The next route in our quest to reach Cherbourg, we move on the D 116 west from Gatteville-le-Phare. Through the villages of Roville and Gouberville, we visit our next object, the bunkers of Néville-sur-Mer. When we reach this village, we drive towards the coast. To find this site, we drive right of the church, and keep on this road. After a couple of hundred meters passed the church, keep right at the fork in the road. After some 500 meters, go left.

The battery of Néville-sur-Mer was locally known as Stp 126 Blankenese. This battery is extreme close to the seashore, almost on the beach. Every year the sea is closing in on the battery, and one day the erosion will swallow the battery. The Kriegsmarine (German navy) had the command over the battery, and the 2/260 Marine Artillerie Abteilung had the responsibility. To this day, the complex is entered at the original guard post.

There a many types of bunkers and casemates in this complex to be found. The different sort of casemates in this complex was more or less to blame on the many types of weapons the Kriegsmarine used. From the Channel Islands some 94mmVickers M39 guns were brought over. Two of these guns were mounted into the M 158 casemates, and a third in an M 272. The M 272 is the first large casemate you come across and recognizable on the collapsed roof.

On June 20, 1944, the 24th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 4th Cavalry Group, occupied Néville-sur-Mer. The American engineers started immediately in the destruction of the site. As seen on the pictures, the managed this for a great deal. Especially the M 272 casemate was hit hard, and the roof gave in. Behind one of the M 158 casemates, ammunition bunker was blown apart, and the roof cart wheeled upside down a little further away.

A nice feature in this complex are the many concrete tunnels that connected the bunkers and casemates. At the rear of the complex, some are still intact, but at the front, the tunnels are smashed by the sea.

It’s a great complex to wander around. It is fascinating to watch how the sea the concrete away nibbles, and the battery into it’s waves pulls. The ground around the bunkers has been swallowed already. There are many signs at the complex to warn the visitor for unexploded ammunition. But nobody seems to care. When we visited the place, some boys were busy playing paintball.

To continue our tour towards Cherbourg, return on the same road, to the village ofNéville-sur-Mer. Turn right here, onto the D 116. After a couple of kilometers, you reach the village of Vrasville. Some 200 hundred meters further, turn to te left, take the D 412 near Angoville-en-Saire. After 4 kilometer you come across the next interesting object. At the crossroad with the D 901 at St. Pierre-Eglise are the remnants of a German navigation system.

This station was; W 158, the sonstige Funkführungsanlage Erika 2. It consisted of 6 x FuG 121 Erika Bord. The complex is split by the D 412. To the west of the road stands a part of the foundation of an antenna, with, in a other field, an overgrown personal bunker.

At the other side of the road, to the east, are five more of these foundations for antennas. In front of every base, stand a bunker which once contained the electronics that collected the information it received from the antennas. In the eastern field are two other huge personal bunkers. The complex is on private property where cows stroll in the meadow, but can be seen from the road.

Go to St. Pierre-Eglise, in the centre turn right, and after the church go left, and go onto the D 210 (also called the Rue de Calvaire) towards Fermanville. After 4 kilometers you come across an Y-dividing, keep left and go left onto the D 116, to Cherbourg. After a kilometer go left into the Villages de Marettes. In this region was the heaviest battery in the north of the Cotentin built by the Germans, to protect Cherbourg.

MKB Hamburg had four heavy guns of 24cm SK L/40c/98. The crew to handle and protect these guns consisted of 260 men, of which 250 were from the 9 Marine Artillerie Abteilung which stood under command of Oberleutnant Rudi Ernst Max Gelbhaar. Gelbhaar had given the order to tear down the heavy concrete protected left sides of the emplacements, so the guns could fire to the rear of the battery, from where the American troops were approaching.

On June 25, 1944, a serious duel between Battery Hamburg and the American Navy. The reach of the Hamburg guns were at least 26 kilometers, and had to be destroyed before a run into Cherbourg, from the sea, could be done. For this purpose the battleships USS Texas and USS Arkansas, together with the destroyers Barton, O'Brien, Laffey, Hobson and Plunkett Bombardment Group 2 were composed. The first ship to open fire, at 12.08 hours, on Hamburg was the USS Arkansas.

Batterie Hamburg waited untill the Group was within reach, and then opened up at 12.29 hours. Three guns aimed at the USS Barton, but made no damage was done (although, there was a ricochet on the hull of the ship).

The duel finished at 15.00 hours when the Bombardment Group retreated. The USS Arkansas had fired 58 12 inch shells, and the USS Texas fired 206 shells with their 14” guns. The USS Quincy also shot at the battery. Of the 65 shells who were counted that landed around the USS Texas, two hit the ship. As mentioned before, the USS Barton, was hit once, just as the USS Laffey, which was also a dud. The USS O'Brien was struck with one shell which did detonate, and killed 13 men, and wounded 19. werd ook geraakt.

On 28 June, Batterie Hamburg surrender to the Americans of the 4th Infantry Division. The battery is these days no longer visible, it is completely covered in the undergrowth and behind high hedges on private land. The best way to see some of it, is to look with ‘Google Earth' (49º40'45 50"N - 1º27'09 47"W).

Bombartment Group 1, with the battleship USS Nevada as the most heavy one of these group, came close to Cherbourg, and fired on the coastal batteries. But the USS Nevada was also fired upon, and some 27 fell around the battleship, but no hits where made. The USS Nevada fired 112 shells with her 14"/45 guns and 958 shells with her 5”/38 guns. All German batteries suffered under the heavy shelling from the American ships. The next object, you can easily visit, was pounded also.

On you way ‘Villages de Marettes’, you come across a sort of fork in the road, turn right into the Hameau Carré. After 800 meters, turn left (just before the D 116), and keep left in the bend of the road, and turn into the Chemin du Bruley. After a kilometer, on the crossroad straight on the Chemin de la Marine. You entering now the sector of Batterie Seeadler.

The Batterie Seeadler was equipped with four 17,4cm guns in open emplacements. These are still, without their guns, to be found in the heath and ferns, on a plain called Pointe du Bruley. They can be found to the north, or right of the path that stretches out from Chemin de la Marine. You can enter this area by a special gate to keep the cattle inside these boundaries. The emplacements are serious big things, with personal shelters incorporated into these emplacements.

But the most impressive object of Seeadler, is the observation/direction finder bunker on the highest top. A short walk is worth the visit. If you don’t feel like walking, return to the crossing of Chemin du Bruley and turn right. After some 500 there are more bunkers to be found.