General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
We found a U-Boat Nest in Bergen harbour
Posted by:
Maurice Laarman
()
Date: November 10, 2001 09:55AM
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This comes from an issue of the War illustrated, no 209, June 22, 1945. I thought some of you might find it interesting.
We found a U-Boat Nest in Bergen harbour
The secrets of the practically invulnerable concrete U-boatpen in Bergen harbour, Norway, which after the liberation of France became Dönitz’s main advance U-baot base, were being unearthed on May 23, 1945, by Capt. D.B. Nicholson, R.N.V.R, head of the Allied Naval Control Commission in Bergen, as told by W.E.Mundy of the Daily
Telegraph
With British naval members of the commission, I have just been taken through this huge concrete bunker on the first allied visit of inspection. We drove up to the German guardhouse outside the gate of Bergen harbour, where the U-boatpens are situated. Inside the car were Lt. A.J. Sumption, R.N.V.R, who has commanded submarines throughout this war, and an armed Royal Navy escort of on petty officer and a submarine rating.
A young German guard refused to open the gate and stared at us truculently. Lt. Sumption remained in the care and quitely said: “ open the gate immediately, and then fetch your superior officer to me.” The German hesitated, but Lt. Sumption stared him down and the German obeyed.
We drove through down to a long narrow drive to the entrance of the pens, where we stopped the car and got out. The drive was completely walled in with concrete from six to ten feet thick as protection against lateral blasts. The Bergen bunker is built up above waterlevel on the dockside and is not cut into the sides of the fjord. The whole bunker is about the height of a three to four-storeyed building. It is made of concrete into the shape of a solid rectangular box.
Already the solid concrete roof is at least 18 feet thick, and up to the time of the surrender, work was still in progress on the top of the bunker. If the Germans were able to refit nearly a dozen U-boats at a time in practical safety under the heaviest air attack, then the Bergen bunker is something for our naval and air experts to examine!
Inside, the bunker is divided into seven pens. All the U-boats had been moved out into the open harbour before our arrival. Powerful flood lightning turned the darkness almost into day. Some bunkers had a sliding crane in the roof capable of lifting out the heaviest machinery and torpedoes. Three were single pens for one U-boat, but three others could hold 2 U-boats each.
One pen was fitted as a dry dock and othersonly needed water-tight doors to transfer them into dry docks. In short, at least nine, or probably 11 U-boats could be serviced in the pens. Master switches could immedialy black-out the whole buner during an air alarm, but I noticed that huge black-out curtains could be draped over the entrances to enable to work to proceed during the night.
Mobile power lines could carry current direct to the U-boats for welding repairs. If Lt.Sumption askedsomething to which the German would or could not answer, the German had the stock answer:” I do not know. I am a U-boat commander, not a landsman” Dönitz provided every comfort for U-boatcrews. They had at least fourteen days leave after each patrol, and once they docked they were taken to rest hotels in the mountains above Bergen, established in peacetime for wintersports.
RAF Lancasters en Halifaxes made a heavy attack on Bergen harbour last October, and a German U-boat engineer told me that bomb damage to the harbour installation halted the operational use of the pens “ for some time” The U-boats, later widely dispersed under camouflage hoods along the fjord, were difficult to observe from the air.
I could see only one direct penetration of the Bergen U-boat bunkers. This was in one pen and measured about three feet by nine feet, but is now filled in. Outside the bunker lies a scene of devastation, mostly the results of the RAF raids, but some undoubtly was caused by the explosion of a German ammunition ship in Bergen harbour last year.
All the harbour buildings are smashed flat by air attack, except for some new concrete buildings, with walls15 feet thick, which appear undamaged. Some U-boats lie crippled with bomb hits, and have been left were they lie. The dry dock is half submerged, with a submarine lying inside. Four U-boats are tied up in a bunch, under repairs. They had been hit were they lie.
As we walked through the harbour it was a desolate sight. Rain poured down. German naval personell, most of them youths, armed to the teeth, stood around watching us. In Bergen town the Royal Navy members of the allied Submarine Disarmament Commission are installed in the offices of the SS chief, who must have left in a hurry. One of my happiest moments in the last five years was to watch a young British submarine rating writing a letter to his girl on German notepaper headed: “ Der Höhere SS und Polizeiführer Bergen” I typed this story on similar paper.</HTML>
This comes from an issue of the War illustrated, no 209, June 22, 1945. I thought some of you might find it interesting.
