©Timothé Lovergne The Atlantic Wall
In very different eras, armies have massed on the Opal Coast with the same ambition: to conquer Great Britain. This 34-kilometer strait, the shortest passage between the continent and the island, made Calais one of the most coveted strategic points in European military history. During the Second World War, the German occupiers identified the beaches of the Pas-de-Calais as a potential landing site for the Allied forces, transforming the coastline into a fortress.
34 kilometers that changed history
England's proximity is not a geographical anecdote. In 55 BC, Julius Caesar chose the Pas de Calais to cross the Channel with his legions: the shortest route between Gaul and Britain, as he himself noted in his Commentaries on the Gallic War.
Eighteen centuries later, Napoleon massed up to 100,000 soldiers on that same coastline, in Boulognewith the same ambition: to force a passage to England. The Boulogne camp, the linchpin of this colossal operation, remained active from 1803 to 1805 before the defeat at Trafalgar buried the project.
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©Nohcab The densest section of the Atlantic Wall
This strait, the shortest passage between the continent and the island, has made the northern coast of France one of the most coveted strategic points in European military history. It was this same logic that, in 1942, led Nazi Germany to concentrate here the most densely fortified sector of the Atlantic Wall. Le monument to the Dover Patrol (obelisk on the heights of Cap Blanc-Nez), inaugurated in 1922 in homage to the Franco-British cooperation of 1914-1918, was in fact dynamited by the Germans in July 1944. The monument visible today dates from the early 1960s.
Calais 1940-1944, four years under the Occupation
The Second World War was particularly devastating for the Calais region, which suffered heavy destruction: 73% of Old Calais, now the Calais Nord district, was destroyed. Captured by the German army after a fierce battle from May 22nd to 26th, 1940, Calais remained, four years later, one of the last pockets of German resistance on the French coast. The Canadian army liberated the city on September 30th, 1944.
Calais 1940: Resisting against all odds
©Archives of the Calais Memory Museum 39-45 The remains in and around Calais
The Calais region was one of the key sectors of the Atlantic WallThis system of coastal fortifications stretches from Norway to the Franco-Spanish border. Exploring the land, one can still discover numerous remains of concrete structures of all sizes: observation casemates, anti-aircraft defenses, anti-tank guns, and coastal batteries, etc. Many types of fortifications are still scattered here, some in good condition, others damaged or displaced by the dunes. Among the powerful coastal batteries bordering Calais, the Lindemann battery, to the west, has disappeared, while to the east, on the natural site of... Green Fort Dunes, the Oldenburg battery lets you imagine what these concrete fortresses were like.
The Bunkers in Calais
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©Nohcab Brands also visible throughout the region
Within a radius of less than 50 kilometres around Calais, museums and fortresses can be visited and recall the omnipresence of the Occupier in the region. In particular, you will find bases for the secret weapons V2 and V3, a reconstruction of V1 ramps but also remains of installations dedicated to these flying bombs. The Blockaus d'Eperlecques, the Forteresse de Mimoyecques, the Helfaut dome, the museums of Ambleteuse and Audinghen are among the must-see sites of remembrance in a Nord-Pas de Calais region that is full of them.
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©Nohcab The Calais Memorial Museum 39-45, a local witness
The Calais Memorial Museum occupies the former “Mako,” the German Kriegsmarine command bunker in the area. With its 20 exhibition rooms, it is the definitive place to understand what the Second World War was like in Calais. One of these rooms is dedicated to General de Gaulle, the man of June 18, 1940.
The Calais 39-45 Memory Museum
1914-1918 under the threat of Zeppelin!
It is worth recalling Calais's role during the First World War (1914-1918), that of a major inter-Allied base with a significant logistical function. From August 1914, Calais, with its port facing the British ally and close to its beleaguered Belgian neighbor, was drawn into the conflict. Tens of thousands of soldiers were stationed there, passed through, and forced the German air force to bomb Calais, notably with Zeppelin airships. Today, Commonwealth, Belgian, German, and French cemeteries and military plots commemorate the impact of the First World War on the Calais region.
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