Location 2 – La Coupole, Wizerne, near St Omer

The entrance to the La Coupole complex and museum. Photo: Mark Sluman. Click on image for full size (138 KB).

Historical Notes – The La Coupole V-2 assembly and launch facility was begun after the Bunker at Eperlecques was damaged by Allied bombers. It was located in a quarry to provide maximum protection against blast. The key feature of the site, however, and what gives La Coupole its name is the huge reinforced concrete dome built atop the quarry to protect the inner workings of the facility. The dome is 71 metres in diameter and an incredible 5 metres thick, weighing 55,000 tons. As with the Eperlecques facility, rockets were to be assembled and fuelled under the dome and then shunted out on railway tracks onto the floor of the quarry (roughly where the public car park stands today) for launch at the rate of 40-50 per day.

The USAAF and, later, the RAF sent no less than fifteen major raids to Wizerne to destroy the site, although only a minority managed to find and accurately bomb the target. The key raid was on 24th June 1944, when 16 Lancaster heavy bombers of the famed 617 "Dambusters" Squadron equipped with the 12,000lb "Tallboy" bombs, were guided to the target by two Mosquito light bombers as pathfinders. One bomb exploded in the entrance to the rail tunnel with a further three bombs collapsing some of the underground tunnels. Another bomb burst on the edge of the concrete dome, effectively undermining its foundations. A raid on 17th July caused further slippage of the dome. The precarious condition of the dome and the surrounding destruction made it too dangerous to continue work on the facility. The complex was finally captured in late August 1944 by Canadian ground troops – as with Eperlecques, not a single V-2 rocket was ever fired from La Coupole towards England.

Photographic Tour

As the visitor passes through the ticket office and towards the entrance to the tunnels, the concrete dome can be seen on top of the hill up ahead to the right. The undermining and slippage of the dome foundations, caused by the RAF raids in June and July 1944, can clearly be seen.

The complex, which stretches 42 metres below ground, contains six kilometres of tunnel although not all of this is open to the public. There are a number of interesting exhibitions, the first of which focuses on the Allied bomber offensives against the V-weapon sites of northern France. Under the dome, are two exhibitions, one of which explains the incredible story of the development of the rocket from small beginnings in the 1920's and 30's through the V-weapon programme to the US and Soviet space programmes. Another tells the harrowing tale of how thousands of prisoners of war and slave labourers were forced to work in terrible conditions to build the V-weapons and the facilities to house them. Many lost their lives working for the Nazis.

For additional information on opening times and admission fees, please visit http://www.lacoupole-france.com/