JJ's on Tour, France 2026 - Le Touquet Paris Plage and its WWII History, and the Battle of Crecy 1346.

 

For our final short break away this year, Carolyn and I decided to spend a week in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, where in addition to enjoying some walking along this interesting and historical part of the French Channel Coast, also explore inland that included a visit to Montreuil Sur Mer, covered in my first post in this series.

JJ's Wargames: JJ's on Tour, France 2026 - Le Touquet Paris Plage, and Montreuil-sur-Mer.

This part of the French coast given its close proximity to the UK, was very much part of the WWII German Atlantic Wall, constructed to prevent an Allied cross-channel landing in 1943-44, the much vaunted Second Front, championed by Uncle Joe Stalin, struggling to attain ascendancy in the East.

A command bunker that we found in the dunes very close to where we were staying

The Picardy coast, is on the extreme end of what became known as the 'Iron Coast', forming an interesting transition between the more lightly defended Normandy coastline which I have explored many times, and the more heavily fortified belts of emplacements to be found around the Pas de Calais and stretching up along the Dutch and Belgian coasts, where the Channel was much narrower, and the areas proximity to Germany seemed to irresistibly point to that part of the coast being the likely invasion point.

As the Osprey map above alludes to, the area immediately south of Le Touquet had four designated artillery battery positions intended to support the beach defences in this area, and close by to where we were staying were two observation/command type bunkers, this one gradually toppling off its prominent position amid the dunes.

 

Bunkers like these were a massive commitment by the Nazi regime to secure its gains in Western Europe, only made possible in the short time it took to construct them, by their ruthless use of slave labour under the direction of Organisation Todt the civil and military engineering organisation in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt.

Close by on the approaches to this bunker and now forming part of the path that leads visitors to it through the dunes was a bunkhouse, a likely secure accommodation bunker for shifts of observers and armed patrols.

The bunkhouse directly behind the observation bunker above, now supporting the path through the dunes.

Walking along the sea front of Le Touquet we headed out towards the nature reserve at the Pointe du Touquet at the mouth of the River Canche, specifically to photograph the local seal colony, and here to unsurprisingly, another battery position had been constructed, no doubt with the intention of interdicting any force attempting to force the river estuary during a landing.

The Pointe du Touquet is a distinctive sand spit in the mouth of the River Canche at Le Touquet

Interestingly to, the Pointe is the sight of the action that led to the tragic loss of the Irish Ace pilot, Wing Commander Brendan Eamonn Fergus Finucane, DSO, DFC & Two Bars on the 15th July 1942 at the age of just 21 and with 32 victories credited to him at the time of his death.

Finucane, leading the Hornchurch Wing in a fighter "Ramrod", low level ground attack operation targeting a German Army camp at Étaples, took off with his wing, 64, 81, 154 and 122 Squadrons at 11:50, with the attack timed to hit the Germans during a lunchtime parade. 

Leaving the English coast at Pevensy Bay, Sussex at low level to avoid German radar, the wing of Spitfires crossed the French coast at Le Touquet, where they came under fire from machine gun positions on the Pointe du Touquet, during which Finucane in the lead aircraft, code 'BF', was hit in the radiator at 12:22. 

His wingman, Canadian Pilot Officer Alan 'Butch' Aikman, notified him of the white plume of smoke, likely from a hit in the glycol tank, needed to help cool the Spitfire's Merlin engine, and Finucane acknowledged it with a thumbs up. Standard regulations insisted the wing carry on the mission even if the leader was in trouble, and radio silence was maintained so the enemy radio-interception services would not know a person of importance was hit.

Finucane flew slowly out to sea, talking calmly to Aikman as he glided along in his ailing Spitfire, until finally, approximately 8 miles off Le Touquet, he broke radio silence and sent his last message. Aikman, flying alongside Finucane, saw him pull back the canopy, and before taking off his helmet, said 

"This is it, Butch". 

