Last week I visited the Lorient Keroman U-Boote Base. This place was chosen by Doenitz as early as 1940 to become the largest U-Boote facilitly on the Atlantic coast. It was taken over by the French Navy in 1945 and used until 1997 . Nowadays Keroman 3 is a museum whereas K1 and K2 are used as warehouses. from 1941 three huge bunkers shelters were built by the Todt organisation, each new bunker coming with new techniques to counter the allied bombings. 1) Keroman 1 was built first and could hosted the first generation u-Boote notice the original cammo from 1944 2) Keroman 2 was built next to K1 and hoted bigger subs with better protection. It was connected to K1 but was separated by a 90meter open track that was still vulnerable. 3)K3 was built later with better technology (no open space and 7 meters thick concrete protection instead of three to which was added blue granite imported from Norway . 4) a K4 was planned in 1943 , but never completed . This one even planned a protected railroad station. see open hall on pic below.
a French Daphne class sub (the Flora) between the K1 and K2 buildings. This 1950s model was left here in 1997 to help you imagine the transfer of the U-Boote at the right scale. It is about 57 meter long and the total vulnerable distance between both buildings was 90 meters. Notice that even the later 70 meter U-Boote would fit in there.
these 2 ships were deliberately sunk by the Germans and loaded with concrete to make and anti- floating mine dam . As it does not hinder navigation the authorities have chosen to leave it as such up to nowadays.
you are correct there is a very strong tide in Britanny and you better sail out when the water is high I spotted more wreckage in a part of the harbour that was not touched since WWII. I'm not sure whehter these are WWII relics , but they are certainly surrounded by bunkers and other Flak remains.
great photos Skipper, i'd say you enjoyed yourself - my kind of holiday i love the little Tobruk....there were so many of them in Normandy, it felt great to go inside them and then stick your head up out of the opening
Cheers guys, I have many more pics to post but it's 1 am , so you "ll have to wait a few hours before you see the pics I took inside the huge Keroman building. Here is one of the K1 I managed to take through a net.
very atmospheric, is that a long lost U-Boot down in the far end or maybe a derelict Schnellboot ? great pic this last one
It looks like a sunk U-Boot Erich , but it's a French ship sunk by the Germans in 1941 to serve as a rempart against mine attacks. If you want to see sunk U-Boote you will need to visit the Davis Tower Museum , it's in the K1 building . It hosts relics from the KM but also a unique German WWII diving simulator
Hi Skipper, great shots and info on these. Thanks for your time and effort to give us such a great photo essay of your time there. I NEED to go there some day ;-)) Too bad that they can't borrow U 995 from Laboe, U 10 from Wilhelmshaven and U 2540 from Bremerhaven. They would help make a great German display ;-))
Thanks, Skipper! Seems that you, as french countryman can reach authentic treasures inside Keroman..... Jan.
well pull out the 3 long lost late War U-booten XXI's out of the Hamburg bunkers and put one to scale there in Lorient......... nah not worth the effort really.
The place is open for ay body and there are even guided tours in English . Here are a few pictures of the roof of K-3 . Notice the Flak turrets and the bombing bouncing devices. The roof at this point is 7 meter thick and resisted to a massive bombing on August 1944 which included a direct hit on this very roof by a +-5000 kilo Tall boy bomb.