General Richter’s command post in Caen

This command post was built in a former stone quarry transformed into an underground military installation.
Located 15 km from the beaches, it consists of a long 70m tunnel. General Richter’s office was located in the centre. On either side were the rooms reserved for the staff, the transmission room, the map room, the telephone switchboard connected by underground cables to the coast, to the aerodrome of Carpiquet, and at the Central Post Office which was in a blockhouse in Caen.

On 6 June, at 00:40, Richter was informed by telephone of the presence of paratroopers and gliders east of the Orne and put his division on alert. At 02h00, the Allies began to bomb the support points and the coastal batteries. Less than 5 hours later, the first waves of assault landed. Anglo-Canadian troops brought down the positions held by the 716th division and infiltrated between Bayeux and Caen.  

At 3:30 Richter and his staff decided to join the underground HQ north of Caen. At 10:45 the commander of the 84th Corps, general Marcks coming from Saint-Lô joined this command post to reorganize the counterattack against the airborne bridgehead to the East of the Orne. 

On the evening a crisis meeting was organized between generals Richter, Feuchtinger (21st Panzer Division) and Kurt Meyer, (25th Armoured Regiment of the 12th SS), to prepare a counter-offensive for the next day. The decision was taken of a counter-attack led by Kurt Meyer and his tanks to ban the British from the airfield of Carpiquet. 

A few days later, the command post will be abandoned in the face on the intensity of fighting north of Caen and aerial bombardments. 

Today an evocation of the former HQ of general Richter is part of the visit of the Caen Mémorial built just above in 1988.