Moyecques ) is a small hamlet within the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

of Landrethun-le-Nord in the Pas-de-Calais department in the

Nord-Pas-de-Calais Nord-Pas-de-Calais (); pcd, Nord-Pas-Calés); is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Hauts-de-France. It consisted of the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais. Nord-Pas-de-Calais ...

region of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It took its name from a local landowner, Guffridus eoffreyde Moykes, at the start of the 13th century. There were originally three settlements named after Guffidus, all with

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

names: ''Oist Moieques'' (East Moieques, today's village of Moyecques), ''Midel Moieques'' (now the tiny hamlet of Mimoyecques just to the west of Moyecques) and ''West Moieques''. By the 17th century the lordship of Moyecques had been unified with that of Landrethun, moving from

Fiennes Fiennes or Ffiennes may refer to: Places * Fiennes, a commune of the Pas-de-Calais ''département'' in northern France. People A toponymic surname pronounced and borne by a prominent English family, descendant from Eustace I Fiennes, a nobleman ...

. Today Moyecques is best known as the site of the Fortress of Mimoyecques, the modern name for an underground base built by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

to house the

V-3 cannon The V-3 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 3, ("Vengeance Weapon 3") was a German World War II large-caliber gun working on the multi-charge principle whereby secondary propellant charges are fired to add velocity to a projectile. The Germans pla ...

that was intended to bombard

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

References

Villages in Hauts-de-France {{PasdeCalais-geo-stub