Hi !
That’s the first content showcase I do on this forum. I think that it’s intersting to show you how my latest game’s evolution.
Battery of Merville was a german land battery located in Normandy, near the river Orne and the town of Merville-Franceville. If you can see some constructions appearing in 1941 as field guns open emplacements, the real starting year of this battery was in 1942, after an important decision was made by Berlin to reinforce positions all along the Atlantic. It’s the starting of the Atlantikwall. Built to defend coasts and for propaganda purposes, the atlantikwall had the reputation of being an insurmountable obstacle to any kind of landing, from the sea or by the airs.
Battery of Merville saw a bit development during years 42 and 43, building a command post (Regelbau 502, a troop bunker modified there as a command post) instead of building a regular fire control post; All fire angles were marked by code names and proper angle, such as Düsseldorf, a Lock at the entrance of the river Orne at the city of Ouistream, near Caen.
As many batteries (Crisbecq, Pointe-Du-Hoc, Longues…), Merville saw many air-raids on its region. Some of them were enough inaccurate to make the battery still very functional, or at least break some communication cables.
On the night of June the 6th, paratroopers were sent to Normandy in the order to prepare any landing from the seas. Near Pegasus bridge, some British troops were dropped over Normandy to take these strategic points. The battery of Merville was one of these points. After a small scale bombing over the battery, the 9th Parachute Battalion landed behind the battery (Part of the 6th Airborne Division, british). The 3rd Parachute brigade had the objective of taking the battery to the german 716th Infantry Division. A strong resistance was encountered, as a well defended battery caused a lot of casualties to this brigade. They attacked first from the command post to cut the ear of the whole battery, then all casemates with grenades.
On the morning of June, the 6th, the battery was shut down by these courageous people, showing sacrifice to permit a better landing on June the 6th. German troops took the battery back in the evening, and waiting for the morning of June, the 7th to handle both casemates 1 and 2 to shoot at the beaches, in the aim blocking the British logistic. The 3rd brigade came back to the battery to shut down the artillery again, on the middle day of June, the 7th.
Battery of Merville, known as WN01, in AOK7.
So, to start with the real topic, I’ll post there some pictures of what I made. First, I took a picture from Google Earth to make a realistic placement of every bunkers I made. Then I meshed everything on this map in order to reduce lags and to add more accurate design and shape to bunkers and decoration.
Let’s take a view of the battery in game…
As you can see, the lighting is a bit weak on my studio, but it’s in the order of reducing lags during editing. The map got shadowmap lighting configuration. Also, don’t worry. I’ll not keep the weird Google Earth terrain, it will come later.
This map include the following bunkers ;
- 1xR611 artillery casemate, for a 10cm LeFH 14/19(f) with a crewroom
- 1xR669 artillery casemate, for a 10cm LeFH 14/19(f)
- 2xR612 artillery casemate, for a 10cm LeFH 14/19(f)
- 4xOB Geschütze 10cm, for the same artillery… Early war, not used passed may 44.
- 2xVf7b SK ammunition bunker, with an extra room for shell preparation.
- 1xR501 Troop bunker
- 1xR502 Troop bunker turned into a command post
antenna and periscope
Troop side
Command post side
- FA brunnen, a concrete well shaft. (WIP)
- FA Küche, a kitchen with a 2cm Flak mounted on.(WIP)
Well. You can give advices, or post down a feedback. Sorry if the topic isn’t really easy to read, I tried with dopdown menues but it didn’t work around images. if you want some bunkers in your game, you may ask me to build you one and decorate it as you propose me a reasonable price.
Thanks for watching ! I’ll modify this topic in the future so it will be easier to read and complete the topic with images of project’s evolution !
