Stp241 Crokus was a heavy anti-aircraft batterie site on Boulogne’s northern outskirts and featured some large concrete positions for large weapons along with ammunition storage bunkers.
Most of the bunkers are now buried under housing and a school but you can catch a glimpse of some of the remaining concrete if you look carefully at the edge of the modern buildings.
Crokus was a Luffwaffe site featuring two Waffenkomission-Fest or WaKoFest emplacements for 88mm flak guns, the remains of which are now buried in the ground of the school. Behind them – also buried – was a L407 bunker which was designed to store large, 88mm ammunition.
There were also two WaKoFest emplacements bult for 2cm anti-aircraft guns and aL410A type position for a 3.7cm AA gun. These were supported by two R512 ammunition bunkers.
At the heart of the northern part of the site were two huge bunkers – a WaKoFest Flak Befehlsstand Command bunker and a L405A bunker which supported a detection and targeting radar system to help pinpoint fire on incoming aircraft bombing the nearby port area.
Without being too impolite, this isn’t the tourist end of town and areas around the caravan camp are a little rough around the edges.
An annex site to the north east – in the shadow of Napoleon’s column and memorial to his grand army – you can find a small personnel shelter and water storage reservoir which were used by the two anti-aircraft gun crews who operated two, 20mm guns in open emplacements here.