INSIDE WW2 GERMAN U-BOAT BASE AT LORIENT

Enjoy a full walkaround and go inside the massive WW2 German U-Boat complex at Lorient in Brittany, France.

In this video we take you on a tour of the site showing you the completed bunkers, the incredible transport system which moved U-Boats around, views of the unfinished bunkers, and also bring you amazing views from inside the wet cells of Keroman III.

In July 1940, U-Boat U30 - built in Bremen and launched in August 1936 - had entered the harbour at Lorient, the first of many submarines which would operate from here over the next four years. At this point the U-Boats weren’t protected and so Fritz Todt, Hitler’s leading engineer, was tasked with building bunkers which would protect these vital assets.

Of five sites constructed, Lorient on the Keroman peninsula in Brittany was the first to be built and become operational. It would become the largest of them all and was designed to protect up to 30 submarines! The first three cells at Lorient were completed by June 30, 1941. Using a mixture of paid workers and forced labour, they took just three months to build.

Lorient maintains a huge footprint on the Keroman peninsula with three main bunker sites – Keroman I, II, and III - plus dry docks, and two cathedral-like ‘Dombunkers’ for protecting and servicing U-Boats out of the water.

A fourth bunker, Keroman IVa was planned and building work was started – there’s a wall which can be seen connecting to KIII – but it was never finished. Keroman IVb never made it past the planning stage.
Following the Allied landings in Normandy and the push to liberate France, these sites became a place of last stands for German troops. Under orders, Lorient, Saint Nazaire, and La Pallice (near La Rochelle) were defended to the last man, and it was two days after the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945, that Lorient was finally liberated.

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