French U-boat Bases (See Lorient )and(The Brittany Campaign)

Following the German invasion the official end of the active fighting in France came with an armistice, signed on 22nd June 1940. Despite isolated areas not fully submitting for several weeks, hostilities were over as of 0135 hrs on 25th June and German occupation began immediately. A partitioning line was established that allowed Southeastern France nominal self-government under Maréchal Pétain’s newly established Vichy regime. This state of affairs was destined to end when the entire country was occupied two years later, after the successful November 1942 Allied landing in Vichy-held North Africa. However, in 1940, Hitler demanded that whereas France could maintain garrisons and naval bases along the Mediterranean coast, Germany must have control of the Atlantic coast and areas which encompassed the bulk of French industry occupied during the advance, and his troops moved to their new garrisons. Within Brittany men of the General von Pragen’s XXV Army Corps took up their occupation posts during December 1940, its headquarters in the beautiful resort area of La Baule.

Brest

Brest, for hundreds of years a major French naval installation, was the homeport to some of the proudest ships of their fleet. Founded in Roman-Gallic times as an armed camp the settlement’s strategic value was first recognised as a potential naval base in 1631 by Cardinal Richelieu who had wooden wharves constructed. These humble beginnings were augmented by masonry constructions jutting into the Rade de Brest, built under orders of Jean Baptiste Colbert, Minister de la Marine to King Louis XIV. By the Twentieth Century the harbour was a stronghold of fortifications and facilities added over the intervening centuries. Around its harbour and along the winding river Penfeld, Brest contained some of the most sophisticated repair and docking facilities for la Marine Nationale or "la Royale", as the French Navy was still sometimes known. It was, and still is, also the site of an imposing building, overlooking the harbour, which housed the Naval Academy, engaged in producing young officers for their large fleet. An elegant city with architecture that could be traced to medieval times, and often beyond, Brest had begun life as a fortified camp before Roman occupation. Now it was to become a fortified camp once more. This was the springboard for France’s Atlantic operations, in conjunction with the Royal Navy. Of all of France’s Armed Forces the Navy was perhaps the most advanced. The country’s Air Force had once been considered the most technologically impressive in Europe, but, like the Army, had fallen to decay. Inaccurate internally generated statistical studies led to conclusions upon which was based military strategic thinking and decisions as obsolescent as the Armed Forces’ equipment itself. While Naval thinking was not free of the invisible dogma of defeatism which permeated Government and High Command planners, at least the weapons with which the Navy were expected to fight were in large part effective modern designs more tha equal to the tasks they were given. The emphasis for Admiral Darlan, Chief of Staff for the French Navy since 1937, was actually on operations in the Mediterranean where vital links to the country’s North African Empire had to be protected. Containing the possible actions of the Italian Fleet was seen as France’s primary role, leaving the English to deal with the Kriegsmarine. Since 1936 a new unprecedented military co-operation with England (who Darlan privately detested) had been established, and with Germany obviously rearming, a large portion of France’s heavy ships would still remain for service in the Atlantic. After consultation with leaders of the British Admiralty France’s duties of convoy protection and patrolling were defined for areas of responsibility encompassing the following four regions:
— the small area of French North Sea Coast
— Southern English Channel (le Manche to the French)
— Gulf of Gascogne and east of the line Ouessant to Villano
— the Mediterranean (with the exception of Gibraltar).
Admiral de Laborde held overall command of France’s Western Naval Theatre, his Atlantic Coast command divided into military regions. The Brest area fell within the 2nd Region and lay under the control of Vice Admiral d’Escadre Traub, Préfet Maritime, while the ancient city itself was under the Naval command of Vice Admiral Cayol.

