Nick Wotherspoon
St Nazaire U-boat pens roof
Roof of the U-boat pens showing the interlocking steel reinforced concrete beams over an air space designed to deflect aerial bombs and dissapate their blast, protecting the actual roof below.
The huge U-boat base at St-Nazaire was built between 1941 and 1942 by the "Todt” Organization and became home to the 6th and 7th U-boat Flotillas and was fully operational by October 1942. The main construction is 295m wide, 130m long and 18m high, containing 14 U-boat pens and later a protected lock for U-boats entering and leaving the basin was also built. As with other U-boat bases it proved impervious to allied bombing, though the surrounding port suffered very badly, leaving the base isolated. Realising that the bunker could not be destroyed, in 1943 allied bombing tactics switched to levelling the town and cutting the supply lines. Before doing this, the RAF dropped leaflets warning the inhabitants and fortunately the town was mostly evacuated beforehand. After D-day, German troops in the U-boat base refused to surrender and St-Nazaire remained under Nazi control until the last day of the war in Europe, 8 May 1945. Uneconomic to demolish and after years of neglect, today the U-boat base has udergone a transformation into an amenity and toursist attraction for the town.
Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Nazaire
www.uboat.net/flotillas/bases/saint_nazaire.htm
St Nazaire U-boat pens roof
Roof of the U-boat pens showing the interlocking steel reinforced concrete beams over an air space designed to deflect aerial bombs and dissapate their blast, protecting the actual roof below.
The huge U-boat base at St-Nazaire was built between 1941 and 1942 by the "Todt” Organization and became home to the 6th and 7th U-boat Flotillas and was fully operational by October 1942. The main construction is 295m wide, 130m long and 18m high, containing 14 U-boat pens and later a protected lock for U-boats entering and leaving the basin was also built. As with other U-boat bases it proved impervious to allied bombing, though the surrounding port suffered very badly, leaving the base isolated. Realising that the bunker could not be destroyed, in 1943 allied bombing tactics switched to levelling the town and cutting the supply lines. Before doing this, the RAF dropped leaflets warning the inhabitants and fortunately the town was mostly evacuated beforehand. After D-day, German troops in the U-boat base refused to surrender and St-Nazaire remained under Nazi control until the last day of the war in Europe, 8 May 1945. Uneconomic to demolish and after years of neglect, today the U-boat base has udergone a transformation into an amenity and toursist attraction for the town.
Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Nazaire
www.uboat.net/flotillas/bases/saint_nazaire.htm