On our recent trip up the coast of Northern France, we stumbled upon Batterie Todt. Located in the hamlet of Haringzelle, Audinghen near Cape Gris Nez, it’s a stones throw away from our first stop Cap Blanc Nez.
Built by the Germans in World War II, Batterie Todt officially opened in February 1942 although its first shell was fired a month earlier. It formed an important part of the Atlantic Wall and consisted of 380mm calibre Krupp guns capable of reaching the British coast.
Today, Batterie Todt is known as the Museum of the Atlantic Wall (Musée du Mur de l’Atlantique). Dedicated to military history, there are thousands of collectibles from 1939/1945 including weapons, uniforms and posters spread across ten rooms on three floors. The barracks, engine room and armoury have all be reconstructed so you can almost imagine what life must have been like.
As you can appreciate, photography is forbidden in the majority of Batterie Todt. If you’re interested in history and in the area however, it’s certainly worth a visit. It’s pretty incredible inside.
Outside there is one of only two surviving Krupp K5 canons, part of a railway as well as military and armoured vehicles. You will also find century boxes dotted around which as you can imagine POD absolutely loved!
What a fascinating place to visit, and the photographs you were able to take are fab. I know why they don’t allow photography at places like this, but it always makes me a little sad when I can’t take photos!!
What an amazing place, it looks absolutely fascinating. x
I think my Mister would absolutely love to visit this place, definitely something that would interest him x
What an interesting place to visit and explore. I always find historical buildings fascinating, learning so much history. My folks would love this.
Sounds like a really interesting place. Also interesting about the no photograph thing. We had this in a museum I had been dying to visit in Japan, but in the end it added to the experience as I found myself enjoying it more and not wondering about the next photo! 🙂
My husband and son would love this! We’re considering France next year so we can visit places like this!
Such enormous guns! A pity about the no photos rule, but you have found some lovely ones nevertheless.
This part of France is filled with world war two history. It is why we hope to take the boys again. We did the whole of this area and loved it. Steeped in history and beautiful too.
I like the photos you did get! Looks like a fascinating place.
It sounds fascinating and I love learning more about WW2, especially from different perspectives
What an interesting place and a lot of history to be learnt. Would love one day to take my son on a history trip to France to see places like this.
hubby is going to love this when we go next year, bookmarked to remind me
I remember years ago visiting this coastline and seeing the all the War museums. I can’t imagine how different the area would have looked then.
Looks fascinating. You can imagine just how scary it must’ve been looking at the sheer size of the cannons and the trains when it was all operational.
oh my goodness, the guns could reach the UK coast! That’s a powerful beastie!
This looks like somewhere Charlie would enjoy after our visit to the Tank Museum this summer.
Wilf would love to visit this place I think! x
Now this place does look absolutely fascinating, thank you for sharing!
So much history! Keira would love this as she’s doing ww2 at school
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