Hello, following is the History of the bombing of the U-Boat base of Lorient

The British did not take long to react to the presence of the U-Boote in Lorient. During the second half of 1940, they were very active, but with very limited resources. The first British air raid on Lorient, carried out by 12 air-craft, took place on the night of 22 August 1940. After two bombings limited to Lorient early in the month of September, the Bomber Command carried out the first large air raid, on the night of 27 September, with 35 aircraft. This resulted in 32 civilian victims. It was the start of a very long series of bombings. Already, three other attacks were made up to the end of the month. In October, the RAF bombed Lorient 12 times, but with limited resources, using 1 to 6 planes each time. The air raids were intensified in November, with 17 bombings which were almost daily, from 7 to 15 and 19 to 23 November, generally carried out with less than 10 planes. The people of Lorient experienced 20 air raids of the same scale in December. To counter these attacks, the German navy, charged with the anti-aircraft defence of the port, continued to be strengthened, reaching the size of a brigade. On 27 December, the German cruiser, Admiral Hipper, entered the port of Brest. This new situation brought some respite to Lorient in the following two months, while the attacks were concentrated on Brest.

In January 1941, only three air raids were made on Lorient with roughly five bombers used each time. In February, when the work really began on Kéroman, the British only carried out one air raid with one plane on Port Louis. On 2 February, the Germans set up thirty or so barrage balloons to prevent planes coming too close at low altitude. However, the month of March shows that the British bombing resumed with 4 large air raids between 15 and 22 March, with an overall total of more than 110 aircraft, which were primarily aimed at the arsenal sector. Again, the city of Lorient would benefit from some respite. On 22 March, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau cruisers entered the port of Brest where all the British resources were then concentrated. A single air raid with 20 bombers was carried out on Lorient in April. In this instance, these were planes which were rerouted from Brest, because of cloud cover! In May, when the work on the KI and KII bases was at the delicate stage of the formwork, only two air raids, using 10 planes overall, were carried out, and not a single one in June! All the same, in July, 47 planes attacked the arsenal area, but without jeopardizing the base's shipyards just beside it. In August, no air raid was reported and only 4 planes came to Lorient, rerouted from Le Havre, in September 1941, even though the small Scorff base and Kéroman I were now operational and covered by a concrete roof resisting the largest British bombs at the time. Nothing happened either in October. It was not until the night of 23 November that 53 bombers were sent to Lorient. It was already too late! No air raid was made in December, even though Kéroman II was brought into service.

In January 1942, a single bomber came to Lorient dropping four explosive bombs and, for the first time, 120 incendiary bombs. On 12 February, the three Kriegsmarine ships stationed in Brest, at which all the air attacks were aimed, managed to leave this port and return to Germany. However, no bombing mission was carried out on Lorient in March, only one in April, with 17 bombers, despite the fact that the Kéroman III construction site had got into full swing, and none in May, or during the following months. It was not until 21 October 1942, that the bombers appeared again in the Lorient sky. This time it was the Americans, who, unlike the British, who had carried out these missions up until then, came in broad daylight. Out of the 90 bombers planned, due to the weather conditions only 15 were able to drop their bomb loads on the port, escorted for this dangerous daylight mission by 116 fighters! The USAAF bombers came back twice in November for the submarine bases' installations; the first with 13 planes, the second with only 11 due to the bad weather. 1942 ended with a much heavier bombardment, on 30 December, with 40 American planes dropping 79.6 tons of heavy bombs on Kéroman, of which the last part, KIII, was already virtually completed. The British also carried out hundreds of magnetic mine laying operations in the harbour of Lorient, the result of which was the destruction of two U-Boote, between September 1942 and April 1943.

