German troops invade Poland on September 1st 1939. Two days later Poland’s allies, France and Great Britain, declare war on Germany. The declaration of war is followed by a nine-month period nicknamed, « the phony war, » because no direct attacks were carried out by either side. Instead, each side stayed behind its line of defense – the Maginot Line on the French side and the Siegfried Line on the other side of the Rhine. Eventually, the Germans make the first move by attacking neutral Belgium and Holland on May 10, 1940. They cross the Ardennes, a region not protected by the Maginot Line because it had been deemed impenetrable. By May 13th, the German army crosses the border of France at Sedan. Paris is occupied on the 14th of June. German troops receive the order to immediately seize major French ports on the Atlantic coast. The objective of the operation is to block routes to retreating British Expeditionary Forces that could not withdraw at Dunkirk.

Saint-Nazaire (population: 36,000), which had been spared during World War I, is suddenly plunged into a state of turmoil. Its port had already been used to disembark British Expeditionary Forces as early as September 12, 1939. Around five thousand civilians from the Nord region of France had sought refuge there after the German offensive of May 10, 1940. Now, it is 40,000 British and Polish troops who are trying to embark before the arrival of the Germans at Saint-Nazaire. General Sikorski, the Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile, had put together a Polish army in France in early 1940. The soldiers stationed at Saint-Nazaire are part of the 3rd Polish Infantry Division who had been training in Coëtquidan. On June 17, 1940 a German plane sinks the Lancastria, the largest British ship anchored in the harbor. Over three thousand soldiers go down with the ship… That same day, Maréchal Pétain calls for an armistice. The following day, from London, General de Gaulle makes his famous call for resistance. On the morning of June 19th, the battleship Jean-Bart successfully sets sail from the Saint-Nazaire harbor – and just in time, as the vanguards of the German army reach Nantes that same day and Saint-Nazaire, three days later. Saint-Nazaire was declared an « open city » by its mayor, François Blancho.

("Souvenir Guide Saint-Nazaire During World War II" by Luc Braeuer, Curator of Museum)

Following the German army’s brief stay in Saint-Nazaire in June of 1940, it is the navy, Kriegsmarine, which moves in very quickly. The port’s geographic location facing the Atlantic Ocean, the naval construction sites, as well as the Dock Normandie, make Saint-Nazaire an ideal location. This enormous dry dock, from which the ocean liner, the Normandie, sailed before the war, is the ideal place to repair the largest of German battleships. After the Franco-German armistice, Great Britain finds itself fighting alone against the German-Italian Axis. When Germany loses a fierce aerial battle that lasts until October 1940, it orders the Kriegsmarine to isolate the Island of Great Britain. Large packs of German submarines (U-Boote) are launched to sink cargo supply ships sailing for Great Britain. Saint-Nazaire is one of five ports on the French Atlantic coast chosen by the Germans to become a port of registry for the U-Boote. An gigantic bunker is built in the middle of the port to protect submarines from bombardment – a submarine base. Construction begins in March 1941. By June 1942, construction of the fourteen pens which hold twenty submarines is complete. Nevertheless the construction of annexes and especially the reinforcement of the roof will continue until June 1944! The dimensions of the submarine base are impressive – 299 meters long by 124 meters wide. Where the roof is complete, its thickness is 8.75 meters! In total, 480,000 m3 of cement will be poured to construct the structure with a surface area of around 39,000 m2!
Two flotillas of type VII submarines are based at Saint-Nazaire: the 7th Flotilla from Kiel, from January 1941 and the 6th Flotilla from Danzig, from February 1942. Many U-Boot commanders based at Saint-Nazaire rack up success upon success. Nicknamed « the aces, » commanders are greeted with great pomp upon their return from missions in the Atlantic. They are met by a welcome committee and a band while women climb up on the conning tower and offer them bouquets of flowers. After the ceremony, submarines are taken to the submarine base. There, engineers and mechanics make any necessary repairs and return submarines to their original state within two months. The U-Boot crew is bussed to the best hotels in La Baule where the men are also freshened up. They are shaved, washed, and given brand new uniforms before going out on the town. Entertainment includes cinemas, cabarets, and brothels… Taking into account their heavy losses (up to 85% of men in the field) submariners have all they could ask for and more if they are lucky to return from a mission. When the United States enters the war in December 1941, German submarines departing from Saint-Nazaire will widen their course all the way to the American coast!

