First post on the Forum.
I've been working my way around the Nazi U-boat bunkers in Brittany over the last decade. Remarkable sites.
When I first visited the Bordeaux site almost 10 years ago, it was in a fairly clapped out and unloved area of town. Last time I was there, 20 months ago, the area around was being extensively redeveloped and lots of housing built, while the base itself - also being renovated and interior areas cleared at that time - had, in some parts at least, been used up to that time by a few local maritime businesses, and had an arts space/gallery that will expand and use more of the site. On foot, I took the train to Bordeaux then a local bus to the site. It's easy to get to by car.
I took a couple of mates here by car, on a whistlestop weekend tour of all the bases - Bordeaux, La Rochelle (La Pallice), Saint-Nazaire, Lorient and Brest. We skulked around the back of Betasom, saw an open door, so I strolled in with a confident "Bonjour!" and a wave to the utterly disinterested workmen, and we had a look inside. I'd photographed the site externally before but there had been no access inside.
These are amazing concrete structures. Weighed down by the baggage of history but too big and expensive to demolish, so are now repurposed. Here is some info about this one from https://www.battlefieldsww2.com/bordeaux-u-boat-bunker.html
---
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.
The bunker was base for the German 12th U-boat Flotilla, which operated supply U- boats (“Milch cow”) which would rendezvous with attack boats in mid-ocean to transfer torpedoes, fuel and supplies, lengthening the time they could spend on patrol; the 12th Flotilla also operated mine-laying U-boats and transport boats which maintained a link with Japan.
Beside the German facilities, there was also an Italian submarine base which operated until the Italian surrender to the Allies in September 1943, after which the five remaining submarines were taken over by the Kriegsmarine.
In 1944, to protect the pens from armour-piercing bombs, a second roof was fitted above the existing roof, itself 350 cm. thick. An additional layer of concrete was cast 210 cm. thick, reinforced with blocks a metre wide and two meter deep. Any armour-piercing bomb's fuse would be activated by the upper layer so would explode in the void between the upper and main roofs, rather than penetrating the main roof into the main building.
A bombing raid was mounted on 17 May 1943 but regrettably some bombs missed and caused local civilian casualties; a plaque commemorates their contribution to the eventual Allied victory.
The bunker complex was bombed again on 11 and 14 August 1944 and received several direct hits; however, after the liberation, Allied troops found no damage had been caused to the massive structure.
The last U-Boats left Bordeaux in August 1944, one of them being U-534 which was later sunk off Denmark on 5 May 1945; although a few hours after Grand Admiral Doenitz had ordered all German forces to surrender, U-534 failed to comply so was attacked and sunk. She was raised in 1993 and is now a museum in Liverpool, England (from where the Battle of the Atlantic was controlled).
---
Hope you like the pics.
I've been working my way around the Nazi U-boat bunkers in Brittany over the last decade. Remarkable sites.
When I first visited the Bordeaux site almost 10 years ago, it was in a fairly clapped out and unloved area of town. Last time I was there, 20 months ago, the area around was being extensively redeveloped and lots of housing built, while the base itself - also being renovated and interior areas cleared at that time - had, in some parts at least, been used up to that time by a few local maritime businesses, and had an arts space/gallery that will expand and use more of the site. On foot, I took the train to Bordeaux then a local bus to the site. It's easy to get to by car.
I took a couple of mates here by car, on a whistlestop weekend tour of all the bases - Bordeaux, La Rochelle (La Pallice), Saint-Nazaire, Lorient and Brest. We skulked around the back of Betasom, saw an open door, so I strolled in with a confident "Bonjour!" and a wave to the utterly disinterested workmen, and we had a look inside. I'd photographed the site externally before but there had been no access inside.
These are amazing concrete structures. Weighed down by the baggage of history but too big and expensive to demolish, so are now repurposed. Here is some info about this one from https://www.battlefieldsww2.com/bordeaux-u-boat-bunker.html
---
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.
The bunker was base for the German 12th U-boat Flotilla, which operated supply U- boats (“Milch cow”) which would rendezvous with attack boats in mid-ocean to transfer torpedoes, fuel and supplies, lengthening the time they could spend on patrol; the 12th Flotilla also operated mine-laying U-boats and transport boats which maintained a link with Japan.
Beside the German facilities, there was also an Italian submarine base which operated until the Italian surrender to the Allies in September 1943, after which the five remaining submarines were taken over by the Kriegsmarine.
In 1944, to protect the pens from armour-piercing bombs, a second roof was fitted above the existing roof, itself 350 cm. thick. An additional layer of concrete was cast 210 cm. thick, reinforced with blocks a metre wide and two meter deep. Any armour-piercing bomb's fuse would be activated by the upper layer so would explode in the void between the upper and main roofs, rather than penetrating the main roof into the main building.
A bombing raid was mounted on 17 May 1943 but regrettably some bombs missed and caused local civilian casualties; a plaque commemorates their contribution to the eventual Allied victory.
The bunker complex was bombed again on 11 and 14 August 1944 and received several direct hits; however, after the liberation, Allied troops found no damage had been caused to the massive structure.
The last U-Boats left Bordeaux in August 1944, one of them being U-534 which was later sunk off Denmark on 5 May 1945; although a few hours after Grand Admiral Doenitz had ordered all German forces to surrender, U-534 failed to comply so was attacked and sunk. She was raised in 1993 and is now a museum in Liverpool, England (from where the Battle of the Atlantic was controlled).
---
Hope you like the pics.
