Saint-Séverin

In early 1944, the occupying Nazis had bunkers constructed by local firms that were to be home to the Saint-Séverin battery, known under the code name Luchs (Lynx). The commander was Hans WILHELMI; in the autumn of 1944, this officer commanded the groups at La Perroche and La Cotinière.

The battery was equipped with four howitzers confiscated from the French army dating from the Great War.

Its role was to defend the southern coastal area of the island and the artillery was effective against any naval attack up to a distance of 11km. The site’s close defences consisted of different elements (antiaircraft guns, antitank weapons, machineguns and mortars) that were installed in the battery or at the point of La Perroche village.

Twenty or so concrete works with a precise role spread over 8ha were surrounded by barbed wire and mines.  Four bunkers for howitzers, fed by four external platforms to fire towards the horizon; nearby, several bunkers for the soldiers and gun crews, two bunkers for stocking munition reserves and an observation post on the dune that was also the commander’s post.

A fake battery to deceive Allied reconnaissance planes was built further to the north.

In the autumn of 1944, the battery was one of the most powerful on the island.  It was bombed during the liberation fighting on 30^th April 1945.

A few months before, on 24^th November 1944, two Russian Resistance fighters posted to the battery managed to blow up a very important stock of German ammunition. This resulted in arrests and a visit from the Gestapo headquarters in La Rochelle. It led to an increase in the deportation of a number of inhabitants to La Rochelle in January 1945, including Russians and Italians, considered as hostile.

The battery was captured when the island was liberated on 1^st May 1945 with the aid of sabotage by the Resistance.

Type 627

The Type 627 is the command and observation post of the German battery at Saint-Séverin.  Protected by armour, soldiers could observe by day in clear weather and with binoculars, all the nearby maritime traffic from La Cotinière in the north to La Coubre lighthouse to the south.  If the enemy was detected, the post guided the fire of the four howitzers set behind the dune in coordination by telephone with the other batteries of the western coast of the island; at night, they used searchlights, rangefinders and various detection devices to follow the target.

Crédits
©Archives CCLSO
©Service Historique de la Défense
https://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/
https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr
©Stéphane Calonnec
©EPCAD/Défense / Auteur inconnu
©Fonds Boyer/Musée de l’île d’Oléron/CDCIO
©BAMA Bundesarchiv Militararchiv
©Thierry Richard/Oléron production