Blay
Mare-Fontaine Battery
German Battery
The casemates standing in the center of the field are Mare-Fontaine Battery. This battery of 105 mm guns was overrun on D-Day by the Green Howard's, after having been first bombed, then shelled by HMS Belfast.
The German battery in the hamlet of La Marefontaine Farm which was not housed in a concrete pillbox, did not have a view of the sea or the beaches for targeting purposes; it relied on a firing command post equipped with a rangefinder. As was the case with the batteries at Pavillon Farm in Crepon and Bény-sur-Mer, where the guns also lacked fortified protection, the battery at La Marefontaine was linked to a firing command post located in the Maromme Woods on the Meuvaines heights, facing the sea (known as WN 35b).
This position had a clear view of the sea. The coastal defences were linked by means of telephone lines enabling all sites to communicate with each other.
This type of fortification was equipped with four 2.5 inches howitzers from Czechoslovakia, with a range of 5.6 miles, sufficient to cover the beach.
The site received hits from more than 250 projectiles in under two hours and capitulated under the assault mounted by the flam-throwing tanks of the troop 13 of the 141st RAC (Royal Armored Corps Rgt).