Cairn de Mont Petit, from a megalithic tomb to a German bunker in WWII.

We are about to travel to French Brittany, specifically to the small peninsula of Rhuys. There we will be able to know one of the outrages that the Germans undertook during their occupation of France in the 2nd World War. After seeing the place, it is easy to imagine what the German technicians thought after the discovery of the Cairn de Mont Petit in the year 1943. That mound offered them everything they were looking for for their purpose, the construction of a bunker for the defense of Quiberon Bay, also saving much of the work. They did not seem to care about the damage they were going to do to a megalithic construction with more than 6,000 years of history.

Quiberon Bay

Cairn de Mont Petit.

In French Archeology, the name "Cairn" is assigned to complex megalithic corridor tombs, which grouped together different collective burials. That is to say, spaces equipped with corridors that culminated in a kind of room, or mortuary chamber, where the deceased was deposited. At the entrances of the corridors, a dolmen used to be placed and the burial chambers were sealed with a large slab, which was only removed to introduce a new deceased. All of this was filled at the top with earth, in such a way that the complex offered the view of a burial mound, which was seen from afar by the inhabitants of the area.

The construction of the Cairn de Mont Petit was carried out over a long period. It started about 6,600 years ago. At first it was a simple chamber that was accessed by a corridor of about 20 m, later and for more than 2,000 years corridors and new chambers were added, up to a total of six. Many of them have engravings that testify to the passage of various peoples from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. It was then abandoned until 1943.

The Atlantic Wall.

We take a leap in time to place ourselves on December 14, 1941. That day Adolf Hitler orders the construction of the Atlantic Wall. A colossal work that was to extend some 5000 km, from the north of Norway to the south of France. A cordon with the mission of protecting Europe from allied countries and that could repel any invasion attempt by them.

Map of the Atlantic Wall

The person in charge of carrying out the work was known to the Todt Organization , a fundamental pillar of the Nazi regime for the construction of civil or military infrastructures, before and during the 2nd World War. The work model was simple, recruit prisoners of war in each place to become workers in the service of Germany. The result, after three years of work, was the construction of more than 8,000 infrastructures. There were all kinds of them, from complex installations full of tunnels and artillery positions capable of sinking a ship, to small bunkers that had to exercise visual surveillance of a certain territory, this was the work of our protagonist today.

In the Cairn de Mont Petit, An access tunnel was built inside the megalithic tomb, which was accessed through stairs that connected to the outside. Inside there were two rooms for the control of the facilities and the other for the rest of the staff, the surveillance was carried out from an upper terrace, from which the views are impressive. Tomb No. 4 and a large part of No. 2 were totally destroyed for the work. The rest remained, as they were found after thousands of years.

As is known, this construction was of little use to them. The allies only made two attempts to invade Europe. The first in Dieppe (France) in the summer of 1942 ended in resounding failure for the British fleet supported by Canadian aircraft. The second, on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, marked the beginning of the end of World War II.

The Cairn de Mont Petit You can visit it, both on your own, as well as for interesting guided tours, I leave you the link to its website, where you can check schedules and prices:cairndepetitmont

Finally, I invite you to get to know him a little better with the following image gallery.