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Updated August 29, 2004
Preliminary Report, updates will follow
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La Coupole before 2003 as photographed from a Mosquito in 1944.
La Coupole June 2003...
I have to be hounest, I am a little dissapointed.
Before 2003 little was changed on the dome.
It almost looked like 1944. Even the soil
was original. Now its gone and a new layer of concrete has
been put upon the dome. It just looks like a
new dome.
Maybe this restoration was necessary, who will
tell...
Ground Plan. Some tunnels were not finished yet. Tho Hospital and Office section is much larger than indicated.
Entrance main railway tunnel.(2000)
Tunnel, the Mathilde gallery, I had to return to this site to find out.
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Left: V2 inside the dome museum. Apparently
serial number 4596. No engine installed here.
Right: V1, also in the museum with serial
number 478764.
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Ventillation shaft of La Coupole.
The holes of the ventillation shaft. They look small but they are HUGE.
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Inside the ventillation shaft.
Looking downwards you only see trash and something
which looks like a fence.
The ventillation shaft doesn't seem to be
in 'working order'... It needs some cleaning...
I very often found some inscriptions from employers
on the bunkers from the 'Atlantic Wall' .
No exception here: Date 1944 !
Detached concrete after one of the bombing raids on Wizernes.
The hospital in 1944.
The hospital now. Many bullet holes are
visible on the hospitals office section.
The holes are there because the office section
has been used as a shooting target by local people after WWII.
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Left: 1st sight inside the hospital !
Looking at room B2.
Unfortunately you can't get in anymore.
It is completely sealed off.
Right: Door intactly preserved in the hospital section. Location near F4.
Look at the 1944 hospital picture. At
the right side there's a tunnel
entrance which is completely covered up right
now. This is seen from the inside.
Guardhouse close at the Railway Station of Wizernes.
The guardhouse now. I wonder if the fence is the original one of 1944. It looks so.
The Rocquetoir bunker served as a Leitstand for the V2 bunker at La Coupole. The bunker was an experimental one for making the V2 launches at La Coupole more precise. It never went into service.
To be continued...