Brest fell to the Germans on 19th June 1940 (Click here for a fuller text on the fall of Brittany). During World War One Brest had become a vital link in the chain of reinforcement for Allied troops destined for the mud and blood of Flanders. In 1917 the harbour was the largest American military port outside of territorial waters, and thousands of troops were disembarked here. Convoys regularly stopped in the harbour or passed her narrow entrance channel bound for destinations further a field. With these developments came the inevitable German counter-measure - U-boats. Mine laying and attack submarines were regular visitors to Breton waters, sinking a huge amount of valuable Allied shipping, but the port was never in danger of complete German domination. However in 1940 the German Army had achieved in six weeks what they failed to achieve in four years previously and France was subjugated. This time the U-boats would not skulk around the harbour entrances, this time the harbours were theirs.
As Germany’s submariners began to operate from Brest their boats were hidden beneath large camouflage nets at the base of the Penfeld River. With originally only seven or eight U-boats to contend with, these mooring facilities had proved adequate, but not for much longer. Coupled with expanded flotilla strength was the increased attention from the RAF. The decision was made to build safe enclosed bunkers for anchorage and maintenance work. These bunkers were huge construction projects, involving hundreds of Organization Todt workers and French labourers, which took years to finish. They provided a safe anchorage and point of repair for the German submarines, as well as a constant target for the Allied Air Forces.

The first U-boat to use Brest was U65 on 22nd August 1940, though only for six days of repair. Following an unsuccessful attempt to land two Irish agents near Smerwick Harbour, County Kerry, Korvettenkapitän Hans-Gerrit von Stockhausen had put in first of all to Lorient on the 19th, transferring to Brest three days later for repairs (The espionage operation was aborted after Sean Russell, one of the Irishmen, died aboard the submarine on the 14th August 1940. His partner Frank Ryan returned to Germany). Brest’s U-boat pens began construction on the seafront of Lanninon, before the towering French Naval Academy, at the beginning of 1941. Positioned on what had once served as a seaplane base for the French Navy, this single huge structure would eventually measure 333m long, 192m wide, and 17m high, covering a total of 5, 200 m2. The first stage of its construction included 13 pens coded from A to E and 1 to 8. Those pens with a letter designation were able to easily enclose two submarines: pens A through C were 115m long by 17m wide— the remaining two pens were each only 96m long. Those enclosures with a numeric designation were dry-docks (96m long and 11m wide) where repair and inspection of U-boats could safely be conducted. The final addition to the pen complex came with two larger dry-docks, labeled 9 and 11, each 114m long by 14m wide. Immediately behind the pens themselves were subterranean stores for torpedoes and ammunition for the submarines. The first portions of the U-boat bunker were operational by the end of 1941

All of the U-boat bunkers were heavily defended against aircraft attack, with flak towers, personnel bunkers, and internal power plants that made them virtually impregnable and self-sufficient. A unit based at each submarine complex named Marine-Nebel-Abteilung was created to operate land and water borne equipment that covered the base with a smoke screen in the event of attack. Brest, however, had an additional line of defence, erected following the successful British commando raid on Saint-Nazaire during the night of 28th March 1942. As a result of this courageous operation defences before other vulnerable harbour installations along the French Atlantic coast were ordered thickened by a shaken Marinegruppenkommando West. Along the waterline fringe of the Goulet de Brest’s southern shores were constructed solid concrete bunkers. Inside these impregnable shelters were torpedo tubes manned by Kriegsmarine artillerymen, ready to repel any possibility of seaborne attack. Facing them, the northern shores had no such suitable site for construction at the water’s edge. To counter this problem requisitioned French vessels, armed with similarly formidable torpedo tubes were grouped together to complete the last line of defence before the submarine pens. This rather motley collection of small French boats and barges, again manned with Kriegsmarine men, was situated in bays on the northern side of the Goulet de Brest (Narrows of Brest). One such bay, slightly West of Brest’s torpedo net barrier, near to the Luftwaffe flak batteries of Portzig and a stone’s throw from the U-boat pens, is Anse de Dellec. Divers on the floor of this bay have found intact remains of a vessel from this ad-hoc flotilla.  

