… the shelters of saint nazaire

The construction work started in February 1941. The bunker, built on the western side of the basin at Saint-Nazaire, was 295m wide, 130m long and 18m high and contained 14 U-boat pens.

After only 4 months the first pens were ready and so Vizeadmiral Doenitz opened on the 30th June 1941 the bunker. U-203 under Kptlt. Rolf Muetzelburg was the first boat to use one section of the newly completed shelter.

Later a sluice bunker was also built, which the U-boats used to reach the sea. (Today you can visit here the French submarine S-637 Espadon.)