Batterie Pommern, Coastal battery in Leugenboom, Koekelare, Belgium

Batterie Pommern is a German gun emplacement in Koekelare, Belgium, consisting of a concrete pit about 21 metres in diameter. The 38 cm SK L/45 "Max" gun was mounted on a steel bridge with a front pivot, its rear travelling along a circular rail track; electric motors moved the gun. Reinforced-concrete shelters stood on either side, with an electric generator group in front of and below the platform.

The gun, a Krupp 38 cm SK L/45 "Max" with an enlarged charge chamber, fired its first shell on 27 June 1917, hitting Dunkirk about 50 km away; Dunkirk and Ypres were its main targets. During the German retreat in 1918 the gun was dismantled and sent by rail toward Germany, but the Belgians found it at the Brussels station and returned it to the emplacement, where it stood as a monument between the wars. The concrete pit itself was never blown up.

The battery is named after the German province of Pomerania, not a ship. The gun itself was nicknamed "Max", and the site is now called Lange Max. During the interwar years the battery was one of the most successful attractions in Belgian battlefield tourism and appeared in the Michelin guide "L'Yser et la côte belge".

The concrete platform can be visited and allows you to examine the positioning mechanisms and construction details up close. For a complete experience, visit the adjacent museum which provides technical information and historical context about the installation's role in the war.

The gun's shells climbed to nearly 10 km, reaching the lower stratosphere, a feat its German crews did not fully grasp at the time. In the interwar years the battery was one of Belgium's most successful battlefield attractions, listed in the Michelin guide "L'Yser et la côte belge".