With the exception of the Cherbourg Fortress and the fortifications in Le Havre, the naval battery at Crisbecq was the most powerful one in the entire Seine Bay and represented the cornerstone of German defences in this sector.

   Built in the winter of 1943-44, it was armed with four 210-mm SKODA guns, of which only two had been installed in casemates by D-Day. Until it was silenced on June 8^th, Crisbecq Battery posed a very real threat to troops landing on Utah Beach.

    Rapidly encircled by the Americans, the garrison of 400 soldiers, commanded by Sub-Lieutenant Ohmsen, resisted vigorously for several days. The survivors managed to escape to the German lines in the night of June 11^th-12^th.

    The two huge casemates, which can still be seen today, near the impressive range-finding post, were damaged not by the frequent aerial bombardments to which the battery was subjected from spring 1944 onwards, but by experiments conducted by American engineers after the battery had been captured to test their resistance to explosives.