Near Sangatte, France lies the former ‘Stützpunkt 124 Bremen’. It was built early in the war as support for Operation Seelöwe, and afterwards became part of the Atlantikwall. Three railway guns on ‘Schwenkbettungen’ (rotatable open emplacements) fired at British batteries on the other side of the channel and could also protect the harbour of Calais. Eventually one was lost when a shell exploded in the barrel.
The three ’28-cm-Kanone Neue Bruno (E)’ guns, manufactured by Krupp between 1940 and 1942, weighed 150.000 kilos each. Their barrel was 15,247 meters long and their shooting range was 46,6 kilometers. The guns could be parked for maintenance in a tunnel built in a chalk cliff. The railway tunnel was connected with a staircase to a Regelbau 622 bunker on top of the hill. While most of the battery has been demolished, the 622 and tunnel have been used as a mushroom farm and thus remain intact.
