Base légère de lancement de V1

English translation

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History

The heavy V1 launch installations having been rapidly located and bombed by the Allies, the Todt Organization undertook in 1944 to build so-called light installations. On these sites scattered in the countryside, one generally finds only a few light structures including a garage, small niches for storing equipment, a concrete base serving as a non-magnetic building, concrete pads for fixing the steel launching ramp, a firing position, one or two small water cisterns and finally concrete tracks allowing the conveyance of 'flying bombs' to the aforesaid ramp. This Saussemesnil site located between the Château de Rochemont and that of l'Ermitage proves remarkable because the entire set of these structures has been preserved, namely 8 elements in total. The non-magnetic platform is in this respect a model of its kind. One can discover the line of concrete tracks. This results largely from the re-use of an old plan. Finally, in the internal organization of the Luftwaffe (the German air force), this 'light' installation bore the number 140.