Urban explorer and photographer Marc Askat braved the hunting season to walk through the thick wooded countryside in northern France.
The eerie underground stronghold is filled with stories from one of the most devastating wars in human history, but despite finding and photographing the bunker, Askat won’t reveal its exact location. It turns out he has a very good reason for keeping Hitler’s underground bunker location a secret from the public.
This isn’t the first time Parisian photographer Marc Askat has uncovered an intriguing World War II history site and photographed it. He’s also used soldier’s journals to uncover an underground World War II hospital and numerous wartime relics.
However, his latest adventure to uncover Hitler’s last bunker was more difficult. Most people know that Hitler fled to a bunker in German territory in a failed attempt to salvage his ailing war efforts, but that wasn’t the only bunker Hitler used. Askat uncovered a different bunker in France that was used to plan the invasion of Britain. You won’t believe what’s inside.
Now that Askat had located the bunker, he had to find a way in. The doors and windows were covered with rusty shutters—designed to keep intruders out. Eventually, the urban explorer and photographer was able to find an opening.
The bunker Askat discovered was far from the only bunker Hitler had in France. The ruins of Nazi bunkers still exist throughout northern France, including the battle-ready bunker Batterie Todt near Normandy, and a rocket launching bunker that was never completed called Le Blockhaus. The Nazis occupied France for several years in World War II, ending with the Liberation of Paris in 1944.
Askat entered the bunker and began exploring a massive network of tunnels and rooms that sprawled beneath the surface of the earth for six miles. At its deepest point, the underground bunker is close to 100 feet below the ground.
Inside he discovered crumbling ceilings, dark echoing hallways, and moss covered military phrases stamped on the chipped walls. The bunker is scary on its own, but knowing that it was once inhabited by the evilest man in the world makes the journey through the darkness even more chilling. During the occupation of France, Nazi’s brought terror and genocide to the country.
Beyond the bunker’s staggering size, the underground stronghold Askat photographed has a significant historical importance. It was believed to be Hitler’s final headquarters outside of Germany. At the time the bunker was built, Hitler planned to invade Britain—which didn’t work out.
He later planned to burn the city of Paris to the ground if the Allies captured the city; they did, but Hitler was holed up in his German bunker, support for the Nazis was waning, and he was unable to execute a military strategy at that point. The bunker Askat photographed may have been the site of major military decisions that resulted in massive death and destruction.
The name of the bunker Marc Askat found was Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschlucht II, and Adolf Hitler wasn’t the only terrifying figure who resided there. The bunker served as the Nazis’ Western Front military command center and housed dozens of German officers and their staff.
The maze of passageways and rooms would’ve been full of Nazis plotting the expansion of their fascist regime. What makes this bunker all the more terrifying is that it was just one of ten similar sites used by Hitler during the war—which gives you an idea of just how vast their influence was. In a bunker like this one, it was difficult for Allied forces to find and attack Hitler.
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