The Gr20 Granville defensive network is made up of around a dozen smaller Widerstandsnests with Wn04 running along the rear of the headland in and around the main fortress which overlooks the port and town.
Wn04 features some fascinating structures, but some can be difficult to find. It’s worth persevering though as there are some incredible hidden gems, including an original cannon and some rare bunker types.
At the north eastern end of the town’s walled fortress you can find two of the most-easily spotted concrete constructions – a R612 casemate and a machine gun bunker – while nearby there is a R610 bunker, although this is now buried and only a grassed-over roof and a ring of concrete where the Tobruk stands can be seen.
The R610 was a massive bunker and was used as a command post and would be the HQ of a company or infantry battalion with one senior officer and as many as 21 soldiers. Inside were rooms for crew, a kitchen, office, and a wireless/radio room. There are several uneven parts to the grass covering the roof surface and further investigation should reveal apertures for a periscope and an aerial.
Built in early 1944, the R612 was positioned to fire along the beach area to the north east.
While there are a set of steps allowing visitors to stand on top of the casemate, the rear entrance of the semi-buried can’t be accessed at present.
However, a large window has been put in place of the embrasure allowing visitors to get a glimpse of the casemate’s original cannon – a 10cm wooden-wheeled FH 14/19 Czech-made field gun.
We were granted access into the casemate and up close you can see the gun is in excellent condition for its age – you can even make out the 1917 date of manufacture carved into its left wheel!
A few metres away is a field construction MG post with three embrasures – it would have been a tight space for any more than a single soldier with a weapon and ammunition!
In front of the R610 and machine gun post is a low wall which gives a high view over the town below. The wall features gaps between the bricks and in several places you can see the gaps were made smaller with the addition of concrete. This was so German soldiers could use them as positions for rifles. On top of the wall are several dated markings made by the German occupiers although these are slowly fading so can be tricky to find without guidance.
There were also several machine gun posts cut into the town’s fortress walls which were designed to give defensive cover over the harbour basin below. These positions were removed when the walls were repaired sometime after the war.
Heading towards the headland there is a small copse of trees next to the entrance to the Notre-Dame du Cap Lihou Church where the top of a concrete and brick structure can be seen.
This was a kitchen bunker and can no longer be accessed. One local tells a story of playing inside it as a child and a family using the German, Swastika-marked plates and bowls found inside for many years after the war.
A new association of historians and hard-working volunteers took over the running of the Granville area bunkers in the summer of 2026, and they are busy working on new displays ready for guided tours to begin in 2027.
We were able to visit inside during the work and it’s going to be well worth a trip to see inside them – hopefully the R610 is opened up sometime in the future but it looks unlikely at present due to its close proximity to the historic fortress walls.