watten") and never used for V-2 launches.

[edit] Construction

In December 1942, Albert Speer ordered Peenemünde officers and engineers (including Colonel Gerhard Stegmair,[5] Dr Ernst Steinhoff and Lieutenant-Colonel Georg Thom) to tour the Artois region in Northeast France and locate a Channel coast site for a V-2 rocket launch facility West of Watten,[6] in the forest of Éperlecques, near St Omer and Calais.[7] Building Battalion 434 started construction in early March 1943[7] based on plans by Xaver Dorsch, Construction Director at the Armaments Ministry.[1][6][8]

A complex system of railway lines transported workers and concrete from Calais and St Omer. The bunker was designed to launch 36 rockets per day[citation needed] and make the daily requirement of liquid oxygen (65 tonnes),[citation needed] which reduced evaporation losses during transport. Instead of a separate liquid oxygen plant planned for Stennay,[9] five[citation needed] 4-storey high Heylandt compressors were intended to be installed to make the liquid oxygen and the rockets were to be assembled in the northern part of the site and moved on trollies to be launched in the southern part.

In early April 1943, an Allied agent had mentioned 'enormous trenches' being excavated at Watten, and on May 17, 1943, Allied photographic interpreters reported unidentified activity at Watten.[9] At the end of May, the British Chiefs of Staff enjoined Eisenhower to arrange attacks on the Mimoyecques, Siracourt, Watten, and Wizernes bunkers, which would soon be complete.[2][9]

On July 8, 1943, Hitler viewed a colour V-2 rocket film and scale models of the Watten bunker and mobile launching-troop vehicles. Instead of the "shoot-and-run" mobile launching Walter Dornberger advocated (and eventually used), Hitler reaffirmed that there should be more than one fixed bunker.[6]

By September 1943, construction at Watten (as well as at Wizernes, and the 'special' V-2 site at Sottevast) was on schedule, despite Allied bombings.[1]

The south section of the building was constructed by initially constructing a 5 meter (~16 feet) thick concrete plane weighing 37,000 tons, which was incrementally raised by hydraulic jacks and then supported by walls to become the roof.[citation needed]

[edit] Mission change and capture

On July 3, 1944, the Oberkommando West gave permission to stop construction at the heavily damaged Watten and Wizernes sites.[2] Finally, on July 18, 1944, Hitler ruled that plans for launching V-2s from bunkers no longer needed pursued.[9] Nevertheless, a few days after July 18, 1944, Walter Dornberger's staff decided to continue minor construction at Watten (wryly code named Concrete Lump) for deception purposes, and the liquid-oxygen generators and machinery were transferred to the Mittelwerk V-2 factory.[9]

On September 4, 1944, Canadian forces captured the Watten site, the most easterly of the fixed V-2 rocket launch sites,[1] and on September 10, the French atomic scientist Frédéric Joliot-Curie (accompanied by Duncan Sandys) inspected the Watten site.[1]


