Station Radar 1944
Douvres-la-Delivrande
Location and info
Station Radar 1944 Museum, Route de Beny D83, 14440 Douvres-la-Delivrande
South west of the village of Douvres-la-Delivrande on the D83 road. The site is signposted from the coast road running along Sword Beach.
Strongpoint Douvres Distelfink I was a large radar facility south west of the village of Douvres-la-Delivrande behind Juno and Sword landing beach areas.
It was an early-warning radar site which covered the area of the Bay of the Seine towards Le Havre and featured two radar types, a L486 radar generator and crew bunker, a L479 bunker for 'Anton' night fighter control systems, two R622 personnel shelters, a workshop, searchlight emplacement, and a trio of anti-aircraft gun positions.
Distelfink I site is now a superb museum and you get to walk around the site and go inside one of the R622 shelters and L479 bunker where there are lots of informative displays on radars from the era to the modern day.
Perhaps the stand out item at the museum tough is the Wurzburg Riese radar which is on display - one of the few remining of its type left in the world. The 24ft wide radar dish has currently been detached from it's mounting and rear operators cabin and is undergoing restoration but you can see how the whole system attaches to a tiny concrete base.