It was a well–executed landing, but the waves were difficult to predict and the Spitfire's nose struck the water and disappeared in a wall of spray. Before he hit the water, Aikman and Keith Chisholm of 452 Squadron saw him release, or perhaps tighten, his parachute release harness and straps. 

If Finucane had released them it is possible he could have been thrown forward onto the gun-sight and killed, or knocked unconscious and drowned.

Butch Aikman, avenged the death of the Irish ace in his own ground strafing attack on the German machine-gun post, set up on a spit of land, Pointe du Touquet, facing the English Channel from whence the RAF men came.

Aikman said the wing was flying at "naught feet" when it skimmed across the French coast and that the airmen were almost on the machine-gunners before Finucane realized it. The machine-gunners opened up with point-blank fire. "As I went in," Aikman related, "I took a crack at the gun post. When the dust settled down a little, there was nothing to be seen on the sand and I guessed my fire blew that post to blazes."

For 15th July 1942, the following entry appears in the No.154 Squadron Operations Record Book:-

“A fine bright day today and at eleven thirty pilots are called to the briefing room and told by Wing Commander Finucane that the hutted camp at Etaples is going to be shot up. He is leading 154. It is a tragic day for us all. Wing Commander Finucane has the foulest luck. A stream of bullets from a Hun machine gun on the beach in the Estuary mouth gets his radiator. He is forced to ditch and is not seen again.”

Stp Canche Sud

The battery position is easily observed from the path leading through the dunes and there are several large gun bunkers originally intended to house 7.5cm howitzers, while alongside them are ammunition and personnel shelters to service and facilitate the guns and their crews.

The R612 gun casemate, somewhat similar to those to be seen at the Merville battery position in Normandy.

As seen on the Osprey defences map the seafront areas in front of these battery positions is liberally adorned with strongpoints, and we discovered evidence of these in the neighbouring resort of Burque-sur-Mer, again principally on a mission to photograph another local seal colony.

A heavy machine gun bunker near the lighthouse at Burque, sporting a 'Tobruk' cupola from where the gun could be mounted when required.

After a couple of days exploring our local surroundings it was time to head a little further afield as we prepared to make the hour drive to Crécy-en-Ponthieu and the neighbouring battlefield that was the site of the victory by King Edward III and his English army over his cousin, King Philip VI of France in 1346, during the Hundred Years War.

Our base for the week was at Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, from where we visited Montreuil-sur-Mer, covered in the previous post and here showing the town in relation to our next visit, Crecy which was about an hour's drive.

Illustration of the Battle of Crécy - Loyset Liédet, from the 15th century manuscript by Jean Froissart

Since the Norman Conquest of 1066, English monarchs had held titles and lands within France, the possession of which made them vassals of the kings of France, and following a series of disagreements between Philip VI of France (r. 1328–1350) and Edward III of England (r. 1327–1377), on the 24th May 1337 Philip's Great Council in Paris agreed that the lands held by Edward in France should be taken back into Philip's hands on the grounds that Edward was in breach of his obligations as a vassal., and it was this act that effectively marked the start of the Hundred Years' War or Guerre de Cent Ans in French, which was to last 116 years.

Map of the route of Edward III's chevauchée of 1346, part of the Hundred Years' War. This map shows the English army's movements during the campaign and the most important battles.

The Crécy campaign was a 'chevauchée' conducted throughout northern France in 1346, an effective way for medieval kings to conduct warfare against an enemy, by making the military campaign pay for itself, (Napoleon came up with a similar idea 450 years later) as the army looted and pillaged its way across enemy territory, embarrassing its ruler with the claim that the population had been left defenceless and forcing them to quickly raise an army and give battle sooner than they might wish, on ground likely not of their choosing in an effort to bring an end to the devastation likely inflicted, in this case devastation of the French countryside on a wide front, that culminated in the Battle of Crécy.

