In northern France, a group of volunteers has spent months renovating the command post of the Merville gun battery – one of the main defences built by the Germans and attacked by British paratroopers in preparation for the Normandy Landings. The team hopes their work of remembrance will draw in visitors on D-Day and beyond.
Each year on 6 June, France commemorates D-Day, when some 156,000 mainly British, American and Canadian troops launched a massive invasion to try and free France from Nazi occupation.
But remembering that history isn't confined to one day. Many people on the northern coast of Normandy live with the vestiges of German army presence all year round.
Threading together its Atlantic Wall, Germany built a host of fortifications along the coast – bunkers, shelters, defence posts, and casemates to protect artillery guns.
Merville-Franceville, in the Calvados region, is home to the Merville Battery. Just 2 km inland and 13 km from Sword beach, the giant gun emplacement served to protect the coast and the mouth of the river Orne from invasion.
As such, the Allied forces were determined to destroy it. On the night of 5 June, 150 British paratroopers launched an assault to take out the guns. It wasn't an immediate success and dozens of lives were lost.
"We're really involved in a slice of history, and it's still alive, we're still discovering things," says Gaetan Dagorn, head of the Merville-Batterie association that's been working on restoring the site for the last 15 years or so.
Its 30 volunteers spent six years renovating a bunker, and for the last four months they've turned their attention to the command post.
"All the information went through this command post, it's a symbol for the 80th anniversary of D-Day," Dagorn says.
"This is where decisions were made," he says, pointing to the telephone cables in the walls. "Firing coordinates were sent here from the main command post on Franceville beach."
Life in the bunker
"The aim is to renovate the command post exactly as it was 80 years ago," says volunteer and history enthusiast Philippe Bras.
But for the moment, the priority was making it safe enough for the public to come and visit on this year's D-Day anniversary.
The team has removed large amounts of earth to literally "unbury" the bunker, and built an entrance using sacks filled with sand and cement.
While the Battery Museum next door provided an excavator, cement mixer and tractor, all the work inside the command post has to be done by hand.
"You can't get in here with a machine, not even a wheelbarrow," says Bras, recounting the toil of removing 40 cm of mud.
But it's worth the effort.
"When I come into the bunker I imagine how the soldiers lived inside, what they talked about, what they thought," says the 65-year-old retired factory worker.
"That's what I find most interesting. They were simple soldiers, they lived here 24/7 for four years – it's a long time.
"They were human beings too, they were forced to come here."
Duty to remember
Most of the volunteers grew up in Normandy, and D-Day is in their genes.
"We have a duty to remember," says Christian Génot from the seat of a quad bike, as he pulls a trailer loaded with heavy hessian sacks.
"My family are from Caen, my grandparents were in the resistance. They were deported.
"You have to hand that memory down to children and future generations, show them these vestiges as a reminder that this shouldn't happen again.
"I'm steeped in the history of what happened here, I couldn't not be involved."
Sharing the spotlight
Fellow volunteer Bras feels the history of the Merville Battery has been sidelined.
"We don't talk enough about it, unfortunately. We talk a lot about the beaches – Omaha, Utah, Gold and so on – but not that much about what happened in the batteries. And yet they were huge hubs for the war."
The media focus, he says, has been mainly on the beaches, and soldiers shot dead as they ran along them.
"It's important of course, but when the casemates were attacked, dead bodies were also left behind."
As for the war heroes, he says it's time the British were brought into the limelight.
"We want American heroes, but unfortunately we've never made heroes of the English," he regrets.
Passing on stories
Each year on D-Day, veterans join the commemorations at the Merville Battery. But this year will be different.
"The 80th anniversary is special for us. It's a big year, but also the first without veterans," says Dagorn.
"Many of the volunteers got to know the veterans. They've listened to their stories and can pass them on."
After D-Day, the volunteers will carry on working weekends to restore the bunker to its original state – with beds, a pharmacy, a munitions room, telephones, and life-size mannequins of the 160 German soldiers who lived there until the British paratroopers finally took control on 17 August 1944.
