The A4/V2 Resource Site presents this walk-around tour of the Wizernes V2 bunker, the La Coupole Museum in d'Helfaut-Wizernes, northern France. These images were photographed by Ed Straten and myself during several resent visits to the Pas-de-Calais area of France. We highly recommend visiting the La Coupole Museum, it is an amazing step back in history.
The La Coupole Museum was planned and constructed over a ten year period from 1987 to 1997. The Wizernes dome was declared an historical site in 1985 by the French government. The museum resides inside and around the old mining quarry where, in 1943, the German Army began work on the second of several giant hardened bunkers, intended for launching 40-50 V2 rockets at London each day. Inside the museum, the "Historical Centre about the war and development of the rocket," you will now find exhibits that document the German planning and contruction of the bunker, the Nazi occupation of France, mans conquest of space, and one example of a surviving A4/V2 rocket.
Schotterwerk Nordwest SNW Ersatz
KNW,
Bauvorhaben 21 - B21
In 1943, Hitler's forces faced their first battlefield defeats. These reverses of fortune for the Wehrmacht led Hitler to make secret weapons V1 and V2 a top priority program. The construction of several hardened launch sites for V2 rockets is undertaken along the coasts of France. It is in October of 1943 that the Todt organization begins construction, close to Saint-Omer, of the one of the most imposing bunkers related to the program V2 - THE CUPOLA, the domed bunker. The Todt organization entrusted the work to large German companies and they moved in a mountain of construction hardware such as, earth-moving & drilling equipment, concrete batching and mixing plants, etc., -
1300
workmen would build on the site, laboring day and night, badly nourished
and abused by the German guards. The foremen and the skilled workers were
German, the hard laborers were forced workers - young French forced into
the "Service of Obligatory Work" and captive Soviet (men and women). In
July 1944, at the time the building site was abandoned, the 500 Soviet
prisoners working on the construction of the CUPOLA were dispatched by
train to Germany. They were never seen again.
It was only after Allied bombing and damage at the Watten bunker site on August 27, 1943 that the German Army looked to the quarry at Wizernes as an alternate prospect for V2 underground operations. A man named Xavier Dorsch, chief engineer with the Todt organization, had proposed the site to Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer. His suggestion was a variation of the Verbunkerung technique by which a one million ton concrete dome would be constructed on the hillside overlooking the quarry, and a series of connecting tunnels (about 7 kilometers of underground galleries) would be excavated beneath the dome and hillside. The dimensions of the dome were to be colossal, 71 meters in diameter and 5 meters thick, weighing 55000 tons. The Wizernes bunker would receive the code name of "Bauvorhaben 21, Schotterwerk Nord West".
The building plans of the CUPOLA were titanic - galleries are dug in the chalky plate for storage of the rockets, the fuel supply, a liquid oxygen production facility, housing for the garrison and the generators of electricity. There would be paths leading from outside, through rocket height doors, and into the interior assembly area. Inside, the rockets could be serviced and assembled safely, shielded from Allied bombing by the massive dome and the chaulk hill as well. A small railway supply tunnel would lead to all of the underground workings and a large octagonal chamber over 100 feet under the dome. The octagonal chamber would have a diameter of 41 meters. The height to the underside of the dome was 24 meters. Seven stories high, all for fueling and prepping of the rockets, the floors would be carried by the concrete slabs, on which steel beams would lay. Another chamber for preparation of the rockets would be located directly under the dome. When ready to fire, they would be rolled down the giant tunnels, Gustav and Gretchen, through the 5-foot-thick solid steel exterior doors (55 feet high) and launched quickly. A special SS Batterie of V2 troops was planned to run the operations at the CUPOLA. There would also be built a V2 guidance bunker 8 km south near Roquetoire.
Other features of the Wizernes complex were to include: Regenwurmlager ("earth - worm" camp) - code name="Frontlager Schotterwerk Nord West". Along with the building of the Wizernes dome complex for remotely firing V2s, the Germans would build pre-defined locations for V2 mobile-launching units. This was heavily favoured by General Dornberger. These would be regular mobile launch sites. There were between 30-50 scattered across the countryside around Wizernes. They were called "Regenwurm Stellungen". Most (at least a number) of the (concrete pads) can still be found today. The prepared V2's were planned to come out from the Wizernes complex to the Vidalwagens & Meillerwagens, which would be parked in a planned (but never constructed) tunnel system called "Regenwurmlager" in the hills, on the left of the hospital.
By November of 1943, construction had been started on the dome, along with the tunnel excavation at the base of the quarry. Although aware in Nov. 1943 of the existence of an abnormal building site close to Saint-Omer, the Allies were slow in targeting the bunker for air raids. Conventional bombing of the site began in March of 1944 with little effectiveness, the dome-protected underground work was already completed. More than 3000 tons of bombs were dropped, damaging the close villages and upsetting the roads to the building site. But, the CUPOLA remained intact. Work on the project continued at a fast pace even through 229 air-raid warnings.
On April 27, 1944, 16 U.S. Army Air Corp planes dropped (128) one-thousand-pound bombs on the target of Wizernes with good results, losing one aircraft in the action. On June 22, 1944, the U.S. 303rd flew a morning mission to Wizernes with a small force of 14 B-17s. This Wizernes mission was ineffective due to a heavy cloud cover. After a two minute bomb run, the bombs fell short in a wooded area east of the target and one B-17 was shot down by anti-aircraft guns. In total, sixteen raids were carried out against Wizernes by Allied air forces. Allied pilots reported heavy, accurate flak batteries in the bunker area. The damage inflicted on the area was destruction of the railway, communications and road networks near the bunker. Although the bunker was not destroyed by the bombings, it was logistically unusable.
It was not until July 17, 1944 that an attack by Allied bombers proved somewhat successful. RAF Lancaster bombers rained down the new 6-ton "Earthquake" Tallboy bombs. Although the dome remained intact, the RAF bombers dropped their bombs all around the dome. Three of the Tallboys exploded next to the tunnels, one burst just under the dome, and another burst in the mouth of one tunnel. The whole hillside collapsed, undermining the dome support, and covering up the two rocket vertical entry ways.
General Walter Dornberger reported that although the contruction itself remained largely intact, the earth surrounding the bunker was so "churned up" that the site must be abandoned. It was believed that the dome would soon collapse also. This was probably an exaggeration based on Dornberger's own opinion of the dome- Dornberger had always been against fixed launching sites for he feared Allied bombing would hamper V2 operations. The Todt engineers disputed this finding, but the Allied invasion of France and dwindling supplies prevented any further construction. At the end of July, 1944, Hitler ordered the site abandoned, along with the Roquetoire guidance bunker. Soon the V2 would be deployed exclusively on mobile launchers in Belgium, Holland and Germany.
No rocket was thus launched from the CUPOLA. After being inspected by a British investigation team at the end of 1944, the CUPOLA remained forgotten for many years.
Click here for info about the Wizernes Roquetoire Leitstrahlstellung guidance bunker
