History of the Blockhaus d’ Éperlecques
Major-General Dr. Walter Dornberger, German Artillery officer and a leader of the V2 rocket programme, came up with the idea to set up a V2 construction and launch site in northern France back in December 1942. Armament Minister Albert Speer and the Peenemünde Army Research center, where Dornberger and Wernher von Braun worked, started to examine a possible location near the coast of the English Channel. The launch site had to be constructed in the d’ Éperlecque forest near the town of Watten, France.
Construction of Bunker de Watten or Blockhaus d’ Éperlecques, code named “Kraftwerk Nord West”, started in March 1943 by the Organization Todt.
Together with a V2 rocket assembly hall and a launch location, a bomb proof train station and a liquid oxygen plant had to be built on the site. A large transformer near the town of Holques was able to provide the needed power. Unfortunately for the Germans the British intelligence agencies were informed of this construction site and took action almost from the start of the build.
On 27 August in 1943, only 5 months after the start of construction, the first air raid took place. The site was bombed a second time on 7 September 1943. The RAF dropped the 5400 kilograms heavy Tallboy bombs and the bunker penetrating Disney Bombs on the V2 rocket launch site.
On June the 19th 1944 another Tallboy attack took place during Operation Crossbow, severely damaging the site. The bunker complex survived the 27th June 1944 air raid undamaged. Only the liquid oxygen plant was expanded and put into action during this period. It was dismantled and taken to Germany in view of the approaching Allied forces. The V2 production hall was never operational. In total the plant was bombed 27 times during the war.
Operation Crossbow
Operation Crossbow was a military tactical operation against the German long range vengeance weapons like the V1 buzz bomb sites, the V2 rockets and the V3 launch locations. In November 1943 the RAF discovered 96 fixed V1 launch ramps and storage facilities with reserve sites and training facilities for V1 crews. There were four larger sites which would be active in Januari 1944 called Wasserwerk (Eng. Waterworks). These were located near the northern France towns of Siracourt, Lottinghen, Nardouet and Brécourt. Together with the V2 rocket sites and the V3 location near Mymoyeces were an immediate threat to the Brits.
During Operation Crossbow more V2 rocket launch locations were bombed like the V2 rocket site La Couple near Helfaut – Wizernes. This Blockhaus d’ Éperlecques never came into action due to the bombing and allied advance after the D-Day landings in northern France 1944.
Krafwerk Nord West
Even with the use of 35000 forced laborers the Germans could not speed up the construction time so much that it could produce and launch rockets before the allied forces took over the plant. 120.000 cubic meters of concrete were needed to finish the entire V2 bunker. Trains with V2 rockets rolled into the bomb proof station next to the main bunker. The V2 rocket was assembled/ set up and filled up with fuel inside the main bunker, it was erected and rolled outside on rails using some sort of trolley and was launched. The concrete bunker as planned would be 216 meters long, 95 meters wide and 28 meters high. In full production the plant would launch 36 V2 rockets each day.
Visit
Today the site houses an open air museum. A Tallboy crater can be seen next to the bunker, 18 meters deep, as the bomb damage caused during the war. A visit will take up around 1,5 – 2 hours. Check out the website for actual information and opening times.
Ps. the photos from our visit are from 2016.
It is a cold and forbidding place.