German U-boat bases in occupied France existed between 1940 and 1944, when the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) converted several naval bases in France into U-boat bases following the surrender of all French armed forces during the Second Armistice at Compiègne. French coastal cities became available to the German Navy after the Battle of France in May–June 1940. U-boats stationed in France were generally used to extend the German Navy's range of operation in the North Atlantic and English Channel. These naval bases were used to house U-boats that would take part in the interception of Allied convoys that crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom.
German invasion of France and the Low countries
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Germany invaded France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands on 10 May 1940.[1] The Netherlands fell after five days of fighting and Belgium surrendered on 28 May.[2] Following the trapping of the Anglo-French armies around the port city of Dunkirk after the fall of Belgium and the subsequent evacuation of those forces in Operation Dynamo, German troops marched unopposed into Paris on 14 June 1940.[3] On 10 June Italy declared war on France and invaded her through the Italian Alps.[4] On June 17 the French government asked the Germans for an armistice which was signed on 22 June 1940 in the forest of Compiègne.[5] France was then divided into two zones, a German occupied zone in the north and north-east of France and an unoccupied "free" zone in the south of France that was headed by a German collaborationist government located in the town of Vichy.[6]
German use of French Ports
editBrest
editIn the early summer of 1940, Allied forces demolished much of the harbour facilities in the French port city Brest because it was about to be captured by the Germans. The German 5th Panzer Division took control of the city in 18 June 1940 and restoration of the facilities began in September of that year.[7] The fisr German U-boat to enter the port of Brest was U-65 who entered the city in August 1940 for repairs. By the middle of September 1940, the port facilities in Brest were repaired and fully operational.[7][8] Brest's port became the base of the first and the ninth flotilla in 1941, and a U-boat bunker was built there around the same time. Many attacks from the Allies were directed at the base and the bunker, until they were able to capture the city in September 1944.[8]
References
editCitations
editBibliography
edit- Shirer, William L. (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-72868. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: length (help) - Williamson, Gordon (2003). U-Boat Bases and Bunkers 1941-45. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1841765563.
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