D-Day: Commonwealth Sectors

49. Radar Museum

Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandie

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The Douvres-la-Delivrande complex was a maze of tunnels manned by 230 German Luftwaffe personnel and included an infirmary, kitchen and operations room. All of this was defended by bunkers, trenches, anti-aircraft batteries, machine gun nests and minefields. This important site contained both long, intermediate and short range radars and had electricians, engineers and 36 air traffic controllers. The radars were jammed prior to the landings on June 6th and the naval bombardment knocked the installation out of action. However, the troops were well protected and attempts on D-Day to overrun the base were unsuccessful and the troops there held out for a further 12 days, at one point even being resupplied by a night time air drop. Eventually commandoes from the 41st Royal Marines with the aid of artillery bombardment and the support of the mine field clearing and bunker busting tanks of 79th Armoured Division, took the base on the 17th June. The Radar Station is now a museum where you can look around two of the bunkers and explore the history of the site and also the development of radar. There is also a rare example of a large, dish Wurzberg Radar on display.