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Origin and history

The fortress of Mimoyecques, built between 1943 and 1944 by Nazi Germany under the code names Wiese and Bauvorhaben 711, was designed to house a battery of 25 V3 guns. These long-range weapons, capable of firing 600 shells per hour at London, were to constitute a major threat according to Winston Churchill. The site, dug in a creeky hill near the hamlet of Moyecques, included five oblique wells connected by a tunnel system and an underground railway.

The Allies, ignoring the true nature of the project, confused it with a V2 missile base and heavily bombarded it from November 1943. The raids, including that of 6 July 1944 using Tallboy bombs, seriously damaged the facilities, burying 300 people and forcing the Germans to abandon the site in September 1944. After the war, Winston Churchill ordered his partial destruction to avoid any military re-use, despite French protests.

Transformed into a mushroom in 1969 by Marie-Madeleine Vasseur, a local farmer, the site became a museum in 1984 under the name Fortress of Mimoyecques - An International Memorial. Acquired in 2010 by the Conservatoire d'espaces naturelles du Nord-Pas-de-Calais, it now houses exhibitions on ballistic weapons, a replica of the V3 gun, and a memorial dedicated to forced workers and airmen who died on the spot. The site is also a refuge for rare species of bats.

The design of the V3 gun called Hochdruckpump ("high pressure pump") was based on a 100 to 127 metre long tube equipped with auxiliary chambers to propel projectiles at very long distances. The original plans included 25 guns, but technical problems (instability of shells beyond 1,000 m/s) and bombardments reduced the project to five guns. Tunnels, dug by 5,000 workers including Soviet prisoners, included access galleries, warehouses, and gas evacuation systems.

The site was captured on September 5, 1944 by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. A British technical mission, led by Colonel Terence Sanders, discovered in 1945 the real function of the complex, triggering its partial destruction by 35 tons of explosives in May 1945. The 60-ton steel plates protecting the wells, recovered after the war, were restored and resettled in 2010. Today, the museum welcomes approximately 11,000 visitors annually and is managed by the community of municipalities of the Terre des Deux Caps.

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