It is not often you have the opportunity to explore a former WW2 German V2 rocket store, especially one that has been forgotten and remains safely hidden in the French countryside. But here you go, the V2 rocket stores…

The V2 rocket stores started life as a limestone quarry of which, unfortunately I know little about. What I do know is that the area was mined long before the German military decided it would be a suitable place to build a vast underground storage facility for the infamous V2 rockets and associated transport infrastructure.

There are two distinct sections of the quarry, a) the original irregular galleries mined prior to WW2 which were modified to form the V2 storage facility and, b) the modern mine. The modern section was in operation until the 70′s and is built on a vast regular grid pattern covering several hectares of underground space. Although the modern mine is fun to explore, the historically (and photographically) more interesting V2 storage facilities are the focus of this report.

The quarry was chosen as the site for the V2 rocket store presumably due to its close proximity to the rail network used to transport the rockets. Also, the deep limestone tunnels provided natural protection which made the facility resistant to allied bombing raids.

The most interesting remaining feature of the storage facility is the massive train tunnel; at almost 10m in height and 450m long, it is impressive. It was built this big to facilitate the removal of the rockets from the transport train and delivery to the storage areas.

The V2 rockets were shipped by train from the manufacturing facility in Germany to the various storage facilities throughout France. From here they were transported on mobile launch vehicles to the launch site. (paraphrasing from Wikipedia)

It is hard to tell exactly how the network was used but assessing the layout suggests the train carrying the rockets entered the tunnel and the rockets were removed with the main tunnel gantry crane. The remains of this sliding crane can be seen on the roof of the tunnel in the first image. These sliding cranes divert into side tunnels and from here the rockets were presumably delivered to storage bays or transport/launch vehicles. It is actually unlikely that the facility was ever finished and as such it is uncertain if the facility ever actually stored a V2 rocket.

The stores were bombed on at least three separate occasions by allied forces (as listed below). References for this information have been removed to protect the location, if your interested, email me.

July 1944 – RAF

August 1944 – RAF

August 1944 – USAF

It is unclear how severe the damage caused by these bombing raids actually was, today it appears that the main tunnels and storage areas were unaffected. This is not so in other parts of the facility. The photo above is of former entry to the facility, the bulge in the roof is the result of a well placed but ultimately ineffective allied bomb.

In the same photo you can see the holes in either side of the entryway what were once filled with high explosives. These were to be used in the event of an allied ground attack, the idea being; detonate the charges and collapse the tunnel preventing access to the facility. I presume there was a well thought-out secret back door in the through which anyone inside could escape. Similar self destruct devices were found on the main train and truck entries.

Like most mines, equipment is run into the ground then left where it came to a shuddering halt, mining trucks like one above were scattered all over the new sections of the quarry.

The mine was finally shut down due to a major collapse in the main access tunnel to the mine.

Information on this history of the facility are hard to come by so I intend on updating this report as more comes available. If you know this facility and can shed anymore light on its history, feel free to contact me via the details on the about page.

Tags: France, Military, V2 Rocket

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 9:33 am and is filed under Military, The Underground. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.