Chateau d'eau Ouistreham Map 1612 OT N49 16.349 W000 16.141
The German gun site was placed here in 1943 to protect the approaches to the
Orne canal and the small port of Ouistreham, it could also range its guns
towards the approaches to Sword beach.
The captured French guns had been placed in casemates of the H669 type.
The other two were still in open emplacements awaiting their casemates which had
not been started by D-day. The French guns were made by Schnieder and dated from
the first world war.
Because of their antiquity and due to the fact that they were in need of
service, the guns had their range decreased from 18kms down to 11kms. This
was due to wear in the barrel which caused the gas that propelled the shell to
escape past the shell and also allowed the shell to deviate from its true path.
Decreasing its effective range was the only solution.
The strong point was known to the Germans as WN12 and to the British as Daimler.
Most of the German strong points in this area were named after British makes of
cars.
Most of the outer defences have disappeared under the urban sprawl, although one
Tobruk can still be found sitting in a field to the rear of the site.
The site is on private land and is difficult to access
