Base submarine in Saint-Nazaire

Before World War II, Saint-Nazaire was one of the largest ports on the Atlantic coast of France. During the battle for France, the German army arrived in Saint-Nazaire in June 1940, and the port was immediately used for submarines: on September 29, 1940 U-46 arrived at the port.

In December 1940, the Todt Organization mission arrived in Saint-Nazaire and inspected the port to explore the possibility of creating a submarine base that is invulnerable to bombing by the Royal Air Force . Work was soon begun under the supervision of engineer Probst.

The space was chosen from the docks and buildings of the shipping company Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, which were destroyed. Construction began in February 1941 with cases 6,7 and 8, completed in June 1941. From July 1941 to January 1942 pencil cases were built from 9 to 14; and from February to June 1942, pencil cases from 1 to 5. The work was completed by the construction of the tower. Between the end of 1943 and the beginning of 1944, a fortified gateway was built to protect submarines during their transition from the Loire River to bunker canisters. The lock was 155 meters long, 25 meters wide and 14 meters high. On the roof there were air defense systems .

On March 28, 1942, the Saint-Nazaire dock became the target of British commandos during Operation "Chariot" (Eng .: Operation "Chariot"), better known as the Saint-Nazaire Raid . During the operation, the British successfully destroyed the dry dock adjacent to the bunker, ramming it with an destroyer filled with explosives, but the submarine bunkers were not damaged. Actually, the goal was the dock of Louis Joubert Lock , which was the only dry dock on the Atlantic coast, capable of receiving the most powerful ship in the kriegsmarine (after the sinking of the Bismarck ) - the battleship Tirpitz .

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  Erwin Rommel inspects the base on February 18, 1944

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  The crew of the German submarine on the basis of June 15, 1942

The base of submarines was 300 meters long, 130 meters wide and 18 meters high, and occupied an area of ​​39,000 m², with a concrete volume of 480,000 m³. The roof was 8 meters thick, consisting of four layers: the first of them is 3.5 meters of reinforced concrete; the second 35 cm from granite and concrete; the third is 1.7 meters from reinforced concrete, the fourth is a layer of “Fangrost” made of steel beams, having a thickness of 1.4 m. On the roof were anti-aircraft guns, machine guns and mortars.

The base consists of 14 cases for submarines. Cases from 1 to 8 - dry docks 92 meters long and 11 meters wide; Pencil cases from 9 to 14 are simple docks 62 meters long and 17 meters wide, each of which can accommodate two submarines.

Between canisters 5 and 6.12 and 13 there are two spaces giving access to the upper levels of the hopper. The base also consisted of 62 workshops, 150 rooms, 92 dormitories for crews of submarines, 20 pumps, 4 kitchens, 2 bakeries, two power plants, a restaurant and a hospital.

The territory of the base was empty for a long time. In 1994, the municipality of Saint-Nazaire decided to revive the base under the name of the project “Ville-Port” (“harbor city”). The base now has several museums, including a transatlantic liner model and an Espadon submarine.

• Submarine Bunker
• Base submarine in Brest
• Base submarine in La Rochelle
• Base submarine in Lorient
• Betasom
• Trondheim Submarine Base (Norway)
• Object 825GTS
• Valentin (hopper)
• Raid on Saint-Nazaire

• La base sous-marine de St-Nazaire sur le site U-boat bases
• La base sous-marine de Saint-Nazaire sur le site Chemins de mémoire
• Site historique sur la Poche de Saint-Nazaire