Le Coudray sur Thelle

About fifty kilometres north of Paris is Le Coudray sur Thelle, where the Germans in late 1940 began to build a local headquarters for the Luftwaffe. The headquarters was called Robinson 1 and was directly connected to a long railway tunnel where the Goering’s personal train Asia could park during trips to Paris and the surrounding area. The tunnel served perfectly as protection against airstrikes. Robinson consisted of several bunkers and various buildings, including a villa for Goering. The strategic importance of the headquarters declined in late 1942 when german’s focus shifted to the eastern front. Robinson was then taken over by a German air squad that remained until the end of August 1944 when it was evacuated as American troops approached the area. In the same month, Robinson suffered an airstrike that resulted in the collapse of parts of the railway tunnel. The goal of the attack was to knock out the tunnel because it was used as a storage for fuel for V1 bombs.