Everything about St Nazaire totally explained
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Saint-Nazaire (
Breton:
Sant-Nazer), is a town and
commune in the
Loire-Atlantique département of
France, of which it's a
sous-préfecture. It is a major
harbour, on the right bank of the
Loire River estuary, near the
Atlantic Ocean. The town is at the south of the second major
swamp in France "la
Brière".
As such, it has a long tradition of fishing and
shipbuilding.
History
The building of the French ocean liner
SS Normandie in the 1930s required the construction of a massive new dock infrastructure. On
June 17 1940 the port was swarming with British troops trying to escape from the advancing German army. An estimated 9000 were embarked aboard the Clyde built troopship
RMS Lancastria which was then attacked and sunk by German bombers, taking with her around 4000 victims. It is the worst disaster in British maritime history and the worst loss of life for British forces in the whole of World War 2. Churchill banned all news coverage of the disaster on learning of it and it remained largely forgotten by history. Following the surrender of France to German forces later 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 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
Lorient 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.
Cultural References
In the Franco-Canadian CGI Cartoon Skyland, Saint Nazaire is the name of the pirate flagship.
The video game opens with the British raid on St. Nazaire.Further Information
Get more info on 'St Nazaire'.
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