Saint-Denis d’Oléron

From 1942 onwards, the German occupiers installed a coastal artillery battery in the dunes of Saint-Denis protecting access to La Rochelle and the submarine pens of La Pallice.

It was an unusual situation as the battery belonged to the army but was under control of the navy. As a result, this battery was frequently modified. The first crews were sent to the île de Ré and left their artillery in situ.  It changed its designation several times during the war.  In 1943 it was codenamed as Ro 519 Taube (Dove).

The artillery structured the use of space: four howitzers, of Czech origin, mounted on wheels and protected rather late in 1944 by bunkers oriented north/northeast.  Their range of 12km meant that their fire could be intersected with shots from batteries on the île de Ré.  Concrete platforms constructed in 1942 enabled the guns to fire in all directions.

Close by were situated wooden or concrete dwellings and ammunition bunkers; connected by trenches, they were half-buried in the dunes as camouflage.

On the beach, the command post enabled fire from the howitzers to be directed.

Close protection of the site was based on two antiaircraft guns linked to a 60cm diameter searchlight, an antitank gun and machineguns all over the site. The entire site was protected by barbed wire, mines and anti-landing obstacles on the beach.

In the autumn of 1944 the Allies and the Resistance forces liberated the département and encircled the opposing forces in pockets at Royan, La Rochelle and the islands of Ré and Oléron. As the risk of a landing on the island came now from the continent, the position held little value; the howitzers were removed and redeployed in haste in the centre of the island.

The site was liberated on 1^st May 1945 without having been of use.

Crédits
©Service Historique de la Défense
www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr
www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr
©Stéphane Calonnec
©EPCAD/Défense / Auteur inconnu
©BAMA Bundesarchiv Militararchiv
©ACT 597 © Réalisateur inconnu / ECPAD / 1945 / Défense
©Thierry Richard/Oléron production