After these hesitant operations, which enabled the Germans to build their bases in Lorient fairly peacefully for two and a half years, 1943 was to be a year of agony for the city and its inhabitants. In England, on 14 January 1943, following the carnage of the merchant ships sunk in the Atlantic by the German submarine force, the British War Cabinet sent a clear directive to Air Marshall Harris, in command of the Bomber Command, nicknamed “Bomber Harris”: “A decision has been taken to submit the following bases to a maximum scale of attack at night with the object of effectively devastating the whole area in which are located the submarines, their maintenance facilities, and the services, power, water and light, communications, etc. and other resources upon which their operations depend”. The first of the bases on the following list was Lorient. The same evening, on the night of 14 January 1943, the 317th air raid warning was given in the city. The RAF sent 128 bombers, 99 of which carried out the mission by dropping 73.6 tonnes of explosive bombs and 83,548 incendiary bombs, the majority of which fell on the city centre, where more than 80 fires broke out. The British came back the following evening. Out of the 154 planes planned, 132 carried out their mission, dropping 140.4 tons of standard bombs and 87,163 incendiary bombs. The city counted 400 fires. The Americans took over, on 23 January, with 36 B-17 bombers. Around forty buildings were destroyed in the city. However, Lorient's agony was far from over. On the night of 23 January, 100 bombers were sent by the RAF, 47 of which dropped their bombs on the city. Again on the night of 26 January, out of the 168 bombers planned, a total of 136 dropped 80 tons of bombs and 56,687 incendiary bombs. The month of January ended with a 6th massive British bombardment, on the night of 29 January, during which 130 bombers were sent to drop 50.7 tons of bombs. The month of February 1943 was not any better, with 4 air raids deployed using even greater means of destruction. It started with a first British air raid, on the night of 4 February, carried out by 120 planes out of the 128 planned, in which 90.6 tons of bombs and 63,376 incendiary bombs fell on the port and city. The worst, however, was yet to come. On the night of 7 February, 296 British bombers out of the 352 planned, dropped 254.1 tons of bombs! The civilian population, which had started to evacuate the city around mid-January, for the majority, had already made its exodus. Out of the 46,000 inhabitants registered in 1939, there only remained about 500 people living among the ruins. The already considerable number of bombers used was increased for the following air raid by the RAF. On the night of 13 February, 422 planes out of the 476 planned dropped in excess of 500 tons of bombs (524.3 tons), with some 26,168 incendiary bombs, 5,000 of which were 7.5 times heavier than those used up to then. Three days later it continued with 360 British bombers dropping 461.9 tons of bombs and, above all, 230,916 incendiary bombs! To reassure the staff working in the bases, the Generaladmiral Marschall, high commander of the Navy in the West, noted in his agenda for 16 February 1943: “The Lorient Navy arsenal, commanded by Rear Admiral Matthiae, has had to deal with a considerable number of heavy air raids in the last few weeks. The English have not attained their objective, which was to put the submarine base out of action. Even if there has been huge damage to the city and the buildings of the old arsenal, the submarine dry docks will continue relentlessly. Through their dynamism, relentlessness, and pronounced determination not to be discouraged, the command and the troops of Lorient have succeeded in protecting and repairing by far the great majority of the machines and equipment. I would like to express my gratitude to the arsenal commander, to his section leaders and all the staff”. The city was nothing more than rubble, and yet the air raids continued in the months to follow: American bombing, on 6 March 1943, with 65 planes unloading 162.5 tons of bombs, British bombing on the night of 2 April, with 40 planes out of the 48 planned, dropping 117.1 tons of bombs, American bombing on 16 April, with 56 B-17s dropping 147 tons, and finally, the last American bombing of the year on 17 May 1943, with 118 B-17s and B-24s dropping 289.5 tons of bombs. Unfortunately, these sad figures reflect great hardship for the civilians of Lorient, 206 of whom died, many others remaining disabled and all of whom lost the majority of their property and belongings.
The year 1944 was calmer. The submarine bases continued to operate until the Normandy landings. On 6 August 1944, when the Americans started to liberate Brittany, at 19:50 in full daylight, 11 British Lancaster bombers carried standard bombs and 11 others, each carried the new 5.4 ton bomb, the most powerful ever to be used against Lorient, called the Tallboy! Four hits were marked in the sector, one of which was to the roof of KIII, to pens K21-22, but the damage was minimal. Following the encircling of the city by the American and French troops, these bombing campaigns stopped, because the Germans had evacuated their U-Boote to Norway. After the war the British Chief of Defence, recognized their major strategical error in not having bombed the bases during their construction, when they were really vulnerable.

Best regards