Edward's English army burned and looted its way through much of Normandy, where it stormed and sacked Caen, slaughtering the population. They then raided the suburbs of Rouen before cutting a swath along the left bank of the Seine to Poissy, 20 miles from Paris, before turning north, where they became trapped in territory which the French had denuded of food, only escaping by fighting their way across a ford on the Somme river against a French blocking force. 

A view of the battlefield of Crecy as seen from the lookout tower constructed on the site of the old windmill, around which Edward III deployed his reserve division, with the other two English divisions under Northampton and the Black Prince deployed left to right respectively, directly in front, facing the edge of the ridge. The road to Wadicourt can be seen to the left.

Two days later, on ground of their choosing, the English inflicted a heavy defeat on the French at the Battle of Crécy on the 26th August 1346, before moving on to besiege Calais, which after an eleven-month siege, that stretched both countries' financial and military resources to the limit, saw the town fall to the English.

The cream of French nobility participated in the Battle of Crecy, with many of them not surviving the experience, among them Louis de Nevers, Count of Flanders, killed in the cavalry charges around the Prince of Wales' position alongside the French king's brother, the Duke of Alençon.
The Armies of Crecy and Poitiers - Christopher Rothero (Osprey Men-at-Arms).

The Battle of Crécy was the first major battle fought by England and France in the Hundred Years’ War, and the first of three famous English victories during the conflict (followed by Poitiers in 1356 and Agincourt in 1415), and was fought on 26th August 1346 in a field near the town of Crécy-en-Ponthieu, and constituted one of the greatest defeats in French military history and a decisive turning point in the Hundred Years' War. 

The English position has several pieces of artwork on display, as here depicting a French knight cresting the ridge at the charge.

This battle saw the army of Edward III of England (approximately 16,000 men: 4,000 cavalry, 7,000 archers, 5,000 infantrymen) inflict a crushing defeat on the French army of Philip VI of Valois (approximately 20,000 men: knights, infantrymen, French archers, and Genoese mercenaries); after Edward III carefully chose an advantageous defensive position, that saw the English deployed in three defensive divisions, with the longbow-wielding archers forming 'wedges' between the divisions of men-at-arms, creating a deadly chessboard formation. 

Charge of the French knights at the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War: picture by Harry Payne

The French, confident in their numerical superiority and in the tradition of the heavy cavalry charge, launched a series of disorganised and hasty assaults. The Genoese crossbowmen, exhausted by a forced march, were sent in first but were quickly decimated by the English archers whose range and rate of fire were greater. 

The look of typical infantry of the period, with in the foreground a depiction of the unfortunate Genoese crossbowmen, pavise slung on his back.
The Armies of Crecy and Poitiers - Christopher Rothero (Osprey Men-at-Arms).

Then the French knights charged in a disorderly manner, without coordination, and were massacred by volleys of arrows from English longbows before even reaching the English lines. 

The viewing tower at Crecy, stands on the position of the former windmill around which Edward amassed his reserve division, and the two levels provide a superb vista out over the battlefield for visitors.

The view at ground level from the English front rank looking towards Fontaine, beyond the River Maye and the treeline in the background, looking down into the Vallée de Clercs, where as many as fifteen waves of French cavalry attacks were driven back, preceded by the hapless Genoese crossbowmen.

The successive charges all failed, transforming the battlefield into a mass grave where thousands of French knights lay. French losses were catastrophic: several thousand dead, including many high-ranking nobles (the King of Bohemia, the Count of Alençon, the Count of Flanders, and many other great lords). English losses were minimal. 

Senior English commanders at Crecy with the Earl of Northampton who commanded the second division.

The Armies of Crecy and Poitiers - Christopher Rothero (Osprey Men-at-Arms).

The drive to Crecy saw us crossing wide open Picardy fields with an overcast day that produced several burst of heavy rain, the last of which concluded just as we arrived at the carpark behind the English ridge, that meant conditions were similar to that experienced on the day of battle.

