Brécourt

Infobox Military Structure
name = Brécourt
(aliases: Équeurdreville, [

cite web|last= |first= |url= http://alainlecomte.free.fr/07E8.htm |title= Fortifications Built by Prussia or Germany |work= Fortifications of the World |format=html |date=2003-05-25 |accessdate=2008-02-27|publisher=] Martinvast)

cite book |last=King|first=Benjamin|title=Impact: The History of Germany's V-Weapons in World War II |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=9WZ_z55WC1MC&pg=PA112&lpg=PA112&dq=martinvast+%22v+1%22&source=web&ots=eHC07dSLdb&sig=Hx777xEKWRcLrwO5tqRGbWSQg_0 |format=html |year= |publisher=|location= |isbn=|pages=p112]
partof = Nazi Germany
location = France
coordinates =


caption = Dwight Eisenhower visiting the Brécourt [NOTE: The location for the photo of Eisenhower on the stairs [http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/sottevast.html has also been identified as Sottevast] .] V-1 flying bomb facility near Cherbourg
type = bunker
code=
built = 1932-1944
builder =
materials = concrete
height =
used = never used
demolished=
condition=
ownership=
open_to_public =
controlledby=
garrison=|current_commander=|commanders=
occupants=
battles=
events =captured July, 1944

Brécourt was a Nazi Germany bunker in the French commune of Manche. Originally started in 1932 as an underground Naval oil storage facility, on July 7, 1943, the site was ordered to be completed as a V-2 rocket launch facility. Early in 1944, [

cite web|last= |first= |url=http://www.atlantikwall.org.uk/new_page_61.htm |title=Brecourt |work=The Atlantik Wall In Normandy |format=html |date= |accessdate=2008-02-27|publisher=] the facility was converted to a V-1 flying bomb launch facility

cite book |last=Collier|first=Basil|title=The Battle of the V-Weapons, 1944-1945 |origyear=1964 |year=1976|publisher=The Emfield Press|location=Yorkshire|isbn=0 7057 0070 4 |pages=p35] and subsequently completed.

cite book |last=Henshall|first=Philip|title=Hitler’s Rocket Sites|year=1985|publisher=St Martin's Press|location=New York|isbn= |pages=p147|quote=
:NOTE: A similar V-1 flying bomb site at Lottinghen never progressed beyond site clearance.]

Unlike most of the other "Heavy Crossbow" Vergeltungswaffen construction projects detected by the Allied Central Intelligence Unit (CIU) (Watten,

cite book |last=Irving|first=David|authorlink=David Irving|title=The Mare's Nest|year=1964|publisher=William Kimber and Co|location=London|pages=p168] Wizernes, Mimoyecques, Siracourt, Söttevast)

cite book |last=Gruen|first=Adam L|title=Preemptive Defense, Allied Air Power Versus Hitler’s V-Weapons, 1943–1945|url=http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/preemptivedefense/index.htm |format=html |accessdate=2008-06-11 |year=1998 |month=|publisher=|location=|pages=p12] and bombed during Operation Crossbow, Brécourt was virtually undetectable by aerial observation. [

cite web|last= |first= |url=http://perso.wanadoo.fr/aetius/mur/v1Brecourt.htm|title=Cherbourg-Brécourt |work=Bases launch V1 Cotentin and Seine-Maritime |format=html – French language |date= |accessdate=2008-02-27|publisher=] [cite web|last= |first= |url= http://www.sitesv1du-nord-de-la-france.com/A4V2.htm |title= La fusée A4 V2 |work= Les Sites V1 du Nord de la France |format=html – French language |date= |accessdate=2008-02-27|publisher=] The Allies captured the site a few days before July 4, 1944, and both Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill subsequently visited the facility – the latter reportedly dropping an apple he was eating in astonishment of the massive facility.

cite web|last=Maridor|first=Jean|url=http://www.jean-maridor.org/francais/brecourt.htm |title= Le site V1 de Cherbourg Brécourt |work= Les bombes volantes V1|format=html – French language|date=|accessdate=2008-02-27|publisher=]

References and Notes