Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
German Naval Coastal Battery Landemer, Castel Vendon: four M272 casemates with 150 mm guns, dug into a hillside 10 km west of Cherbourg. It went live only days before D-Day—without a Leitstand. Today, it’s manned by two horses.
Before WWII, France began building the Castel Verdon battery: 2 turrets with twin 340 mm guns from Bretagne-class dreadnoughts. By summer 1940, 20 m-deep gun pits were nearly done when the German Navy seized the site.
In 1942, the battleship Gneisenau was due for an upgrade with 380 mm twin turrets. But after heavy damage in a British air raid at Kiel, plans were scrapped. Two completed turrets were reassigned in 1943 to a new coastal battery at Castel Verdon, renamed Landemer.
The site proved unsuitable for such heavy guns. Instead, the Germans built bunkers for 4 x 150 mm Skoda guns (range 23 km). These became the Landemer Battery, part of the Atlantikwall guarding Cherbourg.
After D-Day, Allied forces targeted Cherbourg. On June 25, 1944, Landemer Battery opened fire on naval forces. By June 30, strafing P-47s and the 47th US Infantry cleared the position. Turm IV was blown up by the Americans. The end of a battery that had existed barely two months.
German Naval Coastal Battery Landemer, Castel Vendon: four M272 casemates with 150 mm guns, dug into a hillside 10 km west of Cherbourg. It went live only days before D-Day—without a Leitstand. Today, it’s manned by two horses.
Before WWII, France began building the Castel Verdon battery: 2 turrets with twin 340 mm guns from Bretagne-class dreadnoughts. By summer 1940, 20 m-deep gun pits were nearly done when the German Navy seized the site.
In 1942, the battleship Gneisenau was due for an upgrade with 380 mm twin turrets. But after heavy damage in a British air raid at Kiel, plans were scrapped. Two completed turrets were reassigned in 1943 to a new coastal battery at Castel Verdon, renamed Landemer.
The site proved unsuitable for such heavy guns. Instead, the Germans built bunkers for 4 x 150 mm Skoda guns (range 23 km). These became the Landemer Battery, part of the Atlantikwall guarding Cherbourg.
After D-Day, Allied forces targeted Cherbourg. On June 25, 1944, Landemer Battery opened fire on naval forces. By June 30, strafing P-47s and the 47th US Infantry cleared the position. Turm IV was blown up by the Americans. The end of a battery that had existed barely two months.