In Brest harbour, 1st U-Flotilla, commanded by Korvettenkapitän Hans Cohauss, arrived from Kiel in June 1941 to be stationed permanently in the port. The premiere flotilla of Germany’s submarine force this unit had begun fomation in September 1935 and was originally named “Weddigen” after famed First World War U-boat ace Otto Weddigen of UB9. Their headquarters were established in the French Naval Academy, and officers were able to gaze over the beautiful harbour towards the Crozon Peninsular from their new quarters. By November of the same year, 9thU-Flotilla was created, under Kapitänleutnant Jürgen Oesten, to share the harbour. They were housed in separate quarters, the grounds and buildings of Brest’s Hôpital Morvan, an imposing structure whose entrance gates were soon crowned with the swordfish flotilla emblem. A resort area for U-boat commanders was established in the requisitioned Hôtel des Bains situated on the beautiful expanse of Trez-Hir beach. Here commanders could relax and refresh themselves for the fresh challenges of their next patrol. Further leisure facilities were provided at Chateau de Trévarez, inland among the rolling Breton farmland overlooking the small town of Chateauneuf de Faou. This red brick structure built in the late 19th and early 20th century by then Member of Parliament Marquis de Kerjégu, towered over sumptuous grounds that again allowed the opportunity for submariners to unwind in more pleasant surroundings than naval barracks.  

(LINK: Kriegsmarine leisure facilities near Brest)

Brest also saw the creation of a Kriegsmarinewerft (Naval Shipbuilders) outside of Seeko control when the ‘Deschimag’ company of Bremen began construction of vessels and marine engines in November 1940 within the old French Arsenal. Korvettenkapitan August Vollheim took initial command of this unit that eventually incorporated several varied construction services, torpedo supply and repair and personnel services.

Lorient

In 1940 before the arrival of German troops, Lorient, which lay on the Western bank of the River Scorff, was part of the 5th Naval Region, the seaward approaches to its entrance channels guarded by the slender Ile de Groix. This city’s Préfet Maritime was Vice Admiral d’Escadre de Penfentenyo de Kerveguer, Lorient itself commanded by sector commandant C V Labourer. On 1st September 1939 in Brest, Lorient and Saint-Nazaire there were created Centres d’Armement Militaire des Bâtiments de Commerce that proceeded, eight days later, to arm merchant ships for the threatened convoy war. Many were also to be converted into auxiliary warships. Beginning in 1930 the French Commander-in-Chief of the Navy had drawn up a plan of requisitioning whereby the navy had free reign to decide which vessels were suitable for conversion to auxiliary military use. Those designated as auxiliary naval vessels were given a military number prefixed with a letter: X for Auxiliary Cruisers (X1-X22) and Specialist Ships (X23-X84). Specialist ships included such vessels as cable layers, hospital ships, colliers, submarine tenders and mine layers.); P for Patrol Boats; AD for Minesweepers; VP for small port security vessels. However, the French collapse of June 1940 brought German troops racing towards the French Atlantic coast.At Lorient on 18th June 1940, a total of fifteen French warships and thirty-five smaller vessels left the harbour, bound for England or North Africa. Only a single vessel was lost to enemy action. This ship, the large trawler La Tanche of Fécamp, struck a German mine and sank 150 metres West of the Truies buoy marking the entrance to Lorient. She was carrying nearly 200 people as well as a 30-man crew. Among her passengers were Polish soldiers, French airmen, mechanic apprentices and several of the French sailors’ wives and children. The explosion was so violent that she sank in seconds and only twelve people were rescued. After the remainder of the evacuation was completed without further incident the port was declared an open city and surrendered by Admiral Hervé de Penfentényo de Kervériguin on the 21st June. At 1400hrs the first German troops entered the sullen outskirts of Lorient.

