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archives/bf1942/levels/mimoyecques.rfa
bf1942/levels/mimoyecques/~.txt
44.09 The Fortress of Mimoyecques is the modern name for a Second World War bunker complex built by the forces of Nazi Germany between 1943 and 1944 to house a battery of V-3 cannons aimed at London, situated 165 kilometres (103 mi) away. Originally codenamed Wiese ("Meadow") or Bauvorhaben 711 ("Construction Project 711"), it is located in the commune of Landrethun-le-Nord in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Boulogne-sur-Mer. The complex consists of a network of tunnels dug under a chalk hill, linked to five inclined shafts in which fifty V-3 guns would have been installed, all of them targeted on London. The weapons would have been able to fire ten shells a minute 600 tons of shells an hour into London, a threat that Winston Churchill later described as potentially "the most devastating attack of all on London." The Allies knew nothing about the V-3 but identified the site as a possible launching base for V-2 ballistic missiles. It was thus targeted for intensive bombardment by the Allied air forces from late 1943 onwards. It was put out of commission on 6 July 1944 by 617 Squadron RAF using 5,400-kilogram (12,000 lb) "Tallboy" earthquake bombs. Never formally abandoned, the complex was overrun on 5 September 1944 by the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division.