page_title: Longues-sur-Mer battery
section_title: Normandy landings
hierarchical_section_title: Longues-sur-Mer battery / Normandy landings
caption_attribution_description: English: Overhead plan of Longues-sur-Mer gun battery, Normandy with four casements and bunkers, fire control post and defensive machine gun / mortar pits.
context_page_description: The Longues-sur-Mer battery was a World War II German artillery battery constructed near the French village of Longues-sur-Mer in Normandy. The battery was sited on a 60 m cliff overlooking the sea and formed a part of Germany's Atlantic Wall coastal fortifications. It was located between the Allied landing beaches of Gold and Omaha and shelled both beaches on D-Day. The battery was captured on June 7 and played no further part in the Normandy campaign.
  The battery is the only one in Normandy to retain all its original guns in situ. It was listed an historical monument in October 2001, and remains in a good state of conservation.
context_section_description: The battery at Longues-sur-Mer was situated between the landing beaches Omaha and Gold. In the build up to D-Day, the battery was attacked by aircraft on several occasions. On the evening of 5/6 June 1944 the battery was attacked by bombers but little damage was inflicted on the casemates, but bombs severed the armoured communication system. A large amount of the bombs dropped hit a nearby village. The fire control post reverted to visual signals to control some of the guns and this affected their accuracy.
  The bombing was followed from 05:37 on the morning of the landings by bombardment from the British cruiser HMS Ajax. The battery itself opened fire at 06:05, and at 06.20 targeted the headquarters ship for Gold Beach, HMS Bulolo, which retreated out of range. 
  At 08.00 the British cruisers Ajax and Argonaut engaged the battery. By 08.45 no further shots were fired by the battery's guns for a time as the Germans undertook repairs. The heaviest damage was caused by the explosion of the ammunition for an AA gun, mounted by the Germans on the roof of casemate No.4, which killed several German soldiers.
  After effecting repairs the battery's guns once again opened fire towards Omaha Beach. The French cruisers Georges Leygues and Montcalm, assisted by the WW I vintage dreadnought USS Arkansas returned fire on the battery. The return fire knocked out one casemate and damaged two others. The still active fourth gun opened fire intermittently during the afternoon and evening of D-Day but caused little impact on the Allied landings. The battery had fired over 100 shots through the day.  
  The crew of the battery (184 men, half of them over 40 years old) surrendered without a fight to advancing British troops of Company C of the 2nd Devonshire Regiment at midday on June 7.
caption: Plan of Longues-sur-Mer gun battery, Normandy
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