Main article: Operation Crossbow
Bombing of Éperlecques and Watten during World War II
Date Result
August 27, 1943 VIII Bomber Command Mission 87: 224 B-17 Flying Fortresses are dispatched to the German site construction at Watten, France; 187 hit the target at 1846-1941 hours; they claim 7-0-6 Luftwaffe aircraft; 4 B-17's are lost, 1 is damaged beyond repair and 98 damaged; casualties are 1 KIA, 18 WIA and 32 MIA. The mission escort consists of 173 P-47 Thunderbolts; they claim 8-1-2 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 P-47 is lost and the pilot is listed as MIA. This is the first of the Eighth Air Force's missions against V-weapon sites (later designated NOBALL targets).[10] Thought to be for the V-1 flying bombs, and unknown to the Allies at the time of the attack to be designed for V-2 rockets,[11] crews were briefed on an 'aeronautical facilities' mission and low-level bomb the freshly-poured concrete beginning to harden[6][2] at the 'special target'/'large site'[12] at Watten.[9][5][13] Bombing caused the still-wet cement to solidify into a mess that was beyond description.[4]
August 30, 1943 VIII Air Support Command Mission 38: 36 B-26 Marauders are dispatched to an ammunition dump at Foret d'Eperlecques near Saint-Omer, France; 33 hit the target at 1859 hours; 14 aircraft are damaged; casualties are 3 WIA.[10]
September 7, 1943 VIII Bomber Command Mission 92: 147 B-17's are dispatched V-weapon site at Watton, France; weather is a problem and 3 groups abort the mission; 58 hit the target at 0820-0854; 39 B-17's are damaged; casualties are 7 WIA.[10]
February 2, 1944 Mission 205: 95 of 110 B-24s (including 41-24282 RUTH-LESS) hit V-weapon construction sites at St Pol/Siracourt and Watten, France; 2 B-24s are lost, 1 is damaged beyond repair and 2 damaged; casualties are 10 KIA and 19 MIA. 183 P-47s escort the B-24s without loss.[10]
February 8, 1944 Mission 214: 53 of 54 B-24s (including 41-29208 SHOO SHOO BABY & 42-100110 NORTHERN LASS) hit the V-weapon site at [[[Siracourt]]], France while 57 of 73 B-24s hit the V-weapon site at Watten, France; 41 B-24s are damaged and 10 airmen are WIA; escort is 89 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-47s[10]
March 19, 1944 Mission 266: 1. 117 of 129 B-17s hit sites at Wizernes and Watten; 1 B-17 is lost and 74 damaged; casualties are 1 WIA and 10 MIA. 2. 56 of 64 B-17s hit Marquise/Mimoyecques; 14 B-17s are damaged; 1 crewman is WIA. Escort is provided by 82 P-47s; 1 is damaged and the pilot is WIA.[10]
June 19 & July 27, 1944 The nearest Tallboy bomb dropped by No. 617 Squadron RAF on June 19 landed 50 yards (46 m) from the target,[14] while one Tallboy hit the target on July 27 (but did not penetrate the structure.)[15] The Tallboy bombs dug up the nearby ground and tilted the machinery foundations, making the bunker useless.[6]
August 4, 1944 Mission 515: The first Operation Aphrodite mission is flown: B-17 42-30342 Taint A Bird[16] targeted Watten but impacted at Gravelines, probably due to flak damage.[17]
August 6, 1944 One Operation Aphrodite drone targeting Watten turned inland and began to circle the industrial town of Ipswich. After several minutes, it crashed harmlessly at sea.[18]
the remote control of another drone's Azon gear malfunctioned, and the mother controller was unable to steer the drone down to its target. It flew a giant, tantalizing circle around Watten, then finally spiraled into a cow pasture and exploded, killing a herd of cows.[19]
B-17 31394:[17] experienced control problems and crashed into sea.
B-17 30212 Quarterback:[17] experienced control problems and crashed into sea
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[edit] References and Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Henshall, Phillip (1985). Hitler’s Rocket Sites. New York: St Martin's Press, p57,64,81,93,94,111. 
  2. ^ a b c d Ordway, Frederick I, III; Sharpe, Mitchell R. The Rocket Team, Apogee Books Space Series 36. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, p118,121,218. 
  3. ^ Le Blockhaus d'Éperlecques (html (French)). Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
  4. ^ a b Huzel, Dieter K (1960). Peenemünde to Canaveral. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall, p93. 
  5. ^ a b Neufeld, Michael J (1995). The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: The Free Press, p172,204. 
  6. ^ a b c d e Dornberger, Walter (1952 -- US translation V-2 Viking Press:New York, 1954). V2--Der Schuss ins Weltall. Esslingan: Bechtle Verlag, p73,91,99,179. 
  7. ^ a b Klee, Ernst; Merk, Otto (1963, English translation 1965). The Birth of the Missile:The Secrets of Peenemünde. Hamburg: Gerhard Stalling Verlag, p44,46. 
  8. ^ Ley, Willy [1944] (1951 (revised edition 1958)). Rockets, Missiles and Space Travel. New York: The Viking Press, p224. 
  9. ^ a b c d e f Irving, David (1964). The Mare's Nest. London: William Kimber and Co, p28,43,53,68,133,220,246,275,300,309,310. 
  10. ^ a b c d e f 8th Air Force 1944 Chronicles. Retrieved on 2007-05-25. 1943: August, September 1944: February, March, June, July, August
  11. ^ Cooksley, Peter G (1979). Flying Bomb. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, p51,185. 
  12. ^ Collier, Basil [1964] (1976). The Battle of the V-Weapons, 1944-1945. Yorkshire: The Emfield Press, p36,159. ISBN 0 7057 0070 4. 
  13. ^ Garliński, Józef (1978). Hitler's Last Weapons: The Underground War against the V1 and V2. New York: Times Books, p117. 
  14. ^ Campaign Diary. Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary. UK Crown. Retrieved on 2007-05-24. 1944: June, July
  15. ^ World War II German hardened A4/V2 rocket launch sites. Retrieved on 2007-06-07.
  16. ^ Aphrodite-Missions, Aircraft and Crews. B-17 Flying Fortresses: Queen of the Skies. Jing Zhou. Retrieved on 2008-06-03.
  17. ^ a b c 1942 USAAF Serial Numbers (42-30032 to 42-39757). Encyclopedia of American Aircraft. Joseph F. Baugher. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
  18. ^ Nichol, John; Rennell, Tony (2006). Tail-End Charlies - The Last Battles of the Bomber War 1944-45. New York: St. Martin's Press, p199-204. ISBN 0312349874. 
  19. ^ JFK's Brother Flew Drone. Orwell Today. Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
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