The Atlantic Wall, a concrete barrier with the strength of straw

If brick is the building material that characterizes the Levantine coast, concrete was the defining characteristic of the northern and western coasts of France during World War II. Instead of apartment blocks, bunkers and other military structures were built there. Its geolocation is a nod to beauty, albeit circumstantial. What its German architects, who had previously been occupiers, sought were strategic locations, not beautiful ones. The so-called Atlantic Wall was a discontinuous coastal defensive system commissioned by Adolf Hitler in 1942 to repel a potential Allied invasion from the sea and air. It stretched from Hendaye, in the French Basque Country, almost to the Arctic Circle, in northern Norway.

It was a dream, or a nightmare, some 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) long. A network of some 8,000 defensive structures, including bunkers, blockhouses, casemates, nests equipped with anti-aircraft weapons, communications stations with radars, and bases for housing submarines. The latter are found in Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Saint-Nazaire, Lorient, and Brest. All of them are located very close to the sea and rivers. Some are in urban centers (Hendaye), right on the beach (Anglet, Biarritz, Boucau, Capbreton), on top of cliffs (Heuqueville), or dug into the interior of them (Hendaye, Anglet). In the estuary of the Orne River in Normandy, there are several bunkers that look like sea creatures stranded on the sand.

Their exteriors are covered in graffiti, and their cold, damp interiors — bellies that look sick from the amount of trash they store — can be accessed carefully if properly attired. This is what Alphonse Belaubre and Cholé Predot, the team behind Atlantik Wall Explorer, do, at their own risk, in addition to mapping and photographing. A personal project that pays tribute to Alphonse’s great-uncle, General Paul Thompson, who landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, and to his great-grandfather, who died during the bombing of Biarritz on March 27, 1944. Exploring and delving into the numerous ruins that today comprise the majority of the remaining structures of the Atlantic Wall is a risky activity due to their state of preservation and the natural environment in which they are located, especially those on cliffs and underwater.

On the western shore of the aforementioned estuary lies the coastal town of Ouistreham, where a large, five-story former bunker has been converted into the Atlantic Wall Museum. One of the troop carriers that landed on the Normandy beaches is on display in the courtyard in front of the entrance gate. The area where the historic landing took place is a coastal strip approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) long, between the cities of Cherbourg and Le Havre, along which Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, and Utah beaches, codenames assigned by the Allied invasion forces, are located. The surviving Atlantic Wall structures serve as a memorial to what happened before, during, and after World War II, and are also suitable for visitors. The Instagram account @normandybunkers has a wealth of information on the subject.

At first glance, they appear to be crude concrete constructions. Upon entering them, accompanied by a guide, one realizes how well thought-out they were and the technological advances they incorporated. The idea was that soldiers inside the bunkers could survive an enemy attack. Hence, in addition to having armored and gas-tight doors, they were equipped with telecommunications systems and ventilation, air filtration, heating, and smoke vents, allowing for breathing, warmth, and cooking.

The Nazi army commanders not only took advantage of the topography of the French coast to conceal their bunkers and other defensive structures, but they also used the labor of forcibly recruited people from prisoner of war, concentration, and extermination camps. This labor was channeled through the Todt Organization, a sort of employer and pillar of Nazi Germany’s war economy. Just as some French people had no choice but to collaborate with the Nazis, others profited from the construction of this wall.

Several cycling routes depart from the Normandy town of Bayeux inland and along the coast, where the German Longues-sur-Mer battery is located, on a cliff overlooking the English Channel, above and between Gold and Omaha beaches. This strategic, elevated defensive point consists of a control bunker, anti-aircraft positions, and four casemates, each containing an artillery piece. In Cricqueville-en-Bessin, where Pointe du Hoc is located, there is another German battery, but in a less well-preserved state and smaller, on a 30-meter-high cliff.

However, most of the structures that formed part of this long concrete wall are barely standing. They resist the passage of time and the advance of nature as best they can. Some are exposed to the pounding of the tides and the ravages of saltpeter. This is the case of the remains of the bunkers at Capbreton, Cap-Ferret, and one on Métro beach in Tarnos, all in the Landes.

The warlike significance they once held has now become a natural element of their surroundings. Many people photograph them and gaze at them with curiosity. Not far from this beach is what is known as the Barbara Tower, which from a distance resembles a giant periscope emerging from the ground. It is easier to see than to reach, as its elevated position afforded a panoramic view of the coast, including the mouth of the Adour, a river that forms the natural border between Les Landes and the French Basque Country.

On the other side of the river lies Anglet, a town known as “Little California” for its surfing vibe, inspired by the tube-like waves that form on its beaches. On some beaches, such as La Barra beach, there are bunkers that go unnoticed by bathers enjoying the shade they provide and strollers walking along them at the seaside. Very close to this beach, within what is known as the Izadia Ecological Park, there is a bunker on the edge of Lake Boucau, but it is closed to the public. Unlike Bemalpa, the Atlantic Wall Studies Office for the Landes, Pyrénées-Atlantique, and South Gironde sectors, the explorations, photographs, and location surveys carried out to inventory the wall are carried out by professionals in each field.

Like the most sought-after beach apartments, the bunkers have privileged sea views. If anyone got in their way, they would be shot. There’s no better, more peaceful view than a clear one. In Heuqueville, near Le Havre, there’s a bunker poking out of a cliff that resembles a turtle’s head outside its shell. Erosion has lifted half its body out of the cliff where it was hiding; the rest is covered in moss and bushes.

Less spectacular is the one located on one side of the path that runs along the Atlantic coast near Hendaye, on the way to Abbadie Castle. From this bunker, you can see another one dug into the rock exposed to the onslaught of the sea. A sea into which cannons landed, which the German soldiers themselves ejected before retreating from their positions in the face of the advancing Allied troops. The Atlantik Wall Explorers team leads paddleboard excursions in the area and dives to see them up close. You can see everything they offer on their website.

In the urban center of Hendaye is the southernmost military construction of the Atlantic Wall. A bunker camouflaged in a house, from which the mouth of the Bidasoa River could be seen. In this area of old Hendaye, around the port of Caneta, there are three plaques alluding to the Atlantic Wall: in the Joannis de Suhigaraychipy square (a privateer in the service of King Louis XIV, born in Hendaye in 1643), at the viewing point of the Port of Caneta, and on the wall flanking a footbridge that runs over the water.

On Miramar Beach, in the distinguished city of Biarritz, a bunker complex was built consisting of two bunkers and a machine-gun nest, connected by a system of tunnels and hidden beneath ornamental-looking reliefs. The Allies had a hard time identifying them; tourists today pass by without knowing what they’re seeing. What hasn’t been preserved on the beaches where this wall was built is the network of obstacles the Nazis set up to discourage the Allies from accessing the coast from the water: Czech hedgehogs, Rommel’s asparagus, Belgian gates, sea and land mines, miles of barbed wire, and hundreds of thousands of bullets. Iron artifacts and explosives have been replaced by sun loungers, umbrellas, and colorfully striped huts.

Despite being a concrete curtain, it collapsed at the first breath, as if it were actually made of straw. From a wall, it became a huge funerary monument after the Normandy landings of June 6, 1944. The remains of the bunkers visible today are a series of constructions scattered along the coast. Structures that spark the imagination and make one wonder if a soldier or a time traveler might emerge from one of them. The narrow, dark loopholes that provide access to the bunkers are stargates. Bunkers that are also an uncomfortable historical and architectural heritage. No one dares to demolish them, very few to preserve them. They are memory, a source of shame, and raise questions about whether or not they are architecture.

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