("Souvenir Guide Saint-Nazaire During World War II" by Luc Braeuer, Curator of Museum)

Germany invaded many European countries during the first years of the war. It changes its strategy, however, once the United States enters the war in December 1941. When this large country of considerable resources joins England, Germany has no choice but to adopt a defensive strategy: the new objective is to hold on to the countries that had been conquered. The German chief of staff orders the Todt Organization, a paramilitary organization which was responsible for the construction of highways in pre-war Germany, to undertake an enormous feat of construction: a fortified line of defense stretching from the Franco-Spanish border to the north of Norway. For the sake of propaganda, the line of fortifications is baptized, « the Atlantic Wall. » This steel and concrete wall is to cover the coastlines of France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Norway in an effort to prevent any possibility of Allied landing. Given the gigantic zone to be defended, the Germans find themselves confronted with a dilemma: how to effectively protect 6,000 kilometers of coastline when the Allies could, during their offensive, concentrate their strength on a single location? With the assumption that Allied forces would need at least one large seaport to unload heavy material, priority was given to the fortification of large seaports. Between these ports, defense would be less important.
Saint-Nazaire is one of the Fortresses to be secured at all costs. To organize the defense of its port, the Germans construct 1,300 bunkers from la Vilaine to Pornic. Bunkers are grouped around principal points. Each principal point has an identification number that immediately places it on a map. From la Vilaine to Pornichet, principal points are numbered Tu 1 to Tu 302, with the code, « Tu » referring to, « La Turballe. » The Saint Nazaire Fortress regroups German defensive positions within a 10 km radius to the north and south of the town. Its principal points are numbered Nz 1 to Nz 428, with the code, « Nz » referring to, « Saint-Nazaire. » From the south of Saint-Brévin to Pornic, identification numbers go from Mi 1 to Mi 302, in reference to Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef.
These principal points are chiefly defended by the German navy but also by the army and the air force. The navy is in charge of defense in the case of attack from the sea or the air. Batteries along the coast are equipped with medium- and long-range guns that can reach boats at sea. Other naval batteries are equipped with anti-aircraft guns to counterattack British and American airplanes.
The army has to fight against an enemy that is already on the ground.It depends on two kinds of support: strongholds equipped with medium-range guns and placed inland, and strongholds equipped to take out infantry (small-caliber guns, machine guns, flamethrowers, mortars…) and placed either directly on beaches or on the line of defense behind seaports. The air force uses radar to detect possible attackers. Bunkers are buried, camouflaged under nets, and even disguised as villas.

The soldiers who occupy these bunkers are not part of the elite forces. Most of the German and Austrian soldiers are either old reservists or very young men. They are assisted by Polish and Czech auxiliaries forcibly recruited by the German army and by volunteers from the USSR (mainly from Russia and Georgia) recruited in German prison camps. These soldiers had little training and were worn out by the construction of anti-landing obstacles on the beaches. Furthermore, their weapons were often obsolete...

("Souvenir Guide Saint-Nazaire During World War II" by Luc Braeuer, Curator of Museum)

In September 1941, the people of Batz-sur-Mer see two 240 mm caliber heavy artillery guns arrive at the station of Batz. They are mounted on railway tracks and are followed by five trucks carrying equipment and ammunition. As soon as they arrive, the German sailors of the 4th company of the 280th naval artillery battalion build a firing emplacement for the guns on a patch of land linked to the railway track, 500 meters away from the sea. The location of the Kermoisan battery is named, Tu 301.
The promontory of La Dilane, 19 meters above sea level, is selected as the place to build a firing control and range finding post type S414 (construction reference on the bunker catalogue of the Todt Organization). This bunker is linked to the others belonging to the group. It issued coordinates to the guns which fired without visibility on ships at sea. The building, which is 25 meters long with a maximum height of 17 meters, constitutes a mass of 1,800 cubic meters and contains an intricate combination of 110 tons of round iron and 15 tons of I-shaped iron. It is the only one of its type in France. Its surface area is 285 square meters. Being practically the only building on the plain, the bunker is disguised to look like a hotel. A false roof and a brick wall are built to hide the angular aspect of the façade. False windows are deceptively painted along the façade as well as false bricks and gables, in the style of a Normandy villa. The bunker is manned by 21 men, including one officer.
The two guns mounted on rails are in fact old French guns dating back to the First World War. They had been seized by the Germans in 1940. One of the two 240 mm guns will take part in battles around the Saint-Nazaire Pocket. Having been removed from its place, it will fire on the boundaries of the Pocket until May 6, 1945! On May 11, 1945 the sailors of the 4/ M.A.A. 280, stationed at Batz-sur-Mer, are interned in prison camps. Batz-sur-Mer is liberated.

