Kerviniou Batteries

Îlot des Capucins (Islet of the Capuchins) is a rocky islet at the foot of a cliff in the commune of Roscanvel on the Crozon peninsula. Its name comes from a rock near the island, shaped like a praying monk. It has a strategic position at the entrance to the goulet de Brest and so a fort sited on it controlled the whole of Camaret Bay, with views stretching from pointe du Grand Gouin (to the southwest), to fort de Bertheaume (to the northwest). The fort was built in 1848 after plans drawn 150 years earlier by Vauban, built in schist and granite and made up of an underground battery (1890) and a rapid-fire battery (1890) It was linked to the mainland by a bridge in 1859.On the heights overlooking the islet is an upper battery (1885) to the islet's right and left, a platform battery with an underground magazine (1897) and a mortar battery (1889).

La pointe de Cornouaille is a cape to the north of the hamlet of Kerviniou in France. They are both situated on the Roscanvel peninsula and, facing as it does the Fort du Mengant, a battery on the point forms part of the defences of the goulet de Brest. Known defences on the site include: Lower battery (1694) - built to plans by Vauban Tour modèle n°1 (1813) - see Tour-modèle type 1811 Batterie de rupture sous roc (1888) Batterie du plateau (1897) Batterie de DCA allemande (1943, German) Torpedo-boat battery (German)

Îlot du Diable is a gun battery built to support fort de la Fraternité in the defensive system around the goulet de Brest in France. It is sited on the peninsula of Roscanvel and is accessible by a small bridge. The battery was razed in the 19th century, and in 1890 on its site was built a bunker with an electricity generator. A casemate was then added by the Germans in 1942. A small observation is still to be found at the summit of the site, near a former lime kiln.

The Goulet de Brest (French pronunciation: ​[ɡulɛ də bʁɛst]) is a 3-km-long strait linking the roadstead of Brest to the Atlantic Ocean. Only 1.8 km wide, the goulet is situated between the Pointe du Petit Minou and the Pointe du Portzic to the north and the îlot des Capucins and the Pointe des Espagnols to the south. At each turn of the tide, the ocean refills the roadstead in a current that can attain 4 to 5 knots. Sailing ships would thus wait in the cove of Camaret-sur-Mer for a favourable current to carry them into the goulet. On 2 January 1793, the Childers Incident – the first shots of the war between Great Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars – took place in the goulet.

The Childers Incident of 2 January 1793 marked the opening shots between British and French forces during the French Revolutionary Wars, the first phase of a 23-year-long war between the two countries. Following the French Revolution of 1789, diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the French Republic had steadily deteriorated and France was in political and social turmoil. One of the strongest hotbeds of republican activity was the principal Atlantic naval base of the French Navy at Brest in Brittany, the scene of a significant mutiny in 1790. On 2 January a small British warship, the 14-gun brig HMS Childers under Commander Robert Barlow, was ordered to enter the Roadstead of Brest to reconnoitre the state of readiness of the French fleet. As Childers entered the Goulet de Brest, the vessel came under fire from French batteries flying the tricolour. Although Barlow clearly identified his brig as a neutral British vessel the fire continued until he was able to withdraw. Although Childers had been struck by a 48 lb (22 kg) cannonball, none of the crew were wounded. The incident was of itself inconsequential, with minimal damage and no casualties on either side, but it marked a symbolic moment in the deterioration of relations between Britain and France in the approach to war, which broke out on 1 February 1793.

The fort du Mengant or fort du Léon in the commune of Plouzané is part of the defences of the roadstead of Brest. It is made up of a high battery (58m above sea-level), with a now-destroyed artillery tower, and a lower semi-circular battery at the foot of the cliff, with two small powder magazines. Built by Vauban in 1684, it faces the batterie de cornouaille on the Roscanvel peninsula, built to the same model as the lower part of the fort du Mengant. The aim was to permit these two batteries, only just over 2 km apart, to bar entry to the roadstead. The original plans foresaw the completion of the defences by adding a battery in the middle of the goulet, on the Roche Mengant, but this proved impossible due to the tides and currents in the goulet. Around 1875, the naval ministry built a dam up against the lower battery to create a small harbour in which to base motor torpedo boats, in order to adapt the fort to this evolution in warfare. The lower battery houses the annexe to the Centre Nautique des Equipages de la Marine, whilst the upper battery is now used for radar testing. An imposing ramp was built in the 1960s to link the port to the upper battery so that the largest pieces of radar equipment to be tested could be carried up to it from the port.

Tremet is a hamlet on the Roscanvel peninsula in France. The gun batteries located here are part of the defences of the goulet de Brest, forbidding ships from entering the bay of Camaret-sur-Mer. The site had been occupied by the military since 1694 (a battery was probably sited here in Vauban's defensive scheme) and was updated several times in the 18th and 19th centuries. The battery became a heavy anti-aircraft post in 1955 as part of the outer defences of Brest's military fort - part of that battery is still part of the military land around Quélern and not open to the public.

The fort Quélern or réduit de Quélern is a castle and prison in the commune of Roscanvel in France.

Forming part of the chain of fortifications along the goulet de Brest, the fort du Dellec was built by Vauban in the 17th century, then rebuilt several times, notably in the 19th century when casemates were added for barracks and munitions storage. A German blockhouse typical of those on the Atlantic Wall was also added here by the Germans. It is located on the coastal paths between Brest and Le Conquet in the commune of Plouzané. The fort has been open to the public for some years. Two viewing points allow views of the cliffs of the Crozon peninsula and the Goulet, and there is a marina in a nearby small creek.

Quélern is a hamlet in Roscanvel, in the department of Finistère (Brittany), in western France.

Roscanvel (French pronunciation: ​[ʁɔskɑ̃vɛl]; Breton: Roskañvel) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.

Télécom Bretagne (formerly known as ENST Bretagne) was a French grande école of engineering, and a research centre providing training in information technologies and telecommunications. In 2017, it merged with École des mines de Nantes to form IMT Atlantique. As a member of the Institut Mines-Télécom, it had three campuses: Plouzané, in the Technopôle Brest-Iroise, near Brest (France); Campus de Beaulieu, in Rennes (France); SUPAERO campus, in Toulouse (France).Télécom Bretagne had been the source of breakthroughs in the world of telecommunications, notably the turbo codes (first published in Proc. IEEE ICC'93) used extensively in 3G mobile telephony standards.