It seems strange that the location of four 155 mm and four 105 mm guns that killed so many American soldiers on D-Day would vanish from history after WWII. Deutch Welle:
Abandoned after the Allied victory, the complex of tunnels, gun emplacements and living quarters was gradually overtaken by nature, and it was only thanks to dogged detective work that Gary Sterne -- editor of a British military journal -- was able to locate it.
"It was totally forgotten. Local farmers never reclaimed the land, so gradually the bushes and thickets took it over. Only if you looked could you see a rough outline of the fortifications," said local deputy Jean-Marc Lefranc.
Experts were divided on the location of the main Nazi gun battery which caused carnage on Omaha Beach, in terrible scenes which were recreated for the Hollywood film Saving Private Ryan.
The Germans had built a decoy gun emplacement overlooking the area and the location of the real guns which blasted the beach, where 2,000 men lost their lives, remained unclear.
But Mr Sterne, a publisher and collector, stumbled on the answer as he browsed through items at a Stockport militaria fair and a piece of paper fell out of a pair of US serviceman's trousers.
It turned out to be an invasion map for Omaha Beach, which included an area marked Area of High Resistance he thought could be the `lost' Nazi gun emplacements.
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