Musee de la Batterie de Merville
The Merville Gun Battery consisted of four, six foot thick steel-reinforced concrete casemates each containing a 100mm gun, although Allied planners had thought they may contain guns of 150mm calibre due to the size of the casemates.
Allied intelligence believed that the battery could threaten the British landings on sword beach which is located only 8 miles from the battery. So on the 6th June 1944 the 9th Parachute Battalion (part of the 6th Airborne Division) was given the task to capture and neutralise the battery.
Today the battery is home to the Merville Battery Museum which is housed inside the original casemates. The museum covers the batteries role in the German Atlantic Wall Defences, the lives of the soldiers who were stationed there as well as the story of the Allied soldiers who captured it.
As well as the gun casemates the site also contains an ammunition bunker, dormitory, cookhouse, HQ bunker and other buildings.
Every 20 minutes inside casemate one there is a powerful sound and light show which recreates the events on the night of the 5th/6th of June 1944.
The museum is also home to a C-47 plane, “The SNAFU Special” which took part in Operation Overlord dropping America paratroopers and has been restored to the colours it would have had on the 6th June 1944.
