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Plate 040 · Coastal Gun · World War II

28 cm SK L/50 Coastal Gun

Heavy naval guns repurposed into the concrete bunkers of the Atlantic Wall.

28 cm SK L/50 Coastal Gun — Photograph by Erwin Bonsma
Photograph by Erwin Bonsma · CC BY-SA 4.0View on Wikimedia Commons →

Historical Record

Provenance & Service

Recovered from the scuttled WWI High Seas Fleet and recycled into the casemates of the Atlantic Wall, 28 cm SK L/50 guns covered the Channel coast at batteries such as Lindemann and Todt near Calais. Designed in 1907 for battleships, they served as coastal artillery against Allied shipping and the eventual D-Day landings.