Azeville battery - Utah beach, Normandy

Azeville battery - Utah beach, Normandy

Azeville Battery
The Azeville battery near the village of Azeville on the Cotentin peninsula was one of the first defensicee structures of the Atlantic Wall. Building started in 1941 and the battery was equipped with captured French 105mm guns with a reach of app 12 km.

In 1944 together with the nearby Crisbecq battery it could lay deadly fire on the Utah beach sector. The battery was garrisoned by 170 officers and men of the 2nd Company of the 1261 Heeresküstenartillerie-Regiment 1261 (HKAA). The battery's commander was Hauptmann (Captain) Hugo Treiber. Apart from the 105mm guns it had flak guns and MG positions to defend itself.
In the night before june 6th, D-Day, some 20 US paratroopers attacked the battery but they were driven off.

Serious combat around the battery started on D-Day when the guns engaged Allied ships off Utah beach. The USS Nevada, a battleship scored some direct hits but the battery stayed operational.
On june 7th elements of the US 4th division that landed on Utah beach attacked the battery but the Germans managed to fight them off. The Nevada took out one of the main guns and killed all of it's crew but also on june 8th the battery kept fighting off the Americans. On june 9th an attack by the 1st and 2nd Battalion of the 22nd Infantry Regiment was preceded by a heavy artillery bombardment. The Americans uses flamethrowers to attack the bunkers and killed a number of Germans. By afternoon the German situyation was hopeless and the remaining German soldiers surrendered. Of the 253 Germans at the battery, 78 were killed, the rest captured and a small group escaped north.

On the photo: one of the German gun emplacements shot from the rear. Note the still visible camouflage painting which was to disguise the complex as ordinary farm buildings in an orchard.
Shot with a
Fuji X-pro3 and Fujinon 18-55mm f/2.8 lens, augustus 2020.

A set of photo's with notes of Utah Beach and the Cotentin peninsula with the Airborne sectors.">

Here's the complete set of photo's made on Pointe du Hoc over the past years

My Omaha beach photo's with several viewpoints, panorama shots and notes on the fighting

These are my photo's and notes of the British and Canadian sectors: Gold, Juno and Sword.

Taken in: France / Normandy / Arrondissement de Cherbourg / Azeville (show map)

Taken on: August 3, 2020

Tags:

D-day

Azeville battery

Cotentin

Overlord

Atlantic

Wall

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Sets appears in: • Utah beach and the Cotentin Penisula • Atlantic Wall

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Camera: Fujifilm X-Pro3, f/5.6, 1/450 sec, 18mm (=27mm), ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Fujifilm X-Pro3
Lens:	XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/450)
Focal Length:	18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO:	160
Exposure Bias:	-1 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto bracket
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 10.2 (Windows)
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