Франциядагы екінші дүниелік соғыстағы нацистік бекініс кешені

WWII Nazi built bunker complex in France
the bunker complex in Pas de Calais
Constructed in the side of a disused chalk quarry, the most prominent feature of the complex is an immense concrete dome, to which its modern name refers. It was built above a network of tunnels housing storage areas, launch facilities and crew quarters. The facility was designed to store a large stockpile of V 2s, warheads and fuel and was intended to launch V 2s on an industrial scale. Dozens of missiles a day were to be fuelled, prepared and launched in rapid sequence against London and southern England. Following repeated heavy bombing by Allied forces during Operation Crossbow, the Germans were unable to complete the construction works and the complex never entered service. It was captured by the Allies in September 1944, partially demolished on the orders of Winston Churchill to prevent its reuse as a military base, and then abandoned. It remained derelict until the mid 1990s. In 1997 it opened to the public for the first time, as a museum. Exhibits in the tunnels and under the dome tell the story of the German occupation of France during World War II, the V weapons and the history of space exploration.

Bombing missions against Wizernes Date 11 March 1944 34 of 51 Consolidated B 24 Liberators of the 2d Bombardment Division's 44th and 93d Heavy Bombardment groups attacked Wizernes using blind bombing techniques due to thick overcast, dropping 127 tons of bombs. 19 March 1944 152 Martin B 26 Marauders of IX Bomber Command attacked V weapon sites around Saint Omer. 22 June 1944 A second 617 Squadron attack on Wizernes was again thwarted by cloud cover. 28 June 1944 103 Handley Page Halifaxes and 5 Mosquitos from No. 4 Group and 2 Lancasters of the Pathfinder Force attacked Wizernes without loss. The attack caused severe damage to the site and buried the entrances to the launch tunnels Gustav and Gretchen. The site was abandoned a few weeks later. 20 July 1944 174 Lancasters, 165 Halifaxes and 30 Mosquitos attacked V 1 launching sites and the Wizernes site.

Shortly after the Wizernes site had been captured in September 1944, Duncan Sandys, the head of the British "Crossbow Committee" investigating the V weapons programme, ordered the constitution of a Technical Inter Services Mission under Colonel T. R. B. Sanders. It was given the task of investigating the sites at Mimoyecques, Siracourt, Watten, and Wizernes, collectively known to the Allies as the "Heavy Crossbow" sites. Sanders' report was submitted to the War Cabinet on 19 March 1945. The purpose of the Wizernes site had been unclear prior to its capture but Sanders was able to deduce its connection with the V 2 from the dimensions of the complex and some intelligence information that his team had been able to retrieve. Sanders' report concluded that it was "an assembly site for long projectiles most conveniently handled and prepared in a vertical position". He conjectured the approximate length of the projectiles from the height of the Gustav and Gretchen tunnels, though he noted that there was some doubt about the height of the doors at the tunnel entrances. Segments of the doors had been recovered from a storage dump near Watten railway station but were incomplete. Judging from the size of the tunnel entrance, the maximum size of the projectile could have been between and in length and in breadth. (This was substantially larger than the V 2, which measured long and wide.) Two witnesses interviewed by the Sanders team reported "an intention of firing a projectile 18 metres long". He concluded that much of the site was becoming unsafe due to the progressive collapse of timbering and recommended that the tunnels and workings under the dome should be destroyed to prevent subsequent accidents or misuse. The museum opened in May 1997. Visitors enter and leave through the Ida railway tunnel, though the rails have been removed and the floor levelled. Short branch tunnels lead off on either side; originally used for storage, they now display wartime objects. Headphone stands along the way present multi lingual accounts of the construction and purpose of the facility. The tour continues along the Mathilde tunnel to reach a lift that has been installed to bring visitors up to the space beneath the dome, where the main exhibition area is located. Focusing on the story of the V weapons, life in occupied France, and the conquest of space after the war, the tour presents audio visual displays in English, French, Dutch and German. The museum houses a large number of original artifacts including a V 1 provided by London's Science Museum and a V 2 provided by the Smithsonian Institution, In 2011, the museum welcomed 120,000 visitors. In July 2012, the museum opened a planetarium as part of Cerendac, a newly established Centre de ressources numériques pour le développement de l'accès à la connaissance (Resource Centre for the development of digital access to knowledge). The €6 million centre is funded by the Pas de Calais department, the Nord Pas de Calais region, the French state, the European Union and the intercommunality of Saint Omer. Since 2010, the museum has also managed the V 3 site of the Fortress of Mimoyecques.