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Situated in the commune of Helfaut, 5 km from the town of Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais, France), LA COUPOLE is one of the most impressive relics of the Second World War in Europe.

The underground complex of LA COUPOLE
LA COUPOLE, incarnation of the Nazi madness
For a peaceful Europe

The underground complex of LA COUPOLE

It is one of the "special constructions" (Sonderbauten) built on French territory by the German army, in 1943-1944, to enable the new weapons systems to be put into operation; the flying bombs (Fi 103/V1) and the rockets (A4/V2), intended to strike England.

Its construction

Launched by the Nazis in September 1943, its construction took 10 months and mobilised considerable technical and human resources. The Todt Organisation, responsible for major works for the Nazi state, entrusted the project to a powerful German public works company, Philipp Holzmann AG.

The manpower

This was of two very different types:

on the one hand, German specialists (foremen, skilled labourers);
on the other hand, Russian prisoners, both men and women, employed as slaves for all the
menial jobs.

The concrete dome, installed on the top of a plateau and designed to protect the underground site then the rocket launch preparation hall (if the latter had been completed…), was finished in January 1944.

The Allied bombing raids

These were massive and struck the site from January to July 1944. They frequently disrupted access to the site, thus significantly slowing down the work. However, the dome itself, with its 5.5 metres thickness of reinforced concrete, was not shaken.

It was the thrust of the Anglo-American troops into Normandy, at the end of July 1944, which caused the Germans to abandon the LA COUPOLE complex site, just a few weeks before its scheduled completion.

Aerial view, at low altitude, of the LA COUPOLE site (end of 1944)

So, no V2 rocket took off from a site designed to be the first strategic missile base in History.

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LA COUPOLE, incarnation of the Nazi madness

Through the strength of its concrete shape, through the veritable labyrinth of its underground installations, through the use of forced labour to build it, LA COUPOLE is a site that symbolises the Nazi madness: it represents a will to dominate and a total disdain for human beings.

The buried sites that blossomed in Germany and in the occupied countries, from 1943 onwards, in response to the Allies’ control of the skies, were built with the forced labour of prisoners considered by the Nazis to be "inferior beings".

This fact, confirmed on a large scale in the Mittelwerk underground factory, where the V2 rockets were mass produced, right in the heart of Germany, by prisoners from the Dora concentration camp, illustrates the visionary character of Fritz Lang’s film, Metropolis, which described a world of slaves dominated by a "master race". However, the Third Reich, which Hitler had wanted to establish for one thousand years, collapsed in 1945.

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For a peaceful Europe

The construction of a peaceful, interdependent Europe, undertaken at the end of the 1940s, arose from a collective reflection on the self-destructive capacities of the "old continent" revealed by the two world wars.

This new Europe, which has broken with the confrontations of the past, is now founded on a historical heritage and humanist values shared by all the people who form it.

The memory of the "dark years" must be preserved for younger generations by giving them clear, accurate historical information. LA COUPOLE was created for this purpose, and established in an authentic and profoundly symbolic place.