Cap de La Hague N49 42.570 W001 56.371 Map 1110E
WN 308
At the furthest north west corner of the Cherbourg Peninsula, the Germans built
a Special Construction (SK) searchlight bunker, perched right on the edge of the sea.
The 60 cm searchlight was used to illuminate incoming Allied aircraft and could
even be angled down to pick out ships at sea.
The searchlight was undoubtedly used to help the two gun emplacements at
Auderville spot attacking aircraft.
The bunker was in reality a garage where the giant lamp could be parked during
daylight hours.
At night the searchlight was wheeled out of its garage and hauled up the ramp to
its operational position on top of the bunker.
You can still see where the cable cut into the concrete at the top of the ramp
when the lamp was winched up to its operational position.
The winch would seem to have been portable and it was stationed in front of the
bunker.
The bunker was also equipped with a crew room with a separate entrance, there is
also a generator room, as well as an emplacement for an anti aircraft gun
nearby. There is a pile of metal some meters to the west of the bunker.
This was originally the German radio antenna which enabled them to communicate
with the Channel Islands.
