Forgotten German Gun Battery at Maisy
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Battery A previously forgotten battery has been uncovered and it is
about to re-write the story of D-Day. Military enthusiast Gary Sterne
came across the buried 40 acre site a few years ago whilst studying a
wartime officer's map of the area marked 'Area of High Resistance'.
"Not knowing where I was going or what I was looking for, I continued
walking across the fields until to my amazement I found I was standing
on concrete. I followed the concrete to the edge of the tree line and
discovered a bunker entrance... then a tunnel, an office, store rooms,
headquarters buildings, radio rooms, bunkers … and most importantly
mounts for 155mm cannons," he recalled.
Thus began a four year project to buy the land from its various
owners,
and to uncover the largely untouched bunkers and tunnels. After the war
it had been buried beneath a metre of top soil and farmed. The
virtually impenetrable Normandy hedgerows had covered the evidence and
the site, which had housed hundreds of German soldiers, was forgotten
by the locals and ignored or overlooked by historians. "After studying
the RAF reconnaissance photographs it was clear that the site was of
major importance - it was not just another little gun battery but a
major complex - a similar size to that at Pointe du Hoc but virtually
undamaged." Further research in the Washington and Berlin archives
revealed that in 1944 the Maisy Battery was a headquarters complex for
the coastal defence of Omaha Beach and its guns included four 10.5 cm
cannons – three in casements and one in a field, it had six 155mm
howitzers in open emplacements, a Russian Howitzer cannon captured at
Dunkirk, two 50mm KwK anti-tank cannons, two Renault Tank turret tops
mounted into casements – not to mention many machineguns, mortars and
rifles.
Nearby Pointe du Hoc had 3 x 20mm anti-aircraft guns guarding
it - along with a wooden false battery in the field next door – Maisy
was guarded by 12 x 88mm anti-aircraft canons (8 in front and 4 in the
fields behind). As well as its usual personnel who had manned it since
it was built in 1942, it was guarded by infantry from the 352nd &
716th Infantry Divisions and a flak battalion arrived on the 3rd of
June and was ordered to defend it. This flak battalion was commanded by
Colonel Kistowski and in his original interviews with Longest Day
writer Cornelius Ryan he provides graphic details about the Allied
planes flying over Maisy on D-day and how the Germans kept up the
pressure to repel the invasion by shooting them down. He reported that
they captured 19 US paratroopers at Maisy on D-day alone.
On D-Day and for two days afterwards, the Maisy Battery fired
on American soldiers landing on Omaha Beach - 'Bloody Omaha' - as it
has been ever afterwards known. During the landings men from the US
Rangers scaled the 60 ft high cliffs at Pointe du Hoc near Omaha to put
out of action the gun battery there. Those who have watched the film
‘The Longest Day’ will recall that when they reached the casemates
there were no guns there. Since then the question has been asked by
historians – where were the guns from Pointe du Hoc?
After three years of research Gary believes that he may have
the answer: the huge casemated guns at Pointe du Hoc were an elaborate
bluff – the gun barrels pointing from the concrete bunkers were
telegraph poles - a 'ruse de guerre' by Rommel to distract the Allies
who diverted men and bombing raids to destroying it. This is borne out
by the French Resistance leader in the area who told his contacts in
England before D-Day that there were no guns at Pointe du Hoc.
Meanwhile the well camouflaged nearby Maisy Battery was pounding the
beaches until it was captured on June 9th. This is evident in the US
G-3 after battle reports which continually state that Maisy Battery was
firing at Omaha Beach during these 3 days despite being bombed, shelled
and straffed. Its survival was inpart helped by the fact that the
Germans designed and built the whole battery on the reverse slope of
the fields at Maisy, allowing its cannons to be protected from the
Allied ships which could not fire directly at them.
On the morning of the 9th of June 1944 Maisy Battery was
attacked by units of the US 2nd and 5th Rangers, soldiers from the 116
Regiment of the 29th Div. (Maryland, Virgina National Guard) and 83rd
Chemical Weapons Battalion (Heavy Mortars) and was supported by a
barrage from a US field gun battery. In another of Ryans interviews
with Staff Sgt. Donald Chance of A company 5th Rangers, Chance wrote
that “we were the lead company in the behind the lines action to attack
the complex at Maisy”. The firefight lasted all morning until the
Germans eventually surrendered. The scars of the battle can be seen so
vividly at the site today - in the tunnel walls and building fronts and
are a testament to the ferrocity of the encounter.
When it was eventually captured by the Rangers the site was
well stocked with food and over 180 tons of ammunition and could have
continued to fire at Omaha Beach. So why has it been ignored by
historians after the war?” There is also no mention the 19 US
paratroopers who dropped onto the site and were captured by the Germans
on D-day, they were mentioned in Kistowski's interviews - were they
just part of the Allied mis-drops, were they shot down or were they
part of an attack force sent to neutralise the battery which failed?
"Maisy Battery was probably the largest combined German gun battery and
HQ complex outside of Cherbourg and Le Havre and it has not been seen
by anyone at all since the war - which also makes it one of the most
significant military finds of the last 60 years and a huge potential
local tourist site.” Having spent the last few months finishing the
site with the enthusiastic help of local volunteers it is hoped that it
will be open to the public sometime in 2006. There are also plans to
unveil a memorial plaque June 9th 2006 – to commemorate the 18 members
of 2nd and 5th Rangers who were killed and wounded capturing it on the
9th of June 1944
20.01.2008. 13:07
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