At the end of the war, the former Artillery Headquarters at Batz-sur-Mer is emptied of all its contents and abandoned. At the end of the summer of 1994, my brother, Marc, and I decide to renovate the site and turn it into a museum that recounts the history of the region during World War II. After nearly two and a half years of administrative negotiations and six months of renovations, the museum opens its doors on July 1st, 1997. Over ten tons of rubble were removed from the site, and over eight tons of sand were needed to clean the inner walls, doors, and ceilings. It took 650 kilos of paint to restore it to its original state. The museum is privately owned and does not benefit from any subsidies. It survives thanks to its visitors. In its first year of opening, the museum saw 15,000 visitors, then from 25,000 to 30,000 in the years that followed. The building has been saved, and out of the ruins stands a building consecrated to the memory of World War II.

("Souvenir Guide Saint-Nazaire During World War II" by Luc Braeuer, Curator of Museum)

At the end of 1941 convoys of boats carrying supplies to Great Britain are ravaged by German submarines. The survival of the island is seriously threatened. As if the danger of U-Boote and privateers weren’t enough, the British learn that the battleship Tirpitz, the jewel of the Kriegsmarine, could also begin stalking the Atlantic. They have only one means to hold the German battleship at bay: destroying the only base equipped to resupply it – the enormous dry dock of Saint-Nazaire. They decide to attack the dry dock which is known by the people of Saint-Nazaire as, « forme écluse Joubert » (lock-shaped port). On February 26, 1942 Lord Louis Mounbatten, head of the Combined Operation Headquarters in London, presents a very risky plan called, « Operation CHARIOT. » His proposal is to launch an old destroyer packed with explosives into the lock-shaped port. In addition, commandos would disembark and blow up twenty-four key points in the port: eight locks, four bridges, six technical installations, and six artillery positions. The operation is carried out by 611 men: 345 officers and sailors of the Royal Navy, under orders from Commander R.E. Ryder, 257 commandos under orders from Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Newman, a medical team, three liaison officers, and two journalists.
The attack flotilla is composed of 18 patrol boats and the destroyer, HMS Campbeltown. It leaves Falmouth on March 26, 1942. Shortly after 1:00 AM on the 28th of March, the British ships reach the mouth of the Loire River. German guns open fire but do not prevent the destroyer Campbeltown from ramming into the gate of the lock-shaped port at precisely 1:34 AM. Eighty commandos disembark to plant their explosives. They are followed by commando teams from four other boats… Fierce fighting rages through the port. At 3:00 AM, under German fire, the surviving commandos escape through the old town by a drawbridge. Only five commandos will escape the patrollers that follow them.

A fierce battle also rages at sea. Only three patrol boats successfully regain England. In the early morning the Germans inspect the destroyer that is curiously stuck in the gate of the lock. At 11:35 AM, to the complete surprise of the Germans, the destroyer blows up in a massive explosion. The explosion pulverizes everything in its vicinity and renders the dock unusable for years. The principal objective of the raid is attained, but with 170 dead and 200 prisoners, the costs are very high for the British. The bodies of the British commandos and sailors lost during the operation are buried at the cemetery of Escoublac. They are buried with German military honors in recognition of their courageous feat. Although not all the objectives were attained, the operation is a success. News of the success spreads in Europe. It carries with it the first glimmer of hope that shows that the Germans had not yet won the war.

