Wn61 Colleville-sur-Mer Le Cavey
Easterly beachfront position on Omaha Beach.
Wn61 site overview
What to see
You could be forgiven for missing Wn61 Le Cavey if you were driving along Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur-Mer as this once extensive site has been swallowed by newer developments.
The most easterly of the beachfront area Widerstandsnests, this site boasted a huge R677 gun casemate for an 88mm Pak 43 cannon along with Tobruks, shelters for personnel, and a 1694 type Ringstand for a 5cm KwK gun.
Most of the structures are still in place, but they are well hidden by modern buildings, except for the R677 which is now being used as a holiday retreat, and we're pretty sure the double glazed windows and shutters weren't there in 1944.
The same garden also features a Tobruk which once had a captured French Renault35 tank turret bolted on top and would have given defensive support to the rear and east of the large casemate.
To the rear of the site is a Tobruk where a 5cm mortar was positioned while in front were trenches which linked it to machine gun posts, ammo niches, and a personnel shelter.
There's a lot of rubble and metalwork remaining on the beach in front of this location, including several twisted remains of the metal strips used as a hard standing for soft ground, sometimes around the perimeter of airfields.