The WW II German Stützpunkt on the Menez-Hom (Finistère-FR)

The Menez-Hom hill placed between the Brest harbour and the Douarnenez bay, although only about 350 m height, dominates the surrounding territory. Therefore, during the WW II the German Wehrmacht decided to establish on its top a Stützpunkt (support point) for controlling and eventually impeding access to the Crozon peninsula to foreign troops. The available literature gives only fragmentary information about it but the mention of a Gerät (device— radar?) belonging to the FuMB686 Wolga and the presence of rests of a Seetakt radar on the Menez-Hom hill at the end of the war make the location of the Stützpunkt Wolga at the top of the Menez-Hom hill highly probable. The visit of the Stützpunkt site took place on 27/08/2010 and allowed to identify many of its components and to determine its organization.


Introduction
The Menez-Hom hill placed between the Brest harbour and the Douarnenez bay, although only about 350 m height, dominates the surrounding territory. Therefore, during the WW II the German Wehrmacht decided to establish on its top a Stützpunkt (support point) for controlling and eventually impeding access to the Crozon peninsula to foreign troops. The available literature gives only fragmentary information about it, but the mention of a Gerät (device-radar?) belonging to theFuMB686 Wolga (Funk Mess Beobachtung-radar observation) and the presence of rests of a Seetakt radar on the Menez-Hom hill at the end of the war make the location of the Stützpunkt Wolga at the top of the Menez-Hom hill highly probable. The FuMB686 Wolga was initially in charge of passive recognition and identification of foe radar emissions and was operated by part of the 31. Plumoguer. Naval and air information were signalled by the centre in Plumoguer, respectively to the Nostang and to the chief of the air defense in Rennes-SaintJacques (Blanchard, 2017;Tomezzoli, 2007).
On 3rd August 1944, upon request of the 343. Infanterie Division, two Einsatzkompanien (operation companies) of the III. Marine Flakbrigade (Marine Antiaircraft Brigade) were available in the area east of the hill for fighting partisans. These companies remained up to 12th August in the areas East and South-East of the hill for monitoring and fighting the partisan activities because agent reports informed about expected, intensified dropping of weapons and sabotage material. On 5th August, the 1. -3. Funkmeß-Abteilung (Radar Section) informed that at 13:20 six Thunderbolts attacked the Stützpunkt Wolga with bombs and board weapons. An empty lodgement barrack and a fire water pond were destroyed; an administrative barrack and the Gerät (device-radar?) were damaged. The personnel in place were deemed able to fix alone the damages. No personnel member was lost. On 5th August at 20:09 the III. Marine Flakbrigade informed that the Kompanie Schumann (probably one of the two Einsatzkompanien) was in combat against partisans during its retreating from the area of the hill towards Daoulas. On 13th August at 16:00 requisition troops of Gerät Wolga were attacked by partisans: 7 fallen and 2 seriously injured soldiers were deplored. At 16:30 the division (343. Infanterie Division?) informed that the line of Menez-Hom was still strongly occupied from the infantry and in all circumstances maintained (BAMA, 1944).

Stützpunkt Site
The visit of the Stützpunkt site took place on 27/08/2010. It was reached through the access road 1 (Figure 1). The identified components were the following. An orientation platform 2 ( Figure 1 & Figure 2) (48˚13'11.13"N, 04˚14'06.62"W) formed by a circular, concrete platform about 4 m in diam., 20 cm thick, hosting at the centre a concrete block made by a cylindrical portion with a superimposed four sided square portion having on the top a circular depression several cm deep. Not identifiable in Figure 1, it was not an original Stützpunkt component; and was built on 1952 (Blanchard, 2017). The concrete block, although similar to others seen on the site, appears of recent masonry, therefore not a retrieved original Stützpunkt component. placement. Concrete blocks probably retrieved from a disappeared Stützpunkt construction obstructed its passage and entrance, so that the interior inspection was not possible. Its emerging concrete structure was in a good preservation state without damages due to combats or bombardments. On the contrary, the adjacent circular emplacement was completely destroyed and only a damaged portion emerged from the terrain. A small, concrete square pit about 1.5 × 1.5 m was about 5 m from the circular emplacement, filled by terrain.
The area of a barrack emplacement 4 ( Figure 1, Figure 4(a)) (48˚13'12.47"N, 04˚14'04.98"W) and a circular emplacement 5. Their cavities were completely filled by terrain and vegetation and no longer visible. Only a damaged portion of the cavity concrete wall slightly emerged from the terrain. The cavity dimensions, estimated on the basis of the cavity dimensions of the barrack emplacements 6 -10 ( Figure 1), were about 18 × 10 m, i.e. slightly bigger than the cavities of said barrack emplacements, the circular emplacement was about 6 -7 m in diameter.

