Saint-Nazaire

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For other uses, see Saint-Nazaire (disambiguation)}}}.

Saint-Nazaire (Breton: Sant-Nazer), is a town and commune in the Loire-Atlantique département of France, of which it is a sous-préfecture. It is a major harbor, on the right bank of the Loire River estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. As such, it has a long tradition of fishing and shipbuilding.

History

The building of the French cruise liner SS Normandie in the 1930s required the construction of a massive new dock infrastructure. Following the surrender of France to Nazi forces in June 1940, the port immediately became a base of operations for the German Navy and was as such the target of Allied operations. A heavily fortified U-boat submarine base was built shortly after occupation. Its 9-m (30-ft.) thick concrete ceiling was capable of withstanding almost any bomb in use at the time. (The 1944 British Tall Boy or 1945 Grand Slam might have dealt with it). The base still stands today, as its extremely sturdy construction makes demolition uneconomical.

The dry dock built for SS Normandie was the largest of its kind in western Europe at the time. It was the only port capable of servicing the German battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz. This gave the port a massive strategic importance to both the Axis Powers and the Allies during the Second World War.

On March 28, 1942, a force of 611 British Commandos launched a raid against the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire, codenamed Operation Chariot. The commandos succeeded in destroying the Normandie dry dock, preventing its use by Germany during the war.

The U-boat threat to supply convoys across the Atlantic made Saint-Nazaire a constant target of Allied air forces. To minimize civilian casualties during air attacks, the Allies eventually devised a plan to force evacuation of the town. For three days in 1943, British and American aircraft dropped scores of leaflets warning the population of a planned firebombing raid. At the end of the third day, the raid came and burned the entire city to the ground. Casualties were light as most civilians had heeded the warning and fled to the safety of the countryside. Except for the self-contained submarine base, Saint-Nazaire remained abandoned until the end of the war.

After D-day and the liberation of France in 1944, German troops in Saint-Nazaire's submarine base refused to surrender and holed up (as did their counterparts in the La Rochelle and Brest bases). As the Germans could no longer conduct major submarine operations from the bases, Allied commanders simply bypassed these and focused their resources on the invasion of Germany. Saint-Nazaire and the other two German "pockets" remained under German control until the last day of the war.

The town was rebuilt in the late 1940s in a minimalist, somewhat drab style that belies the natural beauty of the area.

Economy

• First port of France on the Atlantic side
• Shipyard - Saint-Nazaire suffered heavily from the downsizing of shipbuilding activity in western Europe in the 1960s and '70s. For a long time in the 1980s, it remained an economically depressed area with unemployment rates above 20%. Today, the local economy is more diversified and its situation is more in line with that of France as a whole. The local shipyard (Chantiers de l'Atlantique) has completed a successful reconversion to cruise ship building and is now one of the world leaders in this sector. The Cunard Line's new flagship, RMS Queen Mary 2, was built in Saint-Nazaire.
• Site of a major factory of Airbus, responsible for the construction of fuselage sections.

See also

• 1942 raid on the Normandie dry dock - see St. Nazaire Raid

External links

• [Official website]

References

• Perrett, Bryan (2003). For Valour: Victoria Cross and Medal of Honor Battles. Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, London. ISBN 0297846620
• Guériff, Fernand. Saint-Nazaire sous l'occupation allemande: le Commando, la Poche. Éditions du Paludier (In French)

 

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