Neville Blankensee N49 42.109 W001 19.996 Map 1310O
S126
The Kriegsmarine batterie situated right on the Point de Néville,
was as close to the sea as possible in the tradition of all German Naval
Batteries.
The eight guns placed here came from two different sources.
Firstly British guns made by Vickers (M39) and having a 94mm bore, were placed
in casemates right on the waters edge.
Two were housed in M158 casemates and the third (casemate No 1) was housed in
a type M272 casemate. There is also a fourth casemate, but I am not sure of the
type, possibly a SK.
The possible reason for this is that guns had a different carriage to
the others and required more space.
The M158 casemated have ventilation shafts which enabled the gas emitted when
the gun fired to be extracted, fitted to the exterior of the casemate.
These guns had be captured on the Channel Islands in 1940 and installed here,
they had a range of 12 kms.
The other guns installed here and mounted in the open were of French origin made
by St Chamond and had a range of 20 kms.
The site have over thirty different bunkers and although very open to the
elements most can still be found.
Néville also has a complete system of concrete passageways linking all the major
parts of the defense system, from the three fire control posts to the casemated
guns and on to the Tobruks and personnel bunkers.
Judging by the amount of damage caused by Allied shelling this batterie must
have upset the Allied fleet during the battle for Cherbourg.
