 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. |
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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. |  Click to enlarge map  The entrance to the Hillman Bunker museum. The word "Musee" in French stands for "Museum"  The Hillman Batterie taken by the Suffolk Regiment on D-Day.  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. |
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I used two different cameras on the 2016 visit. The Nikon Coolpix 35mm and the Apple iPhone Six Plus. |
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 The entrance to the museum at the Hillman Batterie complex which happens to be an extremely rare 605 type bunker with room for two gun types. |  This beautifully preserved batterie features all of the original steel doors, look how clean that is! |  The Suffolk Regiment standard bearer flag. |
 Looking from the inside out of the rare 605 type bunker. |  All of the relics featured here were found on the site including that phone and the Teller mine! |  A German KAR98 standard issue rifle in beautiful condition as are the Lugers below. |
 An MG34 which was succeeded by the feared MG42. |  A rusted and broken MP40 found on the site. My apologies for the poor lighting. |  A wonderful example of the bunkers ventilation system. |
 A German mannequin standing at attention. |  A really great shot of the steel window portal and the gas stove with valve. |  What a happy looking chap, probably not smiling during the siege of the Hillman Batterie. |
 Looking down the 608 type bunker with Tobruk. There are two 608 types on this site. |  The entrance to the Tobruk. Inside there would be a mortar or mounted MG42. |  Now this is fascinating. These are azimuth charts for gunners to aim there firing positions. |
 Each marking gave the gunner the exact firing range in meters, still here after all these years! wow! |  A nice look down the pathway. Note the bunker niche with machine gun position at the very end. |  A look moving down onto the 608 bunker type at the Hillman batterie, this is one of 2 608's on site. |
 A beautiful 608 type bunker on a beautiful French summers day... |  One of the open trench networks on the site connecting the bunkers. |  Looking down the 608, note the camouflage hooks in front of the Tobruk. |
 A nice shot of the Tobruk that sits on the 2nd 608 type bunker on the site. |  A close-up of the tobruk emplacement and the camouflage netting hooks. |  The entrance to the 2nd 608 bunker's tobruk emplacement. That concrete looks pretty good for being there over 70 plus years! |
 The original steel plating in the niche of the 2nd 608 type bunker on the site, finding a bunker complex so complete is rare. |  Walking inside the 2nd 608 type bunker. I took extensive video of this location, that will be uploaded at a later date. |  Not only does this location make it unique because of it's original state but also because there is no graffiti. On my many visits to the remains of bunkers in France many were ruined by graffiti, a real shame. |
 3 guesses as to what this is? Ok times up! that is the water supply for the garrison on the site. |  According to records the commanding officer, a colonel Krugg used the water supply as a pool! whether or not that is true remains a mystery. |  The primary water tank found in the 2nd of the 608 type bunkers on the site. |
