The 319 Infantry Division Battery Seeckt was just north of Rue au Blancq, over the fields from the present day estate Clos de Roncier (which was built on the site of a wartime camp for Russian forced labour, Lager Rommel). The whole site is private land, but I took it upon myself to pay a respectful visit (no damage caused) so that you don't have to :)
Thanks to the CIOS, a map shows the layout. The big arrow points to Nicolle Tower, where the obs post for this battery is in a hedge over a field from the tower. The four 10cm field guns (9.7km range) appear to have been positioned in the fields, no concrete involved.
The three O-with-an-arrow symbols were the 2cm flak guns, at least two of these were on concrete structures which remain today. The one right next to the lane is completely buried, if there was every anything there. The other two symbols mark the position of defensive light machine guns.
A map from the present day.
Heading down a track, from our starting point at the housing estate, we eventually reached what we were aiming for - a big wide hedge in the center of this flat area
(looking south-east in this shot, towards the lane)...from recent experience this can only mean one thing - a farmer won't want to waste a scrap of land without good reason...
.. and voila, there's concrete there.
Inside, a collection of agri-junk, and interesting paintwork.
If you decide to scramble upwards...
.. this is getting interesting!
Nice, a protected flak gun emplacement.
Some original woodwork survives to this day.
The trapezoid shaped gun mount... and around to the left...
.. watch out, something felt odd underfoot here, could be a rotten board over a drop, or maybe not.
A little more to the left, looking back towards the steps.
Looking left over the fields over towards the Clos de Roncier.
Heading West, over the next field, and near some houses, an old ablutions block in the corner has lost its roof...
.. not much to see in there.
Same structure, from a little farther along the side of the field - from right next to...
.. another wide hedge, hiding more concrete.
Two rooms down there. From the map above, it seems one of the flak guns was on the flat roof here.
The other room. It would have been a bit of a dirty scramble to get down there, too much for my old legs at the time.
So, now you've seen it, you don't need to go along yourself.... you've seen it all before out west anyway :)
On a previous posting, JB kindly commented : "please be aware the owner of the land lives in the house overlooking it and he doesn't want visitors. I interviewed him a few years ago and he said too many dog walkers had ruined it for everyone. You may be interested to know that there were 3 such positions, part of another survives and it looks suspiciously like the remains of another is also buried there.
A small toilet/wash room remains also but is in terrible condition.
The flak position is indeed unique as it has a crew room underneath, mostly built in red brick...Batterie Ludendorf has 2 similar Flak positions but no crew rooms under them." - thank you JB!
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2 comments:
Interesting comments on the "Axis History Forum" https://forum.axishistory.com//viewtopic.php?t=186708
"A few of us went for a walk to see what is left of Batterie Seeckt. Most references to it state "Returned to farmland" so hopes were not high. Some info in the Batterie itself:
Strength: 77 proposed, 77 Actual
Armourments: 4 x 10cm Licht Feld Haubitz (light field howitzer) 14/19 (t) (czecheslovakian)
Flak: 3 x 2cm Flak Geschutz 30
2 x LMG (MG34)
Seeckt is a remarkable site as it is on a site where the current landowner can remember exactly where the positions were and when a colleague and I visited, he was good enough to draw a very detailed map of the site for us, and also produced the German letter which stated that they were taking over the paddock for their own uses!!
They've had some trouble in the past with bunker hunters just marching all over their land poking about; this is a current problem in Jersey as I was told by a woman from Vine Park - an important, and complete, command post - that a group of men basically barged their way onto her property and proceeded to behave like hey owned the place. She is less than well disposed towards anyone showing an interest now, which is sad...
It is a shame, most people however who are "bunker hunters" I feel are a bit more respectful. The kids (and adults lol) who are looking for somewhere to swig cider 8O are usually more problematic. Stomping on crops, late night noise etc. They do cause problems for the rest of us who have a genuine interest and want to get a few snaps to document it all before they disappear.
Interesting that this Observation position is located in front of Nicolle Tower as it has always be said (by post-war books) that Nicolle Tower was Batterie Seeckt's observation post. Makes sense to have a largely underground bunker rather than using the converted pre-war follie as the tower would have been a prime/obvious target and was not reinforced by the Germans apart from building a roof on the top to form the observation room. One well aimed hit and the building would be a pile of rubble 8O
Indeed, the erroneous positioning on the "B-Stelle" for Seeckt has been perpetuated throughout a string of publications and quite innocently so as Nicolle Tower seems the obvious conclusion, it just a case of few people stopping to think about the question that never actually made it into print :-)
Nicolle Tower had its own part to play in Artillery Fire Control and the general Kampfaufgaben fur Artillerie auf Festungbereiche Jersey. Seeckt as indeed many other batteries would have been serviced by Nicolle tower as part of a combined fireplan, but it wasn't exclusive.
The actuall position of "B-Stelle" between 25-50 meters further forward from Nicolle Tower being the preferred location for the position.
The drawings in the visitors book at Nicolle Tower also helps with this matter.
Nice to see this at long last, thanks CM, good to see you're still going!
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