("Souvenir Guide Saint-Nazaire During World War II" by Luc Braeuer, Curator of Museum)

Sir Winston Churchill declared that his biggest fear during World War II was the danger represented by German submarines. The Allies therefore decide to heavily bombard the submarine bases. When they realize that the base is practically indestructible, the Allies concentrate the bombing on the town of Saint-Nazaire.

The construction of the base has just barely begun when the British forces decide to launch their first attack. During the night of March 10th/11th 1941 five British bombers bomb the port of Saint-Nazaire. Members of the French Resistance keep British forces informed on the progress of the base’s construction. Much to their regret, the British bomb the base only once a month during 1941. This is not enough to prevent the inauguration of the first three pens on June 30, 1941. The submarines are protected by a 3.5 meter thick concrete roof which protects them from British bombs for the moment. British forces regroup and strengthen once they’ve recovered from the Battle of Britain which ended in October 1940. Their chance comes when a large number of formidable fighters, originally stationed in Brittany, leave for the Eastern front. These fighters reinforce the German offensive against the USSR which began on June 22nd 1941. But it is too late to destroy the roof of the submarine base. Reinforcement of the roof will continue throughout the war, always counteracting the technical progress that the Allies make regarding bombardment. On the night of February 15th/16th 1942, Saint-Nazaire’s town center is bombarded for the first time. Life for its inhabitants quickly becomes unbearable – they will lose 80 civilians between January and April 1942. November 9, 1942 marks the beginning of American raids in broad daylight. They use B17 and B24 bombers which drop their load from very high altitudes, in a type of air raid known as « carpet bombing. » Bombardment on the first day alone kills 186 people, 134 of whom were young construction apprentices. In early 1943 the civil authorities draw up a town evacuation plan. During the night of February 28th/March 1st 1943, 409 British bombers raze the town to the ground. They drop thousands of small fire bombs that set fire to around 600 homes. Civilians evacuate the town within the first fifteen days of March. Three other British air raids are carried out until the beginning of April. The British use time bombs to impede rescue efforts, and firemen soon run out of water… All that is left of the town is a immense field of rubble, completely deserted, in the middle of which stands the massive silhouette of the submarine base, intact. Allied forces lost 114 planes during air raids on Saint-Nazaire, nicknamed « Flak City » because of the dreaded Flak of the German navy.

("Souvenir Guide Saint-Nazaire During World War II" by Luc Braeuer, Curator of Museum)

The Soviets suffer great losses on the Eastern Front and insist that the Allies attack on a second front in the West. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the Allied forces, fixes the place and the date of the landing in France. The landing, code-named, « OVERLORD, » will take place on the beaches of Normandy on the first few days of June, 1944. To prepare for the landing Allied forces recruit and train over three million men in the south of England: 1.7 million Englishmen, 1.5 million Americans, 200,000 Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders as well as 70,000 soldiers from other countries! To undertake the enormous challenge the Allies amass an armada of great proportion: 5,000 warships and 1,600 cargo ships. To keep German submarines from intervening, Royal Navy ships place thousands of mines at key points of access along the English Channel. The Allies’ aerial supremacy is also completely overwhelming. They will mobilize 16,000 aircraft, including 3,500 gliders for D-Day. Even though the challenge of transporting and protecting Allied troops all the way to Normandy has been solved, the lack of harbors remains a critical problem. How are hundreds of tons of heavy material as well as supplies for tens of thousands of soldiers going to be unloaded? Realistically, if a landing is going to have any chance of success on the beaches of Normandy, the Allies will have to rule out using one or several of the French ports. The answer: instead of attacking the ports on the front, they will construct their own ports! In great secrecy, Allied forces in England construct artificial ports made of prefabricated elements. This is « Operation Mulberry. » Dozens of concrete caissons, called « Phoenix, » are to be towed across the English Channel then submerged according to a precise plan, creating two ports in front of the Normandy beaches. On the night of June 6th, 156,000 Allied soldiers land with twenty thousand vehicles of all sorts. The Atlantic Wall did not impede the Landing. OVERLORD, the greatest landing of all time, is a success. It will cost the Allies around ten thousand casualties - dead, wounded, or missing in action.

