Mary AnneThe Pas-de-Calais region was crucial in World War II. Hitler believed that this would be the place for any invasion of France by the Allies, so it was vital to wrest control of this part of north France early in the war.
In 1940 the Germans launched their devastating attack on Calais. The Siege of Calais lasted from May 22 to 26. It was the beginning of a nightmare that lasted 4 years for the population of Calais itself and the surrounding villages and towns. 73% of old Calais was destroyed.
Map of World War II Sites in Pas-de-Calais
World War II Sites in Pas-de-Calais
Calais Memorial Museum 39-45
Start with this museum (Musée Mémoire 39-45) which tells you about Calais itself and the surrounding region in World War II.
The museum is housed in a long concrete bunker, built by the Germans after the Siege of Calais in 1940. The Marine Kommando bunker (Widerstandsnest 13) was the command post for German troops with a telephone exchange controlling the whole of the region.
It’s an evocative museum, with small rooms that originally housed the German troops and their equipment stretching down two sides of a long corridor. Each room tells a different story, covering parts of the war, airplanes, heroes and heroines, the lives of the civilians of Calais, Charles de Gaulle (who married a local girl, Yvonne Vendroux), secret weapons, the Resistance and more. It’s well worth a visit if you go to Calais, one of my favorite small cities that most people ignore.
More about the Museum; what it has and how to visit.
La Coupole
La Coupole is one of the great sites of World War II and should be on the list of anyone interested in Hitler’s terrifying new weapons. Built into a hillside so virtually hidden from the sky, it took over 7 kilometres of underground galleries. Today it’s an impressive museum that takes you from World War II into the space age.
La Coupole was one of the secret locations built to launch the V1 and V2 bombs on London. The Germans called them revenge weapons (Vergeltungswaffen) or wonder weapons (Wunderwaffe).
The V1 flying bombs were known as ‘doodlebugs’ or ‘buzz bombs’ after the sound they made when in flight. Powered by a jet engine, they were originally launched from a ramp. I can remember my parents describing the sheer terror of the sound. But as the V1 had a straight, level trajectory, they were relatively easy to shoot down. They were most effective psychologically rather than practically.
The V2 was a hugely tall streamlined rocket, powered by an engine burning a mix of alcohol-water and liquid oxygen. It blasted away to the edge of space then fell back to earth at supersonic speed. The first V2 hit London on September 8, 1944.
More about La Coupole and Hitler’s V2 Rockets
Eperlecques Blockhouse
Planned in 1942, and built between March 1943 and July 1944, Eperlecques blockhouse sits in the middle of a wood. Kraftwerk Nord West (Powerplant Northwest) is a sinister, frightening place, designed as a liquid oxygen factory and an assembly and launch facility for Hitler’s V2 rockets aimed at London. It could contain over 100 missiles at any one time and launch up to 36 daily.
You walk through the woods up small paths past semi-hidden abandoned military vehicles. Nothing prepares you for the massive concrete block and its gloomy interior, built by thousands of prisoners of war and conscripted workers. In essence they were used as slave labourers.
Dark tunnels lead you further into the site and you walk past tunnels leading off to left and right. But it was never completed. By 1944 the Allies were aware of the sites and repeatedly bombed Eperlecques as part of Operation Crossbow.
More about Eperleques Blockhouse
Mimoyecques Fortress
Mimoyecques is far less known than the other two revenge weapon sites. It was here that the Germans were trying to develop the V3. Had it been developed it would, according to Winston Churchill, have created the ‘most devastating attack of all’. The site the Germans codenamed Wiese (Meadow), or Bauvorhaben 711 (Construction Project 711) was specifically aimed at London, 103 miles/165 kms away.
A walk down the long dark, dank tunnel takes you past boards with diagrams showing you how the weapon was designed. It’s an extraordinary idea: shafts holding the V-3 guns fired ten explosive projectiles a minute.
News of planned firings reached British intelligence on July 5, 1944. The next day, two squadrons carpet bombed the area, one led by Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire. They released 16 Tallboy bombs, designed by Barnes Wallace. It worked and the building was stopped.
You see memorials to Canada’s 3rd Infantry Division which captured the site on September 3, 1944.
And there’s an intriguing, and tragic story told here about a war hero – Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr., (1915-1944), older brother to President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963).
Read more about Mimoyecques Fortress
Batterie Todt – Museum of the Atlantic Wall
The Batterie Todt, Museum of the Atlantic Wall sits on the Cap Gris-Nez on the coast. It was part of Hitler’s plan to attack England and was designed to contain four 380mm (15″) guns. Started in 1940 and opened officially on February 10, 1942, it could fire rocket and shells up to 42 kilometres, easily reaching the English coast and Dover in 42 seconds. It was officially Turm 1 – one of four such defences. (The three others cannot be visited.)
Its main action was after the Normandy D-Day landings in 1944 when the First Canadian Army was advancing along the coast, retaking the ports and fortifications. A bombing raid on September 26 was followed by another one on September 29 when the garrison surrendered.
The museum has outside exhibits including a German flak gun and a huge impressive Krupp A5 (E) railway gun. Inside the former stores, barracks and more have been transformed into rooms containing both German and Allied artefacts . At the centre, the huge gun room (the ‘rotunda’) has more displays.
Read more about Batterie Todt
Siracourt V-1 Bunker
Siracourt was one of the four launching sites in Pas-de-Calais with its ramps pointed at London; the others were aimed at Brighton, Dover, Newhaven, Hastings, Southampton, Manchester and Portsmouth. The two aimed at Bristol and Plymouth were built on the Cherbourg peninsula.
Built in 1943-44, the Siracourt bunker was codemaned Wasserwerk St. pol (St Pol Waterworks). Bombed intensively by the Allies, it was never used.
It’s on the Rue du Blockhaus in Siracourt but you can only visit inside on a guided tour.
World War I & II Cemeteries
Travelling through Pas-de-Calais you’ll see a huge number of Commonwealth War Graves Commissions cemeteries from both world wars. Some are small; others are large. All of them have tragic stories to tell.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Visitor Centre
The CWGC Centre is not as well known as it should be. It’s a fascinating place that shows you what exactly this guardian of war graves and memorials at 23,000 locations in more than 150 countries and territories does. It began in 1918 locating bodies and finding details about the war dead.
At the centre you can look into a series of workshops from stone masons engraving headstones from Portland stone to carpenters, sign makers, gardeners, blacksmiths and more. Bodies from both world wars are still being discovered. And the CWGC centre researches everything they can to identify the remains before their final reburial. That is just part of its remit; today it also looks after the cemeteries all around the world.
Well worth the detour!
More about the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Visitor Centre
Visit details for the CWGC
List of CWGC Cemeteries in Pas-de-Calais
Visit CWGC cemeteries in France
More about Pas-de-Calais
Guide to Calais
The Calais Dragon
Declaration: I travelled to France courtesy of DFDS from Dover to Calais on a self-driving press trip as a guest of Pas-de-Calais Tourisme.
More Information on Ferries to France including DFDS details.
