Camp du Ban-Saint-Jean
The Camp du Ban-Saint-Jean is a former military camp near Boulay-Moselle in France. Totally abandoned today, it was used during World War II as a stalag (German POW camp). During the cold war, "Boulay" and "Ban Saint Jean" were the place where the NATO (OTAN) had one of the two secret base named "Big Ears" dedicated to listening radio communications from the East side. Giant sophisticated antennas and the most modern radio communications systems were operated under protection of the 718th company of transmissions of the French army. a couple of hundred trained specialists were scruitining the radio space to detect any military move from the East side, triggering alerts as soon as any alarming message was detected and deciphered. The network was connected through equipments called "Dispatchers" to a radio-goniometry network of antennas located on the German side of the nearby border (some in Rastatt). The camp of "Ban Saint Jean" was a perfect hideout, it was lodging the teams of specialists (out of the sight of normal life and out of contact with others...) in comfortable large houses. The motto used to be: "Celerity, preparedness and discretion". This vital alert center directly linked to the highest authorities in the Western world was dismantled in the 80's with the arrival of new technologies. Surprisingly, in a short time, the land was completely leveled and became the commercial center facing "Cité Klopp". Not many can remember that it was a very important secret center of the cold war.