Gun Battery Karola & Kora

In 1942, the German heavy cruiser Seydlitz practically was finished in Bremen when the German navy chose to cancel large overseas naval vessels. The main arnament which consisted of 203 mm. guns mounted in twin armored turrets were instead sent to reinforce the Atlantic wall and two of these were installed on the island of Ile de Re, just off the port of La Pallice.

The gun battery was named Karola and was built between 1942 and 1944 by the German navy. The guns were part of the defense area (verteidungsbereich) La Rochelle and should help protect the important port of La Pallice, witch  contained a large u-boat bunker.

In addition to the gunbunkers there were built a large command bunker, with a range finder located on a approx. 25 meters high concrete tower. Together with bunkers for close defense, shelter, air defenses and ammunition.

The range of the guns was 37 km.

Also on the island of Ile De Ré there were built another gun battery which was equipped with four 220 mm. guns placed in the open ring positions. This gun battery was named Kora and was led by the German army. The fire from the guns in gun battery Korah was led by the command bunker in gun battery Karola.

In 1944, La Rochelle was upgraded to fortress, a name which was used only when an area was so heavily fortified that it was considered impossible to conquer.

On 12 September 1944, the Allies had surrounded the entire fort and a long siege began. The base was defended by 20,000 German soldiers and the siege continued until the capitulation. During this time, all supplies to the base was provided by u-boats.

The third May 1945 the last u-boat (U-255) arrived with fuel and supplies to the besieged base. It left the base again two days later and the eighth May the German garrison surrendered to the Allies.

In 2002, the remains of the gun batteries on the Ile de Ré protected.