Saint-Nazaire submarine base

About

The Saint-Nazaire submarine base is one of five U-Boote bases built along the French Atlantic façade during the Second World War by Nazi Germany occupying France. It serves as the home port for 6. and 7. Unterseebootsflottille.

History: Prior to World War II, the port of Saint-Nazaire was one of the largest on the French Atlantic coast.

The German army arrived in Saint-Nazaire in June 1940. U-46 of the 7. Unterseebotsflottille was the first German submarine to join Saint-Nazaire on 29 September 1940. A mission of the organization Todt (Oberbauleitung Süd) inspected the port as early as December 1940, in order to determine the possibilities of building a submarine base to protect German submarines from British aerial bombardments. The work is entrusted to engineer Probst. The base is built in place of the Transatlantic General Company's turning basin. Stones extracted from the quarry of La Roche Ballue in Bouguenais are transported by river to Saint-Nazaire as building material. With the enlargement of the...