Standing on the beach between Vasouy and Pennedepie, west of the beautiful port town of Honfleur, you can find this small defensive position – just one of many strongpoints defending this area near to the estuary and mouth of the River Seine.
Defence of the beach came from two open emplacements for 5cm KwK anti-tank guns and a single Tobruk for a heavy machine gun.
Behind both of the open emplacements is a small crew shelters and between them a Vf7b bunker which would be used to store ammunition for the guns.
But it’s the building at the north east sector of the site which is the one to see; a special construction stand for a 60cm searchlight.
As you can see from our images, this bunker has a heavy-duty concrete roof designed to protect the searchlight and crew. This roof also means that light wasn’t able to be elevated to light up aircraft in the sky, but that’s not what this was designed for.
This searchlight position was built to scan the sea around the estuary mouth for ships and other water-borne attackers, lighting them up for the anti-tank guns to target them before they were able to progress to the beach or into the Seine river.
Behind it is a L411 bunker, a Luftwaffe building for the searchlight’s crew, although this is now sealed and on private land so can’t be accessed.