The Battle of Normandy is very difficult for both sides. It takes American troops two months to advance from the beaches to Avranches. They break through the German front and begin to liberate Brittany on August 1st 1944. Close to 100,000 Germans soldiers, no longer able to contain the overwhelming advance of the American armored vehicles in Brittany, seek shelter in bases around the ports of Saint-Malo, Brest, Lorient, and Saint-Nazaire. Why? First, because they desperately want to maintain the submarine bases which took so long to build. Second, because they hope that the second artificial port constructed by the Allies will be destroyed. The port assembled in front of Omaha beach had been dislocated during a storm between the 19th and the 21st of June...The Germans reason that if the second artificial port also breaks apart, and if they are able to hold on to their ports, they will be able to counterattack Allied forces deprived of supplies. Despite the fact that with the liberation of Rennes and Nantes the heart of Brittany is quickly liberated, a long-term siege is laid around the four German-occupied ports. After taking back Saint-Malo, the Americans want to secure at least one of the large ports in Brittany. They invest a considerable amount of equipment in taking over Brest. Despite this, Brest is not liberated until September 19, 1944, following fierce battles. Ten thousand American soldiers fall, as many as the total number of Allied troops lost during the Normandy Landing. The port is destroyed and rendered unusable. At the same time, British and Canadian forces advance toward the north of France. They recover the ports of Le Havre, Dieppe, then Boulogne which are much closer to England. Attacking Lorient and Saint-Nazaire is no longer of strategic interest to the Allies as the Germans have turned these towns into veritable strongholds with heavily mined ports. In fact, as of September 7, 1944, the Americans decide to abandon their plans of attacking using these two ports.

("Souvenir Guide Saint-Nazaire During World War II" by Luc Braeuer, Curator of Museum)

