German submarine pens
 

We're planning a trip to Europe next summer and having watched Das Boot too many times, I decided to check whether any German WW II submarine pens still existed so we could visit one. Sure enough, they do. They are massive structures. What astonished me though, was the amount of effort the Allies expended on trying to destroy them. On one night in April 1945, they sent 969 bombers to bomb the pens at Helgioland. The town around the pens in the link below was completely destroyed in bombing raids, yet the pens are still there. They still exist along on the French west coast and in Norway. I think most of the ones on the German coastline were removed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGj3L441SEs

Top Gear did an episode where the lads drove around Crimea and drove through an old Soviet sub base that was built under a large hill. It was a massive place that is now open to tourists.

Better yet, on "No Reservations" Bourdain got the same tour of the satellite photo-proof base in the Ukraine. It would make a great post-Cold War disco/nightclub.

There's one on a Croatian island carved out of a rock cliff. Picture here:

Vis (island) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One last bit of persuasion perhaps? Or getting rid of essentially excess munitions? Or both?
The History Place - World War II in Europe Timeline: German Surrender Documents

The pens at Saint-Nazaire.
http://www.u552.com/saint_nazaire_droite_ang.htmint-Nazaire.
U-552 & Erich Topp sailed from there & wreaked havoc on Allied shipping. Topp scuttled the U-552 in early May 1945 in Helgoland Bight right before the surrender. His boat is best remembered for torpedoing the USS Rueben James off Iceland October 31, 1941, five weeks before Pearl Harbor.

I thought it was pretty late in the war to be expending that much effort. Perhaps something was going in with submarines which might have explained it. Did they think the German High Command was planning to escape via submarine? Did submarines have the potential for a last minute threat?

I think it was just war as usual. After the French ports were lost, they shifted to Norway and the bombing followed them northward.
Bergen Norway...

"Bergen remained a rather quiet place during the first years, with only one large air attack. In 1943, the base was also added 2 new camps, "U-stützpunkt lager Prien" and "U-stützpunkt lager Weddingen" connected with the shipyard "Danziger Werft".

This was changed radically after the fall of France when Fdu West was moved from Angers, France to Bergen. A massive expansion programme of the base was launched, and several new Flak (anti-aircraft) units were stationed near the bunker. A lot of engineers and technicians were moved to Bergen. Additional 2 new camps called Werft Gemeischaftslager 1 & 2 were built.

Late in 1944 several massive British air raids struck the base in Bergen. In one occasion, a "tallboy" bomb went trough the roof in pen#3, making it unuseable for the rest of the war. The base was capitulated along with the rest of Norway on 8 May, 1945 when all German forces surrendered."

uboat.net - Boats - Flotillas - Bases

Enjoy your trip. ;)

I just read the title
 

now I want a pen in the shape of a german submarine.

bring me back one?

Phew, I wasn't the only one...

I want to live your life, Kerry. This is something I'd like to see, as well. If you go, take good pictures.

I too have been frantically searching google images for submarine shaped biros but I haven't found one yet

:D:D:D

Somebody needs to sharpen their google skills!

http://miniimg.rightinthebox.com/ima...2456169964.jpg

Alibaba.... seller of all things.

not to be pedantic, but that is a Chinese submarine pen.

I was hoping for a German German submarine pen;)