The small town of Folligny around 15km east of the port town of Granville on the west Cotentin coast was an important railway hub on the Caen to Rennes and Paris to Granville network.
On June 17, 1940, it was subjected to a brief, but devastating attack by 11 German Stuka dive bomber aircraft which destroyed the rail lines and a large part of the town within minutes, leaving 39 people dead and many more injured.
Once the area had been occupied, the Germans set about rebuilding the railway for their own use and included a series of defensive bunkers and a tunnel on the outskirts of the town.
This was again to become a major hub for railway activity, transporting troops, supplies, and weapons through the area to major facilities along the network.
From May 18 to July 30, 1944, Folligny station and the railway was again heavily bombed and straffed – this time by Allied aircraft – on ten occasions.
Following the capture of Cherbourg on June 26, Allied troops advanced towards the centre and south of the Cotentin peninsula, finally liberating Folligny and Granville on July 30.
For its bravery and acts of resistance, the town was awarded the Croix de Guerre.
Today the town still features a series of railway lines, along with a small bunker site which is well hidden, but worth a visit.
Here you can find a guard post standing next to two circular emplacements for heavy machine guns or anti-tank weapons which overlooked the railway lines.
A set of steps at the side of each emplacement leads you down to the entrances to two connected and buried Wellblech shelter, which are in a remarkable condition and fascinating to walk through.
Perhaps the most unusual German structure here is in the cow field to the south east of the main site. Here you can see an anti-aircraft gun tower, or Flakturm, which has been designed to look like a small water tower.
This building featured steps up the side to allow access to the 2cm AA gun positioned on top, but these are no longer in place. Access to the tower is not permitted due to the field being used for cattle.
The Flakturm is believed to be linked to the area of the open emplacements and Wellblech shelters by an underground tunnel but there are cattle drinking troughs in the area where the tunnel originally begins and ends. The foundations for a barracks block can also be seen in front of the Flakturm.
In the grounds of the village hall there’s a storage/personnel shelter while on the far side of the tracks near the old station you can see an overgrown air-raid bunker.