There were two types that were built either on dry land or over the water. Shelter for operational boats and repair bunkers.They were usually constructed with new locks alongside an existing structure.Īfter launch, many U-boats were fitted-out under their protection These were bunkers built over an existing lock to give a U-boat some protection while it was at its most vulnerable – i.e. ![]() Storage space for spares, explosives, ammunition, and oil was also required.įour types of bunker were constructed: īunkers had to be able to accommodate more than just U-boats space had to be found for offices, medical facilities, communications, lavatories, generators, ventilators, anti-aircraft guns, accommodation for key personnel such as crewmen, workshops, water purification plants, electrical equipment, and radio testing facilities. Machinery such as excavators, pile drivers, cranes, floodlighting, and concrete pumps (which were still a relatively new technology in the 1940s) was temperamental, and in the case of steam-driven equipment, very noisy. The incessant air raids caused serious disruption to the project, hampering the supply of material, destroying machinery, and harassing the workers. Many of the workers needed were forced labour, most especially the concentration camp inmates supplied by the Schutzstaffel from camps near the pens. Several metres of silt also had to be overcome. The ground selected for bunker construction was no help either: usually being at the head of a fjord, the foundations and footings had to be hewn out of granite. Indeed, most labour had to be brought in. There, the local population were far more reluctant to help the Germans. In France there was generally no problem with the recruitment of men and the procurement of machinery and raw materials. The attitudes of the people in France and Norway were significantly different. The steel required was mostly imported from Germany. ![]() The local supply of such items as sand, aggregate, cement, and timber was often a cause for concern. It was soon realised that such a massive project was beyond the Kriegsmarine, and the Todt Organisation (OT) was brought in to oversee the administration of labour. A Royal Air Force (RAF) raid on the capital in 1940, the occupation of France and Britain's refusal to surrender triggered a massive building programme of submarine pens and air raid shelters.īy the autumn of 1940, construction of the "Elbe II" bunker in Hamburg and "Nordsee III" on the island of Heligoland was under way. ![]() Various factions in the navy were convinced protection for the expanding U-boat arm was required. The mid-1930s saw the Naval Construction Office in Berlin give the problem serious thought. By the 1940s, the quality of aerial weapons and the means to deliver them had improved markedly. These structures were built at the time when bombs were light enough to be dropped by hand from the cockpit. The term is generally applied to submarine bases constructed during World War II, particularly in Germany and its occupied countries, which were also known as U-boat pens (after the phrase " U-boat" to refer to German submarines).Īmong the first forms of protection for submarines were some open-sided shelters with partial wooden foundations that were constructed during World War I. Surrendered German U-boats moored outside the Dora I bunker in Trondheim, Norway, May 1945Ī submarine pen ( U-Boot-Bunker in German) is a type of submarine base that acts as a bunker to protect submarines from air attack.
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