Stützpunkt Organization
The Menez-Hom Stützpunkt close defensive perimeter was constituted by the pathway or connection trench 11, the machine gun emplacements 12 -16, 33, The similar bunkers 3, 36 were too small for hosting a group of gun servants or soldiers, unless provided with underground rooms. The small square, concrete pit near bunker 3 could probably be either an emergency exit or a pit of a water cistern.
A barrack was present in the cavity of each emplacement 4, 6 -10 and 37 (Richtlinien, 1943). No concrete barrack ruins were evident in the cavities 6 -10.
Probably, they were wooden barracks dismantled after the war (Tomezzoli et al., 2014). The cavities of the barrack emplacements 4, 6 -10 have similar dimensions; therefore, they hosted barracks of similar or equal dimensions. The kind of barracks hosted in the cavities is unknown. The purpose of each barrack cannot be precisely established. In any case, they hosted the Stützpunkt Kommandantur (Headquarter), lodgements for the personnel, a radio station, an armoury and an infirmary. The pit of each barrack emplacements probably stored water, or coal or hosted a machine gun emplacement. The presence of other barracks on the hill, outside said barracks emplacements or in the surrounding cannot be excluded.
The antenna anchoring bases on the hill top indicate that at least one light antenna was mounted there. The barrack at the barrack emplacement 4 hosted the radio and radar stations offices as well as their operators (Richtlinien, 1943). The radars had to be sufficiently spaced from the barrack so as to avoid malaises to the personnel and excessive length of the connection cables (Richtlinien, 1943).
It is possible that after an initial function of passive recognition of foe radar emissions, the Stützpunkt coupled also the function of measuring distance and direction of foe planes and ships.
The first function was probably ensured by a device FuMB 21/27, which consisted of the receptors FuMB 21 "Pellworn" covering a waveband of 136 -850 MHz (2.20 m -35 cm) and a FuMB 27 "Chinesen" covering a waveband of 2500 -3750 MHz (12 cm -8 cm) comprising a large parabolic antenna, a small parabolic antenna and a four dipoles antenna. The instrumentation and the operators were hosted in a cabin similar to those of the radars Freya and Seetakt (Blanchard, 2017).
The second function was insured by a radar Seetakt FuMO 2 (Calais B) (FunkMessOrtung-location radar) (Blanchard, 2017)  Raz and on the Pointe Saint-Mathieu (Blanchard, 2017). Radar data were treated on place and communicated through the radio station to the L479Anton (48˚33'58.48"N, 4˚37'15.97"W) for the day and night fighter control of the radar camp of Saint-Pabu (Tomezzoli & Colliou, 2017) and/or to the L479Antonat Rennes-Saint Jacques (Haut-Bois, La Morinais) (Tomezzoli, 2007) and there integrated with data arriving from other radar stations (Tomezzoli, 2017).
The location of said radars on the hill is problematic. Published images (Floch & Le Berre, 2001) give the impression that the Seetakt was installed on the terrain without protection, but looking to Figure 1 it appears much more logic that it was installed in the circular emplacement 5 which protected its cabin letting only the antenna to emerge outside ( Figure 13). After the war, it is possible that the damaged radar structure was extracted from said circular emplacement and for a certain period let near emplacement 5 attending its transport to the demolition. Said published images were made during that period and gave said impression. Other possible locations could be the underground structure 21 ( Figure 4(b)) (Blanchard, 2017). The power supply was insured by a junction with the French high tension net and a transformer was inside the close defense perimeter (Richtlinien, 1943).
The amount of power necessary to the Stützpunkt is unknown.
A water source or emergency water source was certainly inside the close defense perimeter (Richtlinien, 1943). The presence in the Stützpunkt of a possible fire water pond, destroyed by six Thunderbolts with bombs and board weapons, is not surprising because already observed in other German military bases (Tomezzoli et al., 2013;Tomezzoli, 2016;Tomezzoli & Colliou, 2017).
The rectangular support ( Figure 5(b)) probably supported a structure of un- The damaged concrete wall and the reversed, concrete block ( Figure 5(f)) were part of an unknown construction probably destroyed during the bombardments and combats.
The loop structure 34, connected with the access path 1, was a turnaround path for vehicles allowing easy inversion of the running direction, similar to that of the S.N.C.F rail station of Vezot near the ammunition and V1 underground store Murmeltier of Villaines-La-Carelle (Pays de la Loire-FR) (Tomezzoli & Pottier, 2015).
Mine fields surrounded certainly the hill according to the dispositions of the Panzerinfanterie (Richtlinien, 1943).
The platform 35, possible coverage of a buried bunker, is not identifiable in Figure 1. It is visible for the first time on an image of the years 60s (C0518-0021_1966_F0418-0518_0004, n˚4, 1/38931, Argentique, 31/05/1966), therefore it was not an original Stützpunkt component. Its purpose is unknown.
Because of the important position occupied, the Stützpunkt was submitted to rude air and land bombardments; up to 43 impact craters were visible on the hill top ( Figure 1).
The personnel in service at the Stützpunkt can be roughly estimated at about 200 -300 officers and soldiers.

Conclusion
The visit of the Stützpunkt site and the analysis of French air recognition photographs of the years 40s -60s helped a lot for understanding its organization.
However, further studies appear necessary for clarifying Stützpunkt aspects mentioned in this article as probable, unknown and problematic.