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'La Coupole' ("The Cupola") is the name of a Second World War V-2 rocket base constructed by Nazi Germany at Wizernes, south west of the French town of Saint-Omer, between Lille and Calais.
Set in a former limestone quarry close to the villages of Helfaut and Wizernes, the complex was intended to be an impregnable underground production and launch facility for the rockets.

Contents

Construction

Allied attacks

References & Footnotes

Construction

Work on the site was begun in October 1943 using forced labour under the direction of the Todt Organisation with the intention of quickly building a site that could threaten London, 200 km to the north west. La Coupole's predecessor as launch site was the nearby blockhouse at Eperlecques which had been found to be too vulnerable to aerial bombardment.

Railway tunnels were bored underground to allow the rocket parts to be brought in safely. In total more than 6 km of galleries were dug by the Soviet prisoners in order to store the rockets 42 m underground. A liquid oxygen fuel plant was also built to supplement the supply from the now redeployed Eperleques site and underground barracks and administrative areas were dug out and lined with concrete.
In January 1944 an enormous concrete dome, or cupola, was built over the top of the facility, giving the site its name. The dome was 71 m in diameter, 5 m thick and weighing an estimated 55 000 tonnes.
The Nazi engineers were able to build such a vast structure using poured reinforced concrete by moulding the chalk beneath into a convex shape and then laying the concrete on top. Once it had set, they quarried the chalk away from underneath, leaving a hollow space below the dome. Underneath this space was laid a second concrete layer, the gap between adding to the dome's bomb resistance.
Directly beneath this structure a vast hexagonal room, 21 m high, was planned to house the rocket production facility. Once assembled and fuelled the rockets were to be moved outside and fired, at a rate of 40-50 per day. Wizernes V-2 Bunker - France

Allied attacks

The French resistance informed the British of the devastating potential of La Coupole soon after construction began. On November 5, 1943, the Allied Central Interpretation Unit (CIU) reported photographs of the Wizernes rocket project. The first attempts to destroy it however did not take place until March 1944 by which time the protective dome had already been finished. Over the following five months, 3,000 tonnes of Allied bombs were dropped on La Coupole but failed to make any impact on the structure, which was safely underground. However, the Tallboy bombing in June 1944 succeeded at damaging the area, and the site was closed down in July 1944 before it was completed and before it had fired a rocket. Hitler ordered its abandonment and the Soviet prisoners were put on trains and sent back to Germany. The prisoners have never been traced.
The site has a History and Remembrance Centre History and Remembrance Centre, LA COUPOLE open to the public as a museum dedicated to the human cost of La Coupole as well as the legacy of the V2 to modern rocketry.

Operation Crossbow bombing of 'La Coupola' ('Wizernes')
Mission	Date	Result
Mission 255	11 March 1944	34 of 51 B-24s hit 'Wizernes' using blind-bombing techniques due to thick overcast 8th Air Force 1944 Chronicles '1944':March, April, May,August
Mission 266	19 March 1944	V-weapon sites in France are hit ... 117 of 129 B-17s hit sites at 'Wizernes' and Watten; 1 B-17 is lost and 74 damaged; casualties are 1 WIA and 10 MIA.
Mission 304	17 April 1944	14 of 15 B-24s bomb the V-weapon site at 'Wizernes', France without loss; escort is provided by 33 P-47s.
Mission 317	25 April 1944	27 of 28 B-24s bomb V-weapons sites at 'Wizerenes', France without loss. Escort is provided by 40 P-47s.
Mission 336	3 May 1944	47 of 51 B-24s bomb the V-weapon site at 'Wizernes', France; 33 are damaged; 3 airmen are WIA. Escort is provided by 48 P-47s and 53 P-51s without loss.
	20 June 1944	17 Lancasters and 3 Mosquitos of No 617 Squadron attempted to attack a large, concrete covered V-weapon site in a quarry at 'Wizernes', but the target was cloud-covered and no bombs were dropped. Campaign Diary '1944':June, July
	22 June 1944	234 aircraft - 119 Lancasters, 102 Halifaxes, 13 Mosquitos - of Nos 1, 4, 5 and 8 Groups to special V-weapon sites and stores. The sites at Mimoyecques and Siracourt were accurately bombed by 1 and No 4 Group forces with Pathfinder marking but the No 617 Squadron force attacking 'Wizernes' failed to find its target because of cloud and returned without dropping its bombs.
	24 June 1944	16 Lancasters and 2 Mosquitos of No 617 Squadron bombed the 'Wizernes' site and scored several hits with their Tallboy bombs. 1 Lancaster was shot down by flak, the first loss by the squadron for exactly 2 months. Three Tallboy bomb exploded in the tunnels, one burst under the edge of the dome, and one hit in the mouth of V2 launch rail tunnel. The entire hillside collapsed, effectively destroying the facility although the dome remained intact. The whole area around the site was churned up so that it was unapproachable, and the bunker was jeopardised from underneath, The Mare's Nest, , David, Irving, William Kimber and Co, 1964, with landslides making further work impossible. V2--Der Schuss ins Weltall, , Walter, Dornberger, Bechtle Verlag, 1952 -- US translation ''V-2'' Viking Press:New York, 1954,
	28 June 1944	103 Halifaxes of No 4 Group with 5 Mosquitos and 2 Lancasters of the Pathfinders attacked the V-weapon site at 'Wizernes' without loss. No report of the bombing results was filed.
	20 July 1944	369 aircraft - 174 Lancasters, 165 Halifaxes, 30 Mosquitos - attacked 6 flying-bomb launching sites and the V-weapon site at 'Wizemes'. All raids were successful except the small raid by 20 aircraft on the Forêt de Croc site.
	20/21 July 1944	87 aircraft - 54 Halifaxes, 23 Lancasters, 10 Mosquitos - of 4, 5 and 8 Groups attacked flying bomb sites at Ardouval and 'Wizernes' without loss but only 23 aircraft bombed at Ardouval and none at Wizernes.
Mission 515	4 August 1944	The first Operation Aphrodite mission is flown using 4 radio-controlled war weary B-17s as flying bombs; targets are Mimoyecques, Siracourt, Watten, and 'Wizernes' V-weapon sites but none are hit; 1 drone B-17 crashes killing 1 crew. Escort is provided by 16 P-47s and 16 P-51s.

References & Footnotes