Type Coastal Battery Phone +33 6 85 52 59 77 | Fate Disarmed Year built 1879 | |
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Address Route de Terlincthun - D 96, 62930 Wimereux, France Profiles | ||
The Fort of the Crèche is a coastal battery of type Séré de Rivières whose construction was completed in 1879. It is near Wimereux, in the Pas-de-Calais on the tip of la Crèche. It succeeded a Napoleonic defense system consisting of Fort Terlincthun, now destroyed, and a sea fort, opposite the tip, of which only the foundations remain.
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The Napoleonic camp of Boulogne
The fort de Terlincthun was a simple mound of earth surrounded by a stone wall built by Napoleon Iis between 1806 and 1808. There is nothing of it left today.
Before the point of the Creche (Wimereux, Pas-de-Calais), one can see the foundations of the offshore fort, identical to Heurt fort, built in 1803.
Coast Battery
In 1879 there was completed, on the site of la Crèche a fort of type Séré de Rivières. It was the northern end of a system of four forts :
They are all built on the same pattern (a barracks, a powder magazine, 2 or 3 shelters, 3-6 platforms for cannon, a well) and are surrounded by a stone wall and a dry moat. Together they protect the port of Boulogne.
During the World War I the fort defended the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer which played a strategic role in the supply and evacuation of the wounded.
Between the wars, the battery of la Crèche was modernized. The armament was replaced by four 194mm guns (Mle 1902) each having two ammunition bunkers. The perimeter wall was partially demolished to make a place for them.
During the Second World War, the fort was the scene of heavy fighting. The French destroyer Chacal was sunk off Portel while trying to stop the German advance. The German Navy took possession of the premises, concreted three French encuvements and replaced the weapons by 105mm guns. The fort was liberated, September 22, 1944, by the Queen's Own Rifles Canadian regiment.
Today, the site is owned by the Conservatoire du littoral and the Association Fort de La Crèche (AFLC) has restored it.