Maisy Battery (Batterie de Maisy)

British historian Gary Sterne discovered the battery in 2004 after finding an old Allied map showing an 'Area of High Resistance' near Grandcamp-Maisy. He bought the overgrown field from a local farmer without knowing what lay beneath, and began digging to find the first trench in what would turn out to be a 144-acre complex with 27 different previous owners.

The site was deliberately covered with earth after the war and forgotten for six decades. Local farmers used the land for agriculture, unaware they were plowing above one of the largest German defensive positions in Normandy. Some concrete bunker tops were visible but dismissed as minor fortifications.

The Maisy Battery was listed as D-Day mission objective Number 6 in Colonel James Rudder's Operation Neptune orders. However, after the famous assault on Pointe du Hoc, Rudder allegedly never ordered his Rangers to continue to Maisy, leaving the battery operational until June 9th when it was finally captured by a different Ranger force.