The edge of modern-day Crecy seen from the viewing tower, and from which we could hear the shouts and screams from the local school kids released into the playground to burn off some energy.

'The French moved forward for the assault at around 4pm, marching up the track that led to the English position. As they advanced, a sudden rainstorm swirled around the two armies. The English archers removed their bowstrings to cover inside their jackets and hats; the crossbowmen could take no such precautions with their cumbersome weapons.'

The battlefield at Crecy is really well laid out for the interested visitor, and the local authority is to be congratulated for the care shown in maintaining the site.

As the French army advanced the chronicler Froissart describes the Genoese as whooping and shouting. Once the English formation was within crossbow range the Genoese discharged their bolts; but the rain had loosened the strings of their weapons and the shots fell short.

Edward Plantagenet, Prince of Wales, 'The Black Prince' commanded the English first division at Crecy.
Reportedly beaten to his knees following a prolonged mêlée during one of the French attacks, that finally convinced Edward his father to send forward previously requested support, after having responded to the earlier request with a comment to a courtier, 'let the boy win his spurs'.
The Armies of Crecy and Poitiers - Christopher Rothero (Osprey Men-at-Arms).

At the conclusion of the battle, the Black Prince found the banner
of the blind King John of Bohemia and in his honour adopted
his badge of the three white feathers, still the emblem of the Prince of Wales today.

Froissart portrayed the response: “The English archers each stepped forth one pace, drew the bowstring to his ear, and let their arrows fly; so wholly and so thick that it seemed as snow.”

After taking in the vista of the Crecy battlefield we made the short drive into Crecy town to visit the Battle of Crecy Interpretation Centre, which has an English archer close by the door to welcome visitors.

Welcome - Historic Centre Crécy la bataille

The Interpretation Centre was opened in 2021 and houses a very nice collection of manikins, replica weaponry and other associated equipment, models and archaeological finds recovered in the area together with several interactive displays and film shows that help illustrate the battle and the campaign as a whole and how it relates to the wider history of the Hundred Years' War.

Interpretation centres like this are increasing as each year passes and places that feature in history, particularly battle sites, realize that there are folks interested in the history and they will visit and spend money if a little effort is made to explain what happened in a place and why; interesting for those of us who already are aware of much of that history but also entertainingly informative for accompanying visitors, such as partners and youngsters who might not be so informed.

As well as the life size manikins and replica weaponry I was very interested to see what had been recovered from the area in historic finds.

The collection of finds were recovered in two excavations on the battle site that took place in 1973 to 1976 and another in 1992.

Finally, as an historic wargamer, I'm always interested in items that relate to the hobby, and the centre has several nice models on display, plus a nod to the insights we gamers can bring to the understanding of these historical encounters with a display of the GMT 2005 game 'Men of Iron' recreating Crecy.

Men of Iron from GMT Games recreating Cressy

The impressive model depicting the battle at its height with Edward III's division alongside the windmill

The French army to the right charges forward in multiple waves.

The forward English divisions of Northampton left and the Black Prince right with archers to the fore behind an improvised chevaux de frise of chopped timber.

The poor old Genoese crossbowmen are turning away, only to now be ridden down by the approaching French nobility.

Finally there were some nice 54mm figurines depicting various warrior types and personalities from the Hundred Year's War as a whole

The epitome of the English archer, perhaps not verifiably historical, but perfectly capturing the attitude of the British soldier throughout the succeeding centuries since Crecy.

We had a very enjoyable excursion to Crecy, which even Carolyn, not known for her interest in the Hundred Years' War, enjoyed and if you do have a similar interest as myself, is well worth visiting if in this beautiful part of France.

Next up, I will conclude this series of posts exploring the Le Touquet area with some of the wildlife encountered during our stay, and our final excursion when we drove to the other principle Hundred Years' War battle site in the area, Agincourt.

As always more anon.

JJ