What's up at home today...?

I hope you'll still have some time to drop by here and not forget us. Maybe some
photos if you can manage it. Are you going to do the cooking also?

Sponsors ...

No worries, Snow, i'm moving, not leaving

And yes, i think i'll manage cooking, at least from time to time

Free summarized translation of an interesting post in today's local press, about the Fortress of Mimoyecques and the V-3 cannon .

Original post by Stéphane Dubromel here .








In spring 1943, Hitler is testing new weapons and the multi-charge supergun V3 is one of those. The principle is simple : An explosive charge leads to another, which is to increase the exit velocity of the shell. Forecasts are terrifying. Fifty guns must take 2.5 shots per hour per tube, 3 000 shells a day for 90 tonnes of explosives on London.

The site of Mimoyecques, nearby Landrethun-le-Nord in the Pas-de-Calais, is chosen and must accommodate two bases. About 1500 miners from the Ruhr, volunteers from the area, forced workers of the STO and deported Soviet Ostarbeiter work on this secret site.

But the draft V3 doesn’t work as well and the tests are inconclusive. The program continues, the bunker is built but the second base is abandoned. The fortress is then composed of three pits of five guns inclined at 50 °, the bottom reaches -127 meters. At -30 meters, there are the main galleries including a railway line for supplying ammunition and men. 1200 men were originally living in this base.

On September 1943, the Royal Air Force spot a suspect railway going underground. The first bombing arrives on November, very effective. July 5, 1944, photos show the presence of holes pointing to the British capital city. The answer will be the next day with Tallboy seismic bombs, collapsing the guns pits and the underground galleries. The Nazis abandoned their project. In May 1945, Churchill will order to dynamite the site for fear of the communist enemy and against the advice of De Gaulle.

Forgotten and neglected after the war, the fortress was transformed into a mushroom farm in the late 1960s by a local farmer.
In the 1980s, he makes it a museum. Since 2008, the Conservatory of natural areas of Nord-Pas-de-Calais manages the site.





A copy of the V3 cannon in its launch pit. 127 m long and 15 cm in diameter.






A gallery linking the railway tunnel and a launch pit.






Railway gallerie in the prohibited area.





All credits : Stéphane Dubromel

Same thing today as last year so I thought it would be easy to just quote myself
Not as big a happening as last year because the weather is sub-optimal (rain, 8 degrees)

NL wrote: Today we have a national holiday in Holland, King's Day on which we celebrate the birthday of our King and in a way the monarchy.
Personally I think it's a disgrace The Netherlands is still a kingdom in 2015, even if the king has no real ruling powers. Holland should be ashamed that as a so called "high democracy" we still don't have a head of state who is elected by the people. But, the majority of Dutch people have no problem with it and enjoy this day by drinking, dancing, doing drugs and having casual sex

more explanation about King's Day