La Coupole

Infobox Military Structure
name = La Coupole
partof=
location =
coordinates = coord|50|42|21|N|2|14|38|E|scale:15000


caption = Domed roof of La Coupole
type = bunker
code=
built = started April 1943cite book |last=Henshall|first=Philip|title=Hitler’s Rocket Sites|year=1985|publisher=St Martin's Press|location=New York|isbn= |pages=p75]
builder = Organisation Todt
materials = concrete
height = convert|21|m|ft
doors:convert|55|ft|m
used = never completed
demolished=
condition=
ownership=
open_to_public = History and Remembrance Centrecite web|last=|first=|url=http://www.lacoupole-france.com/en/default.asp|title=History and Remembrance Centre, LA COUPOLE|work=|accessdate=2007-05-24|publisher=]
controlledby=
garrison = "Abteilungen" (English: firing detachment) comprising one technical and two operational batteries
current_commander=
commanders=
occupants=
battles=Operation Crossbow,Operation Aphrodite
events=

La Coupole ("The Cupola") is the name of a World War II bunker constructed by Nazi Germany in a former limestone quarry close to the villages of Helfaut and Wizernes in Northern France. The complex was intended to be a bomb-proof underground assembly and launch facility for the V-2 rocket.

Construction

Work on the La Coupole was begun after the nearby Éperlecques site had been damaged by Operation Crossbow bombing. Prior to 1942, the consulting firm of Bauer and Nebel obtained the contract to design the intricate erector to transport checked-out Wizerne V-2 rockets from underground to the surface launcher.cite book |last=Ordway |first= Frederick I, III|authorlink= |coauthors=Sharpe, Mitchell R|title=The Rocket Team|series= Apogee Books Space Series 36|year= |publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell|location=New York|isbn= |pages=p31] For launches, the rockets would be hauled from the service chamber through concrete tunnels "Gretchen" and "Gustav" past the planned convert|5|ft|m thick solid steel bomb-proof doors. The Allies recovered the uninstalled doors from storage at Éperlecques when it was captured.

In January 1944 an enormous concrete dome, or cupola, was built over the top of the facility, giving the site its name. The dome was 71 m in diameter, 5 m thick and weighing an estimated 55 000 tonnes. Similar to the Verbunkerung method used at the Sottevast bunker, the Wizernes plan was to build a bomb-proof dome on the ground on the edge of the 30 m / 100-foot-deep quarry, then excavate a facility beneath. Directly beneath the dome, a 35 m / 117 ft diameterCitation
last1 = | first1 =
url = http://www.afterthebattle.com/ab-con1.html#index
title = The V-Weapons
magazine = After The Battle |page=p14,24
date = | year = 1974] -by-21 m high hexagonal room was planned to house the rocket production facility. Once assembled and fuelled the rockets were to be moved outside and fired, at a rate of 40-50 per day.cite web|last=|first=|url=http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/wizernes.html|title=Wizernes V-2 Bunker - France|work=A4/V2 Resource Site|accessdate=2008-01-06|publisher=Brothers Designs] In May 1944, the 953 (Semi-Mobile) Artillery Detachment, started "Abteilungen" (English: firing detachment) training at Blizna for operations at Wizerne.

Railway tunnels were bored underground to allow the rocket parts to be brought in safely. In total more than 6 km of galleries were dug by the Soviet prisonersFact|date=November 2007 in order to store the rockets 42 mFact|date=November 2007 underground. Liquid oxygen generators were plannedFact|date=November 2007 to supplement the supply from the Éperlecques site and underground barracks and administrative areas were dug out and lined with concrete.

Following Allied bombing in June 1944 that severely damaged the site, it was closed down in July 1944 before it was completed and before it had fired a rocket.Fact|date=November 2007

Bombing of Wizernes during World War II

On November 5, 1943, the Allied Central Interpretation Unit (CIU) reported photographs of Wizernes. The first attempts to destroy it took place in March 1944 after the dome had been finished, and the Tallboy bombings in June 1944 damaged the area. In late August 1944 the site was captured by the Allies. In November 1944, the Sanders mission, led by Colonel T. R. B. Sanders, inspected the site.

Notes and references

External links