Nazis' secret base found (Omaha Beach battery contains 40 buildings "untouched" since D-Day)

The Sun (U.K.) ^ | January 24, 2006 | TOM NEWTON DUNN

[Stoat]

Nazis' secret base found

Revealed ... the Nazis’ untouched secret bunker
 

By TOM NEWTON DUNN

Defence Editor 

A WARTIME bunker used by Nazis to bombard Allied troops during the D-Day landings has been unearthed untouched — after 60 years.

British treasure hunter Gary Sterne found the base exactly as it was when German troops fled after the Normandy invasion in June 1944.

Gary, 41, said: “It’s truly incredible. Apart from damage to the radio room, the whole place seemed to escape bombing unscathed.”

 

Treasure hunter ... Gary with RAF medals
 

The bunker sprawls over 20 acres and is thought to be the hidden German battery that decimated US soldiers at Omaha Beach, seven miles away.

The encampment contains 40 buildings — including a field hospital.

Some of the offices contain army papers — as well as radio equipment.

Amateur historian Gary found it in dense undergrowth after buying a German army map at a French car boot sale.

The dad of two, from Manchester, kept it secret for three years so he could buy the land near the village of Grandcamp-Maisy.

He now plans to open it as a tourist attraction this year.

[Robert A Cook PE]

This is a German site, not an RAF site, with no indication of any skeltons left after the Germans retreated.

Those were RAF medals (his own ? Don't know - he seems rather young for them to be his own) so they are probably from his prvate collection.

[bonfire]

Just unreal! Acres and acres and no one ever found this?? Just one more thing to chalk up to the French.......

[Stoat]

Interesting that it was an Englishman who found the site, and one who had the foresight to do something constructive with it (rather than loot it for saleable items). I wonder if either the French or German governments will try to grab the site or its contents from him?

Great point.  Although Mr. Sterne is apparently the legal owner of the property now, events of the past few years (oil for food, Iraq double-dealing, terrorist sheltering, home for Suha Arafat, etc. etc,) suggests to me that when money or image is at hand, the French are among the most craven trash on the planet and a little thing such as a legal contract or a legal deed to a property is absolutely no impediment at all.

Watch your back, Mr. Sterne.

[Stoat]

"Private historian", eh?

Finds an interesting place, researches it, buys, invests in it, and will promote it.

BUT, if this were a dinosaur fossil site, he'd be castigated and denigrated by the (socialist) (government-funded) researchers.

Time will tell, but I have concerns that the French government will try to steal this from him (through the French courts, of course) on the pretext that it is a National Historic Site.  Then it will be the French government who develops it into a tourist attraction and reaps the monetary rewards from it.

[MEG33]

Indeed.

[goarmy]

"So a 20 acre military facility can go, apparently undetected, for 60 years in peacetime France... yet, some people are absolutely certain that there's nothing left to find in rather more trying conditions in Iraq..."

Good point. I raised my cup of Joe to your statement.

[R. Scott]

But do you just fry them up, or do you sauté them and drown the result in sauces?

[R. Scott]

No doubt.

[cricket]

So a 20 acre military facility can go, apparently undetected, for 60 years in peacetime France... yet, some people are absolutely certain that there's nothing left to find in rather more trying conditions in Iraq...

Indeed and good point. Would help of course, if this Administration would just get a grip on the gazillion papers that have been 'temporarily' shelved rather than translated. . .

[cricket]

thanks for the posting. . .and what an incredible find by Gary Stern. . . and then the fact that he was even able to buy the property.

An amazing story. . .

[Stoat]

thanks for the posting.

You're quite welcome; I'm delighted that you enjoyed the story.   :-)

. .and what an incredible find by Gary Stern. . . and then the fact that he was even able to buy the property.

My great hope is that he will be able to keep it.  I am concerned that this will be viewed as a profound embarrassment for the French (it was right under their noses for 60 - odd years and they apparently had no idea it was there) and that they will use some clause of French law pertaining to National Historic Sites to wrest it from him, despite his legal ownership.

