Sea Eagle N49 40.416 W001 28.705 Map 1210E
This was in an old French fort, built at the turn on the century, to protect
Cherbourg from the English.
The French called it Le Fort la Batterie Brulay.
The Germans simply took it over and used the 94 mm guns already installed in
open casemates.
The site remained in use throughout the occupation, even after the two other
sites with much more fire power were installed to the east.
In front of the old French batterie the Germans also took over a very imposing
fire control post, that looks like an import from Easter island.
The fire control post was four stories high and would have been equipped with
telemeters on three levels.
Such was the importance given to the defense of Cherbourg, when batteries like
Azeville had to make their own improvised model.
A Telemeter is a very accurate device for discovering the distance of a ship out
to sea.
It looks like a pair of binoculars mounted on a tripod but with the lens several
meters apart.
When focused on the approaching ship it gave the distance from the observation
post.
The distance then had to be calculated manually for each of the gun
emplacements, because their positions were usually further back from the
observation tower.
According to books written during the 1960's, there were quite a number of
paintings on the walls of the ammunition bunkers dating from the occupation.
These have no been replaced by art of a more modern kind.
