Brécourt

Brécourt was a Nazi Germany V-1 launching pad in Équeurdreville-Hainneville near Cherbourg, in Manche of Normandy, northern France.

Originally built by the French Navy as underground fuel oil storage tunnels, the Brécourt facility was repurposed during World War II by the German Army to store V-2 rockets.

5,000 workers built eight concrete tanks with steel lining, each with a capacity of 10,000 m³ of fuel oil,[6] under the granite hill, topped by 15 to 25 meters of rock to protect them from any kind of bombardment.

[5] When the V-2 program was delayed by technical difficulties and the location was not found appropriate, the German Army abandoned its project to deploy the V-2 missile in Brécourt and became available at the end of 1943.

[12][13][14] The Luftwaffe decided to adapt the existing tunnels and to create two heavily protected launch pads equipped with catapult launchers for V-1 flying bombs.

[3][16] The site went therefore unnoticed by the Allies due to its small size and proximity to the coast, as it was viewed as part of the broader Atlantic Wall coastal fortification program, and pro.

Henry Morgenthau Jr. , Gen. John C. H. Lee and Col. Theodore Wyman , inspecting the V-1 launch site of at Brécourt (8 August 1944)
Winston Churchill inspecting the V-1 launch site, codenamed "Wasserwerk N°2", at Brécourt (20 July 1944)