​​Eperlecques Bunker​

The choice of the site by the Peenemünde engineers was strategic. Located 177 kilometres from London, the site had the advantage of being close to a railway line and sheltered by a 90 metres high ridge.

Construction began in March 1943, under the responsibility of the Todt Organisation, which employed young French STO (Service du Travail Obligatoire) conscripts and forced labourers. The site, with its 7-metre thick walls, was divided in three parts. The southern part, 28 metres high and 90 metres wide, was to house a liquid oxygen production plant and the preparation chambers for the rockets. The central part could store up to 108 missiles. The V2s, manufactured in the Dora Mittelbau concentration camp, were to be transported by train to the blockhouse.

The Allies spotted the site very quickly thanks to the Resistance, and it was bombed for the first time on 27 August 1943 by 185 USAAF (United States Army Air Forces) flying forts, which damaged part of the site. The engineers, aware of the vulnerability of the site, decided to build a 5-metre-thick concrete shell. This so-called "turtle" technique was used for the construction of the existing blockhouse.

When the site was bombed several times between August 1943 and August 1944, the original plans were modified. The site was turned into a liquid oxygen factory to supply another special building at Wizernes (La Coupole), which was designed to replace the Eperlecques complex. The order to abandon the site was issued on 3 July 1944 and the bunker was taken on 4 September by the Allies.

In February 1945 it was targeted one last time by the Allies to test the new Disney penetrator bomb, which remained immobilised in the roof until January 2009.

The site, which has been open to the public since 1973, was classified as a historical monument in 1985. The blockhouse in the heart of the forest is now a museum that features sound documentaries and a collection of authentic equipment (vehicles, V1 launch pad, etc.).