German forces are taken by surprise by the speed of the American breakthrough at Avranches. At the beginning of August 1944 German troops withdraw and regroup in Saint-Nazaire in preparation for the final battle. They are surprised when American liberating forces do not attack. All those who had regrouped behind the line of fortifications around the port were ordered to advance to create a large line of defense. In the north and northeast, German troops use natural obstacles offered by La Vilaine and by the Nantes Canal in Brest whose bridges had been destroyed. On August 15, 1944, principal roads to the eastern region are mined, and explosives placed on the La Roche-Bernard bridge detonate when they are hit by a lightning bolt! The civilian population of one third of the department finds itself « pocketed » in an enclave of approximately 1,500 km2. The Pocket of Saint-Nazaire is born – 130,000 French civilians are trapped by 28,000 German soldiers. After liberating Nantes on August 12th, American tanks advance to Chartres and then to Paris. On August 17th, General Huenten, commander of the « Saint-Nazaire Fortress » (as the Germans called it), receives orders to defend the enclave until the last man is left standing.
Thousands of French men join the Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur (FFI) Resistance. Along with American soldiers, their task is to contain the Pocket of Saint-Nazaire. Six FFI battalions, made up of volunteers from the department, are the first to be sent to the front. They must hold out until the arrival of reinforcements from other departments. Volunteers come from the departments of Morbihan, Côtes du Nord, Ille et Vilaine, Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, Vienne, Vendée, Sarthe with a squadron from Paris, Loir-et-Cher, Indre, Limousin, with smaller groups from Alsace-Lorraine, Normandy, Oise, Nord, and the Ardennes... French forces near the Pocket even count an armored unit equipped with German tanks seized in Normandy! In November 1944, the French armed forces join the FFI Resistance on the front. The Charles Martel Brigade, commanded by Colonel Chomel, is made up of the 27th and 32nd Infantry Regiments, the 17e bataillon de chasseurs à pied and the 8e Cuirassiers. Chomel will be given the rank of General when he takes command of the French units on the front of the Pocket – the 16, 500 soldiers become the 25e Division d’Infanterie.
The 94th American Infantry Division also takes part in the encirclement from September 17th. They defend the eastern sector of the Pocket, covering a 35 km front line. Soldiers work together cooperatively, especially in forming artillery units and in the delivery of light weapons, rations, and diesel oil. An important event is the exchange of 64 Allied prisoners for German prisoners of war near Pornic on November 28, 1944. In early January 1945, the 94th Infantry Division, led by Major General Harry Malony, is relieved by the 66th Infantry Division, under the command of Major General Hermann Kramer. The division’s insignia, the head of a black panther, lends its name to its members who are nicknamed, « The Black Panthers. » This infantry division was originally sent to defend the Ardennes front at the end of December 1944. One of the boats transporting troops, the Leopoldville, is sunk by a U-Boot near Cherbourg on the 24th of December. The ship takes 784 American soldiers down with it and crushes the morale of the survivors. Devastated, the division is sent to a quieter sector instead of the Ardennes front. With the help of the French Army, it will guard the pockets of Lorient and Saint-Nazaire. The 66th Infantry Division will deploy heavy artillery around Blain. It will carry out an important combat operation against the Pocket of Saint-Nazaire on April 19, 1945. The division will then stay on until the Germans surrender.
The Germans prepare for a siege that will last several months. Generalleutnant Hans Junck is appointed commander of the Fortress on September 29, 1944. He sets up headquarters in La Baule and positions the paratroopers, his elite troops, in front of the most dangerous sector. The marines abandon their ships at port and exchange their blue uniforms for green ones before taking up their positions in the southern part of the Pocket. Some of the troops from Eastern Europe, like the Georgians and the Russians, succeed in deserting. The rest are disarmed and become laborers. The Germans publish a newspaper for the troops that have been surrounded and maintain the delivery of mail by air. The submarines leave the base. Workmen there are either transferred to the front or employed in the manufacture of mounts for the mobilization of naval guns that had either been on the Atlantic Wall or on boats. A system of agricultural requisitions is set up with various town halls. It will make it possible for the Germans to stock enough provisions to have lasted two years after the end of the war! Soldiers are subject to strict discipline. The most minor disobedience is severely punished – sometimes by capital punishment. French civilians locked in this enclave describe their experience as similar to being at the bottom of a pocket, hence their nickname, « les empochés » (the « pocketed »). There are severe shortages of everything, especially of electricity which was cut by Nantes. Civilians have no means of receiving supplies or coal from the outside, and the winter is a bitter one. The Red Cross organizes rescue teams to evacuate patients - on a tandem bicycle! There are many members of the Resistance among the empochés. They organize networks, and their leader, Chombard de Lauwe, encourages the most active ones to leave the Pocket and join the armed forces on the front. The rest organize escape networks and networks of information. The French administration stays in place with its town halls and gendarmes. It is under the orders of sub-prefect Benedetti. Originally appointed by Vichy, Benedetti is recognized by the government of General de Gaulle in Paris because he is in fact an agent of the Resistance! The empochés have to make their own stamps if they want to continue writing letters. Mail does not circulate outside the Pocket unless it is smuggled by a member of the Resistance. In October 1944 civilians learn that there is an escape route via trains that were put in place following an agreement between the Germans and the Allies. Nearly 20,000 empochés are evacuated by train. Members of the international Red Cross of Geneva enter the Pocket to estimate how much food the population is in need of. Once outside, they organize a system of trains to supply the Pocket with food and necessities. These trains are a blessing to the people who are literally dying of starvation.
The siege of the Pocket lasts nine months. On May 8, 1945, in Cordemais, General Junck’s chief of staff signs the surrender of the German troops of the Saint-Nazaire Fortress. A ceremony is scheduled for the 11th of May, giving the Germans enough time to de-mine the main accesses to the Pocket. On May 11th, in Bouvron, in the presence of French General Chomel, General Junck hands his weapon over to American General Kramer, commander of the 66th Infantry Division, as a token of the surrender of his troops. French and American troops cross old demarcation lines and liberate all the villages. The Pocket is but a memory… General de Gaulle’s airplane lands at Escoublac on July 23, 1945. The General, who symbolized hope during the dark years of the Occupation, crosses the peninsula by car and visits the ruins of Saint-Nazaire. There, he delivers a powerful speech and signs the Guest Book with: « To Saint-Nazaire, an example to us all and a ray of hope. »

("Souvenir Guide Saint-Nazaire During World War II" by Luc Braeuer, Curator of Museum)