France's UBoat Bunkers Survived the War—And Thrive Today

Submarine pen Surrendered German U-boats moored outside the Dora I bunker in Trondheim, Norway, May 1945 A submarine pen ( U-Boot-Bunker in German) is a type of submarine base that acts as a bunker to protect submarines from air attack. Battle of Atlantic Historical Battles U-Boat Tactics U-Boat Personalities Medals & Awards Photo Gallery Video Library Articles U-Boats in the Far East Most Successful U-Boat Attacks U-Boat Museum & Exhibits U-Boat Bunkers The German Naval Grid System Wooden Torpedoes - The German Crisis Escaping from a Sunken U-Boat Life Aboard a U-Boat

Deutsche UBoote in einem uBootBunker in Frankreich, 1943 Stockfotografie Alamy

(Bundesarchiv) Dönitz believed—more so than Adolf Hitler or Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, the head of the German navy—that U-boats were key to winning the naval war against Britain. Cut off its supply line to North America, reckoned Dönitz, and Britain would be starved into surrender. Construction Before the Second World War, Saint-Nazaire was one of the largest harbours of the Atlantic coast of France. During the Battle of France, the German Army arrived in Saint-Nazaire, in June 1940. The harbour was immediately used for submarine operations, with the German submarine U-46 arriving as soon as 29 September 1940. 66 Want to Visit? 341 The submarine pens in La Rochelle. Pep.per de Ré/CC BY-SA 2.5 In April of 1941, laborers began building the concrete behemoths in La Rochelle's harbor. The massive pens were. Fast forward 5 years to the end of the Second World War, Germany lost the war and 3 of their newest U-Boats were left stranded in a massive bunker on the Elbe river; the U-2505, U-3004 and U-350. The British proceeded to blow up the bunker with 32 tonnes of bombs which caused the roof to partially collapse, trapping the u-boats in the bunker.

Inside the last Nazi naval HQ A rusting snapshot of a Uboat bunker¿s cramped and basic

An RAF officer inspects the hole left by a 22,000-lb deep-penetration 'Grand Slam' bomb which pierced the reinforced concrete roof of the German submarine pens at Farge, north of Bremen, Germany. Bomb craters on the roof of a building at the German submarine base, Brest, France. Brest U-boat pens after liberation, 1944. Planned use Plan of Valentin, taken from the 1946 US Air Force report on the results of Project Ruby [1] After completion, the bunker would have had a work-force of around 4,500 slave workers. [4] Under the management of the Bremer Vulkan shipyard, it would assemble U-boats. On his release from prison he wrote a couple of books, autographed postcards and answered correspondence until he died on Christmas Eve, 1980. Filed 8/5/2013 | Updated. Lager Koralle was the forest bunker that controlled Germany's feared U-boat fleet during WW2. Central command for marauding submarines. Construction of the Bordeaux bunker began in Autumn 1941 and was completed in Summer 1943. Overall dimensions were 245 meter long, 162 meter deep (front to rear) with a height of 19 meter. It had 11 pens, eight of which were dry docks.

Inside the last Nazi naval HQ A rusting snapshot of a Uboat bunker¿s cramped and basic

The construction of the U-boat bunker at Brest commenced in early 1941 and in the summer of that year the 1st and 9th U-boat flotillas moved from Germany to Brest. The bunker was built in two phases, the first comprising 13 U-boat pens, and the second 9 pens. The bunker measured 1090 x 630 feet and the roof was almost 12 feet thick. The Elbe II bunker is located on the southern bank of the Elbe river at the Vulkanhafen. The mid-1930s saw the Naval Construction Office in Berlin give the problem serious thought. Various factions in the navy were convinced protection for the expanding U-boat arm was required. The bunkers today The base was was abandoned by the military on 11 February 1997. Now KIII is open for visit, the other pens are used as locations for small businesses (some yachting constructors.). Next to the complex the fishing port of Lorient is situated. U-boat pens or submarine pens were a type of submarine bases that acted as a bunker to protect submarines from air attack. From the mid-1930s the German Navy.

German submarine entering a newly built Uboat bunker .Early 1942 Photo d'actualité Getty Images

The Germans occupied the entire Belgian coast during World War I. Their U-boats were based farther inland in Bruges, just outside the range of British naval guns, and passed through canals that. Site history. Built. 1941-43. Built by. Nazi Germany. Lorient Submarine Base was a submarine naval base located in Lorient, France. It was built in 1941 by the German Kriegsmarine, and was continued to be enlarged until 1943. After the German defeat it was used by the French Navy. It was decommissioned in 1995 and converted to civilian use.