![]() A look moving down onto the R608 bunker type at the Hillman batterie, there were two R608's plus a rare R605 two gun bunker. |
|
Address: Rue Suffolk Régiment 14880 Colleville-Montgomery Normandy, France Coordinates: 49.264707 -0.309792 Visited and photographed: July 2016. This is a tricky location to find and took a bit of work to find the site, make sure you turn the GPS on for this one because if you stick to a map you may get lost. This German batterie is nicely tucked away amongst the French countryside and can be easily missed. As on many of my road trips in France in 2016 to the museums and bunker sites I used a GoPro camera to film the journey so as time permits I will upload those video clips to give you a clear indication as to where you are driving to. Again make sure you enter in the GPS coordinates as mentioned above. The location is found on the Rue Suffolk Regiment road, if you are coming from the South it turns from Route de Colleville and from the North Rue de Marronniers and will eventually turn onto the Rue Suffolk Regiment road. Now I took the trip from Arromanches in 2016 as if your coming from Omaha, Utah, Gold Beaches etc. then you will most likely take the same route I did. There are a lot of turns on this trip so don't fret you will get there! So coming from Arromanches take the D65 road to the D22 road until you reach the beautiful little town of Cruelly, from there take the D141 to the D7, take a right hand turn at the roundabout and straight through the town of Mathieu which turns into the D220 road. Continue driving until you reach the D141 and drive straight through the town of Bieville and then drive straight to Route de Collville, this road turns into the Rue Suffolk Regiment road and the site of the bunker and it's museum. | ![]() This rare and complete complex includes the original steel doors that connected the bunkers. |
This exquisitely preserved bunker museum is staffed and run by a group of local volunteers. The museum closes somewhat early though the grounds themselves are always open. I strongly suggest getting there early in the morning so you can see what the museum itself offers. The inside features equipment that has been found on the site over the years as well as a mountain of information on the German forces that were garrisoned here as well of course as the heroic men that fought to take the batterie on D-Day. |
|
I used two different cameras on the 2016 visit. The Nikon Coolpix 35mm and the Apple iPhone Six Plus. |