Footsteps of WWII · Normandy
Longues-sur-Mer battery
Fortification · 6–7 Jun 1944
The story
This naval battery, completed in early 1944 between Arromanches and Port-en-Bessin, had four 150 mm Škoda guns in concrete casemates and a fire-control post on the cliff edge. Its range of about 20 km covered both Gold and Omaha. On the morning of 6 June it fired on the fleet and duelled with the cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Argonaut and the French cruisers Georges Leygues and Montcalm, which knocked out or damaged three casemates. On 7 June the garrison of about 180 men, many of them older soldiers, surrendered to C Company, 2nd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment.
What to look for
Three casemates still hold their guns, the only battery in Normandy to keep them. A fourth gun is wrecked. Walk forward to the two-storey fire-control post on the cliff, which overlooks the sea and featured in the film The Longest Day.
Plan your visit
Open-air site, free and accessible at all times. Guided tours are offered by the Bayeux tourist office in season. Check the website before you go.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
Nearby sites
- Arromanches: Mulberry harbour and D-Day Museum · 5 km
- Bayeux War Cemetery and Memorial · 8 km
- Museum of the Battle of Normandy, Bayeux · 8 km
- Overlord Museum, Colleville-sur-Mer · 12 km
- Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer · 12 km
- Omaha Beach: Les Braves, Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer · 14 km
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