Upside down WW2 bunker in Normandy, France.

[pilotof727s]

Very well built to last for that long and not collapse when it fell off of a cliff.

 

[Sylvain]

Detail of a well rusted door frame.
You can see some pieces of wood in between the steel frame of the door and the concrete.

 

[Sylvain]

The ceiling (now the floor) on the inside.
It's quite rusty since the bunker gets partially submerged during the high tide.

Speaking of tide I spent some time taking picture inside and forgot the tide was rising.

The water was now starting to reach the entrance.

 

[Bill of Rights]

Part of the cliff recently collapsed as you can tell by the really white color compared to the rest of the cliff.
Huge blocks of chalk everywhere.
If you only know chalk from school and what teachers use to write on blackboard you don't imagine that a huge block of chalk can crush you.Especially falling from 100 feet.

Handsome guy climbing them to show scale.

A teacher could last a while with a piece of chalk this size!

So.... if a guy fell to his death and landed on that thing... What would the cops use to draw his outline?

Thanks for these pics, Sylvain. Much appreciated!

Blessings,
Bill

 

[Dirtebiker]

Sylvan, I've read about the quarries that were used as bunkers/hideouts. Are those in your area? Have you seen those? A lot of cool graffiti on the limestone walls.

 

[Sylvain]

So.... if a guy fell to his death and landed on that thing... What would the cops use to draw his outline?

Thanks for these pics, Sylvain. Much appreciated!

Blessings,
Bill

lol Good question.

 

[Sylvain]

Sylvan, I've read about the quarries that were used as bunkers/hideouts. Are those in your area? Have you seen those? A lot of cool graffiti on the limestone walls.

There is a civilian underground hospital in the area.They built it right inside the cliff.
It was used to protect the civilian population during Allied air raids.
The Germans had their own bunker built under the local civilian hospital (still there) but they would only protect wounded German soldiers during raids and not civilians.

The Germans had bunker embedded in the cliff as well, with the exterior wall painted white and textured like the natural chalk.
I posted pictures of those in a previous thread.

There are some man made caves build into the bottom of the cliff as well that were used by pirates and smuggler for centuries.


We have a medieval castle where the caves are built deep into the cliffs as well, the german added concrete walls to the already existing medieval stone walls.

 

[Sylvain]

 

[Sylvain]

A piece of rebar that came out from a pile of concrete rubble.

Not sure what was the original thickness of the bar.It probably got thinner after spending 75 years outside and decades submerged in salt water.
Still a pretty solid piece.

Patch and sharpie for scale.

 

[actaeon277]

 

[GLOCKMAN23C]

Cool stuff! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Tactically Fat]

So --- how much would it cost for a baseball-sized chunk of chalk and perhaps a sharpie-sized piece of rebar shipped to central Indiana?

That legal?

Asking for a friend. Ahem.

 

[Sylvain]

So --- how much would it cost for a baseball-sized chunk of chalk and perhaps a sharpie-sized piece of rebar shipped to central Indiana?

That legal?

Asking for a friend. Ahem.

I already shipped some Normandy sand to a couple Hoosiers in the past, steel as well.
I took that piece of rebar home, so it would be easy to cut a piece of it.


I brought the piece of rebar home.I guess I could cut

 

[Sylvain]

I managed to cut a piece of that rebar.
It was surprisingly hard even with large bolt cutters.

I thought it would be quite weak since it's so rusty and spent decades in salt water.
Turns out it's just surface rust.You can see shiny steel in the middle where I cut it.

That thing feels tougher than a brand new rebar you would get at Home Depot today.
Maybe they used a special military grade steel even 75 years ago?

Some other rebars I have seen sticking out of dammaged bunkers are like one inch thick, I can't imagine how strong those are!

 

[hog slayer]

always awesome photos

 

[Sylvain]

I have a few more to add to the collection.

 

[Sylvain]

 

[Sylvain]

I noticed this one on the top of the cliff.Just a corner is sticking out, it's fully underground and was invisible from the beach 70 years ago.

I tried to locate it on top of the cliff but there lots of private properties in the area so you can't get to the edge of the cliff.
The entrance to that bunker is probably in someone's yard now.

 

[Sylvain]

Another fallen bunker.This one is in pieces.

You can see the beams and rebars used for the roof.

 

[Benp]

The pictures are amazing. Thanks for sharing!