We found a U-Boat Nest in Bergen harbour
The secrets of the practically invulnerable concrete U-boatpen in Bergen harbour, Norway, which after the liberation of France became Dönitz’s main advance U-baot base, were being unearthed on May 23, 1945, by Capt. D.B. Nicholson, R.N.V.R, head of the Allied Naval Control Commission in Bergen, as told by W.E.Mundy of the Daily
Telegraph
With British naval members of the commission, I have just been taken through this huge concrete bunker on the first allied visit of inspection. We drove up to the German guardhouse outside the gate of Bergen harbour, where the U-boatpens are situated. Inside the car were Lt. A.J. Sumption, R.N.V.R, who has commanded submarines throughout this war, and an armed Royal Navy escort of on petty officer and a submarine rating.
A young German guard refused to open the gate and stared at us truculently. Lt. Sumption remained in the care and quitely said: “ open the gate immediately, and then fetch your superior officer to me.” The German hesitated, but Lt. Sumption stared him down and the German obeyed.
We drove through down to a long narrow drive to the entrance of the pens, where we stopped the car and got out. The drive was completely walled in with concrete from six to ten feet thick as protection against lateral blasts. The Bergen bunker is built up above waterlevel on the dockside and is not cut into the sides of the fjord. The whole bunker is about the height of a three to four-storeyed building. It is made of concrete into the shape of a solid rectangular box.
Already the solid concrete roof is at least 18 feet thick, and up to the time of the surrender, work was still in progress on the top of the bunker. If the Germans were able to refit nearly a dozen U-boats at a time in practical safety under the heaviest air attack, then the Bergen bunker is something for our naval and air experts to examine!
Inside, the bunker is divided into seven pens. All the U-boats had been moved out into the open harbour before our arrival. Powerful flood lightning turned the darkness almost into day. Some bunkers had a sliding crane in the roof capable of lifting out the heaviest machinery and torpedoes. Three were single pens for one U-boat, but three others could hold 2 U-boats each.
One pen was fitted as a dry dock and othersonly needed water-tight doors to transfer them into dry docks. In short, at least nine, or probably 11 U-boats could be serviced in the pens. Master switches could immedialy black-out the whole buner during an air alarm, but I noticed that huge black-out curtains could be draped over the entrances to enable to work to proceed during the night.
Mobile power lines could carry current direct to the U-boats for welding repairs. If Lt.Sumption askedsomething to which the German would or could not answer, the German had the stock answer:” I do not know. I am a U-boat commander, not a landsman” Dönitz provided every comfort for U-boatcrews. They had at least fourteen days leave after each patrol, and once they docked they were taken to rest hotels in the mountains above Bergen, established in peacetime for wintersports.
RAF Lancasters en Halifaxes made a heavy attack on Bergen harbour last October, and a German U-boat engineer told me that bomb damage to the harbour installation halted the operational use of the pens “ for some time” The U-boats, later widely dispersed under camouflage hoods along the fjord, were difficult to observe from the air.
I could see only one direct penetration of the Bergen U-boat bunkers. This was in one pen and measured about three feet by nine feet, but is now filled in. Outside the bunker lies a scene of devastation, mostly the results of the RAF raids, but some undoubtly was caused by the explosion of a German ammunition ship in Bergen harbour last year.
All the harbour buildings are smashed flat by air attack, except for some new concrete buildings, with walls15 feet thick, which appear undamaged. Some U-boats lie crippled with bomb hits, and have been left were they lie. The dry dock is half submerged, with a submarine lying inside. Four U-boats are tied up in a bunch, under repairs. They had been hit were they lie.
As we walked through the harbour it was a desolate sight. Rain poured down. German naval personell, most of them youths, armed to the teeth, stood around watching us. In Bergen town the Royal Navy members of the allied Submarine Disarmament Commission are installed in the offices of the SS chief, who must have left in a hurry. One of my happiest moments in the last five years was to watch a young British submarine rating writing a letter to his girl on German notepaper headed: “ Der Höhere SS und Polizeiführer Bergen” I typed this story on similar paper.</HTML>
| Subject | Written By | Posted |
|---|---|---|
We found a U-Boat Nest in Bergen harbour
|
Maurice Laarman | 11/10/2001 09:55AM |