| Brécourt aliases: Équeurdreville,[1] Martinvast[2] |
|
|---|---|
| Part of Nazi Germany | |
| Équeurdreville-Hainneville, in Manche, France | |
Dwight Eisenhower visiting the Brécourt1 V-1 flying bomb facility near Cherbourg |
|
| Type | bunker |
| Built | 1932-1944 |
| Construction materials |
concrete |
| In use | never used[3] |
| Battles/wars | Operation Crossbow |
| Events | started 1932 bombed November 11, 1943 captured July, 1944 |
Brécourt was a Nazi Germany bunker started inside an underground French Naval oil storage facility. On July 7, 1943, the site was ordered to be completed as a V-2 rocket launch facility.[4] Early in 1944,[5] the facility was converted to a V-1 flying bomb launch facility[6] and subsequently completed.[7]
The military installation was virtually undetectable by aerial observation,[3][8] although the 387th Bombardment Group records indicate Operation Crossbow bombing of the "Martinvast V-1 site" on November 11, 1943.[9] The Allies captured the site a few days before July 4, 1944, and both Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill subsequently visited the facility – the latter reportedly dropping an apple he was eating in astonishment of the massive facility.[4]
^1 The location for the photo of Eisenhower on the stairs has also been identified as Söttevast.
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