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i visited phare de la coubre canvas holiday camping site in 1972 with my family on holiday. there were three bunkers, in the sea, close to the lighthouse/coastguard towers but they had vanished by 1989. the two ammo bunkers aside the road close to the camp site (one was behind a pottery selling spot) me and my brother went down many times. these bunkers had been 'blown' either by retreating germans or the french later on (we were told the germans had done it) and though the bunkers looked 'whole' from the road, close up you could see that the 'roofs' had separated/lifted from the bunker wall tops and had then resettled back almost in place! i collected much (what turned out to be live) ammunition and even brought some back home to u.k. several years later (1976) i fetched out of the loft these bits of ammo (included two 175mm rounds, handle and detonator pull off a stick grenade, many bullet heads in mint condition and many tracer type rounds which were still live (hi expl) and took some of this ammo to a friends house where we took one of these rounds apart. it detonated and took my left hand thumb and index finger off and filled my arm and neck with tiny pieces of shrapnel - a friend got a piece that went through his leg!

i returned to area with my own family back in 1989 and these ammo bunkers were still there and still open and still full of the various ammo types debris!! didnt take any home that time. when i visited area again in 1993 the bunker roadside entrances had been filled with soil and were relatively inaccessible.

this stuff had just been left there and when you went down into one of these bunkers you were walking at least a foot deep in exploded and live unexploded ordnance - unbelievable!! I still have photo's of the bunker 'inside' and of the ammo we found there!

By: ian wilding

City: matlock derbyshire u.k.

Date and time: 25-05-2011 17:15:23

Ranking: 5 out of 5 stars