Site de lancement V1 Guerville – Poteau de Montauban – Site n°161, World War II military heritage site in Grandcourt, France
The Site de lancement V1 Guerville, Poteau de Montauban, Site n°161, is a World War II military site in Grandcourt, in northern France. It preserves the remains of a V1 flying bomb launch pad, including concrete foundations and the alignment post that gives the site its name.
This site was built by the German army during World War II as part of a network of V1 flying bomb launch pads targeting Britain. After the liberation of northern France, the installations were abandoned, and nature gradually reclaimed much of the area.
The Poteau de Montauban served as an alignment marker used to calibrate the flight path of the V1 rockets before launch. Such markers were a standard part of every launch site, yet few remain visible today.
The site is freely accessible year-round and can be explored on foot at your own pace. Information panels on site help make sense of the remains without needing a guide.
This launch site is part of a much larger network that once stretched across the northern French coast. The fact that the alignment post, the Poteau de Montauban, still stands in place is exceptionally rare for sites of this type.
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