The Allied landing forces rightly considered the Longues-sur-Mer battery as an important target to be neutralized as quickly as possible, as it was situated within the American and British landing zones and constituted a threat both to Omaha Beach to the west and Gold Beach to the east. Moreover, the seaside resort of Arromanches, where the British Mulberry B artificial harbour was to be assembled, was also within the range of the Longues guns. For all these reasons the Allied bombing raids during the build-up to D-Day were of vital importance.
Inaccurate aerial bombing explains the scattered bomb craters.
His visit to Longues on May 9th 1944 appears to suggest that the Longues battery also loomed large in the mind of Field-Marshal Rommel. Like the rest, the coastal battery at Longues was repeatedly bombed by the Allies in systematic raids from April 10th 1944 on. These raids were carried out along the length of the coast from Brittany to Ostend but the bombers concentrated more particularly on the future landing zones.
Invader A 26 Bomber
The attacks that took place on May 28th and June 3rd 1944 were particularly trying for the Longues gun crews - a German report stated that they received over 1500 tons of bombs. Although the concrete case mates withstood this pounding, not so the communication lines linking the casemates to the control bunker. Altogether, twenty raids on the coastal batteries in Normandy caused forty deaths, 73 injured and 10 missing according to a report from the German Admiral in charge of the Channel coasts.
Hudson Bomber
The morale of the troops in the bunkers, however, reached a new low during the night preceding the Allied landings when around 100 bombers dropped over 600 tons of bombs on the battery. Unfortunately, most of the bombs hit the nearby village of Longues, which was razed, killing five civilians. This pressure on the battery did not let up as, at daybreak, a further wave of light and medium U.S. Airforce bombers came to finish off the Longues battery and other coastal batteries within the landing zone.
Despite the absence of German fighters, the bombing raids over Longues and elsewhere were only partially successful owing to the thick layer of cloud which lay over Normandy throughout June 1944. Although communications were cut and the landscape around Longues rather resembled a moonscape, the four guns remained intact and able to fire against enemy ships. Aware of such a possibility, the Allies had planned a naval bombardment, during the half hour before the troops were due to land on the beaches.
Marauder B26 Aircraft
Cruisers, battleships, and destroyers dropped anchor opposite their targets. To help them hit their targets, a few vassals were equipped with radar, and adjusted their fire to co-ordinates provided by spotter planes endlessly circling over the coastal batteries to correct the fire of the warships lying of the coast.