The Azeville Battery: A German Garrison in a Norman Village

At the beginning of the war, Azeville was a small farming village with only 115 inhabitants. Seemingly unchanged since the 18th century, this town was thrust into the spotlight of history in March 1942 when German command decided it was the ideal spot for a gun battery. For more than two years, 170 soldiers lived sholder to sholder with the villagers, in an unprecedented form of ultramodern warfare which would structure the landscape and oversee the interactions between civil and miltary populations. Colour and b/w photographs throughout