Cap Griz Nez

Cap Gris-Nez is a promontory in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The summit is 50 m above sea level. Cap Gris-Nez is located 16 km southwest of Cap Blanc-Nez. This part of France is the closest to the United Kingdom. The name of the cape is Old Dutch in origin, with nez referring to the Old Dutch nesa or protruding piece of land in the sea. In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte had a semaphore installed here that was to be the first of a new line linking France with England, which he hoped to conquer soon. On 18 July 1805, just before the cape, a confrontation took place between 45 ships of the English navy and a fleet of smaller vessels of the Batavian Commonwealth under the command of Vice-Admiral Carel Hendrik Ver Huell, which were on their way to the port of Ambleteuse. Fortunately for the Dutch, Napoleon had placed 300 pieces of artillery on the cape that put the English to flight with their cannonade. Adolf Galland, a famous German fighter pilot and army leader in World War II, made an emergency landing on the beach of Cap Gris-Nez. It was also here that Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring, among others, looked across the channel towards England in 1940 after their armies had conquered Western Europe.

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