Keroman Bunkers

FINALLY!

After many planned attempts, CJ finally made it to the Keroman German Submarine Pens in Lorient.  They are fascinating and a marvel of German engineering and construction technology and construction management.  They were built in short periods of time and movement between them was creative and efficient. The Germans built these huge facilities in Brest, Loriant, Saint-Nazairre, La Rochelle and Bordeaux to give them easy access to the Atlantic Ocean and protection from Allied bombing. They were impregnable.  Even the specially designed "Tall Boy" bomb did little damage.

It turned out to be a whole day event.  Arriving at 1030, the timed submarine visit was at 1400 and the K3 bunker visit at 1530.  Although the English speaking guide, didn't speak very good English (bad form on their part), he was enthusiastic and tried hard and eventually got his points understood; and with a bit of humor.

So what to do between 1030 and 1400.  CJ walked the complex and when he completed that, sat for a two-hour lunch enjoying a fine tuna brochette, cidre and a beer.

The submarine museum and French submarine visit was mostly presented in French with the exception of the headsets provided for the submarine tour. It was disappointing for CJ but then again, he's been touring submarines since before he was a teenager and then was on US submarines for work many times so it was just another bloody sub; one of dozens he's been inside.

There were four bunkers.  K1 had one bay used to gain access to the bays of K1, K2 and K4.

Once a sub entered and there was at least a 45 minute window without air raid concern, the U-boat would be transferred to a storage or maintenance bay via a marine railway system.

A decommissioned French submarine museum now sits on what little remains of the marine railway systems.  It was well into the 1970's before US shipbuilding adopted this simple method for a greatly improved efficiency in our shipbuilding.

 This is the K2 bunker now home to a concert hall and emergency storage of racing sailboats.

The visit to the K3 bunker (sub pen) included a walk to the roof, up to the flak towers where the anti-aircraft guns were located.

A large group of English and CJ have waited until 3:30 for the English speaking tour.  Xavier, is enthusiastic and tries hard but just barely qualifies as an English-speaking tour guide.  Nonetheless, he's cute, humorous and generally gets the message across.

We stand on the roof on the corner most flak tower.  From here are stunning views of the Lorient harbor.

Inside the submarine bay of K3.  K3 had direct access to the sea for each of it bays.  Some held multiple U-boats.  If you can see what appears to be an object beyond the entrance, it's a purposely sunk ship.  The British decided to attack the K3 bays with torpedoes so the Germans sunk ships to prevent that.

He didn't leave Lorient until 5:30 arriving back two hours later.  In the process he passed the pens in Brest.