Places of Interest - France

Calais:

Calais originated in the Middle Ages as a fishing hamlet of Petresse, later Saint-Pierre. The place grew and proved to be of strategic importance. In the twenties of the 13th century the city was strengthened. Calais was part of the county of Artesia, until the English conquered it at the siege of Calais in 1347 and it became an English exclave. In 1558 Calais was reconquered by the French again. The city was then conquered by the Spaniards in the siege of Calais (1596) from the Spanish -Netherlands and was temporarily part of the Netherlands, but was returned to France at the peace of Vervins in 1598. 

During WWII the city was almost completely destroyed. Only the "tour de guet", a watchtower dating from the 13th century was still standing. A part of the citadel has also been preserved. Other sights are the beautiful town hall with its belfry and a monument in honor of the fact that King Louis XIV landed here again in 1814 (after the fall of Napoleon). Finally, there is an art- and war museum ("Musée de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale"). The port of Calais is the most important French port for passenger transport between France and England, and is the fourth French trading port. In the vicinity of Calais, in "Coquelles", the Channel Tunnel starts (to England) and was commissioned in 1994. Because of the presence of the canal tunnel, there have been a large number of migrants in and around Calais since 1999, including in a camp called "The jungle"; in 2016 the camp was evacuated.

Audinghen / bunker "Todt"

Shortly after the fall of France in June 1940 it quickly became clear that England did not want to make peace with Germany. The battery was initially built to support the German landing troops that would storm England. Operation "Seelöwe" was canceled however and Germany had to reckon with an Allied landing. In August 1940, "Organization Todt" started with the construction of the complex. On 20 January 1942 the first shot was released. The battery was initially called Battery “Siegfried”. A few days before the official opening, Fritz Todt, the founder of Organization Todt, was killed in an aircraft accident. As a tribute, the name was changed to Batterie Todt. On 12 February 1942, the battery came into action to allow the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen to pass safely through the Channel. 

At the end of September 1944 the batteries were attacked by troops from the Canadian 3rd infantry division. In addition to the normal reinforcements, many retreating German troops had also settled themselves in the area. On September 26, 1944, 532 aircraft of the RAF attacked the Cape and Calais. A second air strike followed on September 28th with 302 aircraft where 855 tons of bombs fell. Early in the morning of September 29, the Canadians attacked again supported by tanks from the British 79th armored division. The tanks encounter lots of toruble due to the bomb craters, but the piling tanks made their way through the minefields. The defenders of Battery Todt quickly surrendered and by the middle of the morning the battery was switched off. Some 1,600 German prisoners of war were made during this action. On the Canadian side, 42 people were killed, eight of whom were killed. The flag of the battery was sent to the mayor of Dover because the conquest brought an end to a three-year bombardment of the city from the French coast.

Mimoyecques:

Mimoyecques is the name of a rocky area west of the place Landrethun-le-Nord near Calais. It is here the German occupiers in WW2 built a large complex (bunkers) for firing the V-3 in 1943-1944, an extremely large and powerful multi-chamber cannon . Today it is a museum. When the German application to the French electricity company for a connection of 5000 kilowatts for the complex had already attracted the attention of the Résistance. Resistance men warned the British secret service, and the British made the first aerial photographs in August 1943. From this it was clear that two railway lines disappeared into the rocks. The Allied forces knew nothing about the weapons that were being developed. They only saw that there was a huge complex and they took it very seriously immediately. On 5, 8 and 9 November 1943 the complex was bombed by the American 9th squadron. After the bombing the Germans stopped building the western bunker complex. 

It was not until 6 July 1944 that a large bombardment was carried out again, because Winston Churchill saw the complex as a serious threat. That day, 17 Lancasters, a Mustang (as a marker) and a Mosquito (marker) launched an attack. Several Tallboy bombs were dropped, the largest bomb at that time with a weight of 5.4 tons. Three of them pierced the chalk cliffs and the concrete roof of the complex, one rolled down through a launch shaft and exploded on the second floor. Two Germans and 9 "foreigners" were killed and the damage was enormous. Because an aquifer was hit, the complex ran full of water. The Americans were not aware of this success because there was little damage from the outside. On 12 August 1944 they made another attempt to destroy the complex. A Liberator loaded with explosives would bomb the complex and in the vicinity of the target, the crew would jump out of the aircraft and land with parachutes. The Liberator would continue to fly by radio and finally had to take a dive on Mimoyecques. However, the aircraft exploded prematurely as it flew over Suffolk. The pilots Joseph P. Kennedy jr. (The older brother of John F. Kennedy) and Wilford Willy were killed. Wreckage from the aircraft ended up at Blythburgh. When the Canadian army advanced to the area in September 1944, Mimoyecques was evacuated by the Germans. On May 9, 1945, the British blew up part of the complex. In 1947 the French government closed the entire complex with concrete because it was impossible to store the remains of the forced laborers. On 7 July 1985 a memorial was unveiled.

Boulogne-sur-Mer:

Among the Romans, Boulogne-sur-Mer was an important fleet base. Here was until 296 the Classis Britannica, under the authority of the dux secundae Belgica. From Boulogne to Cologne there was an important road; the via Gesoriacum ad Colonia Agrippa, called Via Belgica. The Romans called the city of Bononia. Until the Peace of the Pyrenees it was the capital of a county of Beans and was part of the Spanish Netherlands. Despite the Flemish-speaking name, the city had been French-speaking since the 14th century. In 1805 the Napoleon's Grande Armée gathered in Boulogne-sur-Mer for an invasion of the United Kingdom. This invasion never went through because of problems elsewhere in Europe and the maritime superiority of the Royal Navy. In Boulogne the first Esperanto World Congress took place from 7 to 12 August 1905 in the presence and with a major role of the designer of the language, Ludovich Zamenhof. Boulogne must be one of the most interesting French coastal towns on the English Channel. Even though most of the post-war buildings are mainly in the "ville haute" (the upper town) that towers high above the other buildings are worth it. This is surrounded by a 13th century city wall. The city's major landmark is the popular "Nausicaa", a gigantic large aquarium.