Le Blockhaus d'Éperlecques

The Bunker of Éperlecques

Useful Information

Location:	Éperlecques
Open:	MAR daily 11-17. APR daily 10-18. MAY to SEP daily 10-19. OCT daily 10-18. NOV daily 14:15-17. [2010]
Fee:
Classification:	Atlantikwall World War II Bunker
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Le Blockhaus d'Éperlecques, Rue du Sart, 62910 Éperlecques, Tel: +33-321-884422, Fax: +33-321-884484.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

MAR-1943	beginning of construction.
27-AUG-1943	first bombing.
NOV-1943	restart of the works.
1945	works end with the liberation.

Description

Le Blockhaus d'Éperlecques (The Bunker of Éperlecques) is â German bunker in northern France. It is one of the sites related to a German super weapon, it was a proposed V2 launch site. V-2 or Vergeltungswaffe 2 was the rocket built by the scientists around Wernher von Braun in Peenemünde. In 1942 three of the scientists were ordered by Albert Speer, Hitlers architect, to find a site for a V-2 rocket launch facility. The selected the forest of Éperlecques, near St Omer. The construction started in early March 1943. The bunker was designed to launch 36 rockets per day. But the Allied Forces discovered the bunker on aerial photographs and decided to bomb the site. Bombings between AUG-1943 and JUL-1944 destroyed the bunker completely and made it useless. Not a single V-2 was ever launched from this site.