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.

[Cap Huff]

I had resolved not to plan another trip to France, but this just might be too hard to resist.

[Coop]

Well, okay. But no drinking French wine!!

[windcliff]

ping

[Calpernia]

Wow. I'm jealous of everyone that gets to enter and secure that base. I would love to be one of the people that get to enter and go through that untouched history.

[Cap Huff]

I don't know this guy's track record, but I sure hope he does the thing right.

[SAMWolf]

I'll bet there are some neat "souvenirs" to be found in there if it really has been untouched since the war.

[Darksheare]

Agreed.
I'd love to eyeball the place myself.

[Buffettfan]

How do we know that those aren't john kerry's medals that he threw over the fence?? /sar

Semper Fi'
Jarhead

[shield]

HOW INTERESTING....

[Netheron]

I've had the snails, and they really don't have any flavor. They taste like sea cucumber or octopus. They're a rather rubbery texture with no real taste.

I think the French just invented them as an excuse to eat garlic butter. Escargot are typically slathered in it.

[DJ MacWoW]

I think this thread needs pics of the guys that went up against this bunker on D-Day. Your grandfather is the skinny kid on the right.

[TruthNtegrity]

Those pictures are of our Military unearthing (or is it UNsanding?) a MIG in the deserts of Iraq!

They've found MIG's, tanks, loads of huge replacement parts, you wouldn't believe what they've found buried in Iraq. It gives one pause, because there sure could be chemical WMD's buried - right next to one of our bases, for example.

[VOA]

bump

[TruthNtegrity]

Marking.

[Darksheare]

I would love to know who his friend was in the Navy duds.

Wonder which beach zone he was at, and if the artillery emplacements at the bunker tossed stuff his way.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This is just too interesting to miss.

I'll say that is true...unreal!

[wolficatZ]

"Francoise Passerat, a historian and scientific director of the Caen Memorial, the official museum of the Normandy invasion, said that while the battery was interesting, "it will not add anything to our knowledge of the period". "

[DJ MacWoW]

Wonder which beach zone he was at, and if the artillery emplacements at the bunker tossed stuff his way.

I had read it in his papers but have forgotten. I only know he was in the thick of it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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...Excellent point!

and Iraq is just slightly smaller than France ....I think!

France is 547,030 sq km ......Iraq is 437,072 sq km ...according to the CIA Fact Book.

[Darksheare]

Okers.