By Jeff G. Gilmour, 30 September 2024
Last summer with my brother and his family, I had an opportunity to visit the submarine base built by the Germans in the Second World War along the French Atlantic coast. The Germans built five such bases in Brest, Lorient, St. Nazareth, La Pollice and Bordeaux which they occupied from June 1940 until 1944. These five bases had the capacity to shelter 98 submarines. Lorient alone could hold up to 30, being the largest facility of the five. Over 203 submarines operated out of Lorient during this period.
Three gigantic bunkers were built at Lorient relying on a workforce of Germans and French of up to 15,000 personnel. It was noted how difficult it was for the allies to bomb and destroy these bunkers since some had cement roofs up to 7.5 metres thick.
If a U-boat was damaged, it could take around a month to get it back in service. Before setting off on a mission, each boat was demagnetized in order to reduce the risk of encountering magnetic mines.
On the 8th of May 1945 the Commander of the Lorient pocket signed an unconditional surrender document, whereby the Allied forces liberated the area and the French Navy entered the bunkers. They recovered one damaged U-boat, U-123.
As a side note the French Navy still utilize the submarine base at Brest and the America sailing boats were based at Lorient while we were there.
One thought on “The Lorient Submarine Base”
Have visited them all. The submarine Flore is a good visit and just up the coast is Espandon inside one of the pens also a good visit. There’s also a destroyer open to the public, her name escapes me right now, she’s done a lot of film work.