Habitez-vous en Cotentin?

[Tom Houlihan]

Mes amis! I was recently re-reading Mark Bando’s ‘Vanguard of the Crusade,’ about the 101st Airborne Division in WWII. I say re-reading, because I did the map work for the new edition, and I had to read the original first. I just wish I had this thought back when I was starting the maps!
You may be familiar with the battery at Mesiéres. I was able to find enough information to create a small map/diagram of this village, which can be seen at http://www.aberjonapress.com/catalog/votc/maps.html. Naturally, the gun positions don’t show on this map, as they are about ½ mile away. There is one photo of one of the bunkers, but it is a recent photo, and all you can really see is the rose and raspberry bushes covering it! According to the text, “In the years since WWII, the field housing the gun bunkers has not been a tourist attractions because of its obscure locations. Accessible only via a two-track cart path, even many history-minded residents of the Cotentin Peninsula don’t know the location. Also, the farmer who owns the fields doesn’t wasn’t tourists tramping around it (he has even covered the bunkers with rose and raspberry bushes). Three of the four bunkers are intact, however, with subterranean tunnels connecting them. The fact that two heavy bombing races, concentrated on four bunkers in an areas about the size of a football field, failed to destroy three of the four bunkers is instructive.”
Here is my question, based on a thought I have had building in my mind over the past few days. How difficult would it be for someone to go to this location, and make drawings and photos of the bunkers, so that we could see what they would look like without the bushes?
In an ideal world, I would be able to do this myself. I would measure walls, corridors, and rooms. I would note distances from key terrain points. In an ideal world, I would know how to draw this on a computer, to get three dimensional views!
This question is mine alone, Bando is unaware of it. I’m asking out of personal curiosity, and the thought that it might be nice to show people what this place looked like in Juin ’44. If I had the time, I might even think about building a model of it! What do you think