After all, divers who have found sunken treasures have long had to contend with countries laying claim to the finds when they had no idea that it was there to begin with.

[tpaine]

 A Page Devoted to the Eating of Snails, also known as Escargot, and a Snail Eating Frenchman's Website.

Address:http://www.premiersystems.com/recipes/appetizers/escargot.html

[R. Scott]

… they can be prepared after starving 4 or 5 days…

Does PETA know about this? Or, does it mean I have to starve for 4 or 5 days before I could eat them?

[Northern Yankee]

Amazing find!

Hard to believe that its been around for so long without being discovered.

[chilepepper]

well what did you expect? these are the french we are talking about here. as in "clueless".

[tpaine]

Starve a snail, feed a frog..


Seriously, ya gotta love Escargot as an appetizer.
It's really the garlic butter you sop up with sourdough bread that's so good, but the sauteed snails ain't bad either..

[maggief]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,1693425,00.html

Hidden for 60 years: the Nazi beach bunker found by Briton

Kim Willsher in Paris
Tuesday January 24, 2006
The Guardian

A secret underground military complex abandoned by the Nazis as allied forces stormed Normandy after D-day has been found by an English amateur historian.

Gary Sterne came across the series of bunkers that had lain untouched for more than 60 years after buying a second world war map from an old American soldier. Armed with his map he visited the area near the Normandy beaches of Utah and Omaha, where he found the entrance to the military complex hidden under bramble bushes. He was astonished to discover a labyrinth of bunkers, control rooms and equipment abandoned by the Germans.

Mr Sterne, a collector of military memorabilia, said he had been intrigued by the idea of a hidden complex after buying a 1940s German army map from a former US serviceman. He said he had no real idea what he was looking for when he visited the area detailed in the map around Grandcamp Maisy in Normandy.

"I didn't know where I was going but I started to walk across the field when suddenly I found myself walking on concrete," he told Ouest France newspaper.

"I followed the concrete right up to the edge of some trees and it was there I suddenly found the entrance to the underground block, then a tunnel, an office, a supplies warehouse, general quarters, a radio room, other blocks and, most importantly, a room with supports for 155mm guns," he added. "It even had an underground hospital. The Germans had left behind many personal possessions."

(snip)

[R. Scott]

I can enjoy garlic butter and sourdough bread – even frog legs are acceptable, but I have a cultural aversion to snails.

[maggief]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16620111&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=a-nazi-piece-of-history--name_page.html

24 January 2006
A NAZI PIECE OF HISTORY
Brit Gary finds massive German bunker untouched for 60 years
By Mark Ellis, Foreign Editor

A PERFECTLY preserved German bunker that bombarded Allied troops in the D-Day landings has been unearthed by a British man in France.

The astonishing Second World War time-capsule, which lay forgotten for more than 60 years, is just as it was when Nazi troops fled the Normandy invasion in June 1944.

Offices still contain books, maps and papers, radio equipment and reading glasses. In the cookhouse are knives, forks, crockery and a large stove. Bunks have boots and water bottles stacked beside them.`

Gary Sterne, who found it, said: "It is an extraordinary place. Nowhere else has such a remarkable hoard of World War Two paraphernalia been discovered in such an excellent state of preservation."

Gary discovered the site after buying an American military map at a French car boot sale and tracing a field marked near the coastal village of Grandcamp-Maisy.

He said: "I was walking across a field that was simply marked as 'area of high resistance'. I did not really know what I was looking for when suddenly I found myself standing on concrete.

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"I followed the concrete into thick undergrowth and found myself at the mouth of the bunker."

The network of shelters and gun positions sprawls over 20 acres. Gary believes it could be the hidden battery that decimated the US soldiers who landed at Omaha Beach, where the Americans suffered their biggest D-Day losses.

The invaders thought German artillery was dug in at Pointe du Hoc, above the beach, but when US troops scaled the cliffs they found only telegraph poles in place. The real guns, dragged away inland, were later found and destroyed.

(snip)

[Stoat]

Thank you very much for posting this additional article! It provides some important additional details and helps to fill out the story quite a bit. Thank you!