Lorient immediatley had a Kriegsmarinewerft installed under the direction of Korvettenkapitan Waldemar Seidel, commandant of the Lorient Arsenal, as did Saint-Nazaire and other German military ports further to the South. Units of Netzsperrflotille West provided protection from submarine attack before both Brest and Lorient. Anchored in place and suspended from large buoys these thick steel mesh anti-submarine nets stretched across the entrance channels to both ports, moved aside by steam tugboats to allow vessels free transit between port and open sea.

Lorient saw the arrival of 2nd U-Flotille “Saltzwedel”, commanded by Korvettenkapitän Heinz Fischer, from Wilhelmshaven in June 1940. The first boat to arrive was, Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp’s U30 (of Athenia infamy) on 7th July 1940, making Lorient the first fully operational Atlantic U-boat base. German engineers of the M.A.N. Mascchinen Fabrik arrived to work at reinforcing slipway facilities to cope with hefty submarine tonnage. In January 1942, the 10th U-Flotille was also formed in the port, placed under the command of Korvettenkapitän Günter Kuhnke. Lorient — soon known as the “Port of the Aces” — became arguably the most famous of the French bases.  The port was distinguished by presence of so many of the highest scoring U-boat commanders — men like Prien, Lemp, Kreschmer, and Bleichrodt — who quickly became household names worldwideThe seven highest scoring boats of the war were stationed here at some point: U48, U99, U103, U123, U124, U107 and U37) Again, the Kriegsmarine provided extensive facilities for commanders and crew to relax between missions, even so far as to create a bierkellar near the golden sands of Carnac beach. For two years, the world held its breath as U-boats battled with Allied convoys in one of the most decisive arenas of the war. It gradually became apparent who the victor was. The staggering statistics of German U-boat losses attest to the dangerous nature of their service and how the tide of war had turned against them. Allied weapons developed a new and deadly efficiency during the war, and a staggering percentage of operational U-boat crews never returned.The bunkers at Lorient were more complex, sprawling to include several different sites. Like at Brest, U-boats were initially serviced in the open beneath netting and tarpaulins, but early air raids threw into sharp focus the doubtful benefits of this practice. In November 1940, Fritz Todt ­— head of the German labour organization to which he lent his name — visited Lorient with then head of the Kriegsmarine,Grossadmiral Raeder, and his deputy, Konteadmiral Dönitz.  The three planned an ambitious project to build three separate submarine bunkers at a place named Keroman. Two huge, arched bunkers (named “Cathedral Bunkers” or Dombunkers) constructed first already functioned as dry docks, capable of handling two U-boats each, but they alone were not sufficient.Work, begun in January 1941, was completed in stages: bunkers Keroman I, II and III were finished in September 1941, December 1941 and January 1943 respectively.

Keroman I measured 120m long by 18.5cm wide, sufficient room for five dry-dock pens (designated K1 to K5) and a slipway for lifting submarines from the water. Keroman II was on dry land immediately behind Keroman I and was fed with submarines raised using the latter’s mechanical slipway. This “dry bunker” measured 138m long by 128m wide with a height of 7m, and held seven pens designated K6 to K12. The final bunker, Keroman III, was 158m long, 186m wide, and 20 metres high.  Keroman III had two repair pens, each capable of accepting two boats side by side (in four sub-pens designated K13 to K16), and five mooring docks (K17 to K24) again capable of handling two boats apiece. These remarkable facilities enabled a swift transfer of vessels between water and repair yard — the time taken to lift a boat on its cradle from the sea and transfer it to the farthest pen a mere one hour. Imposing steel doors three feet thick could be swung closed across each pen, and two ships were moored in Port Louis Bay immediatley before the bunkers. These two retired warships — Crapaud and Strasbourg (the ex-German light cruiser SMS Regensburg, a veteran of the Battle of Jutland, taken by France at the end of the First World War) provided further shelter for the pens, and each had tethered to them fat barrage balloons, that drifted lazily in the air above to discourage low-level aircraft attacks. Of course the ever-present anti-torpedo nets lay suspended from their steels buoys almost as a final gesture of impregnability. Further concrete submarine bunkers were established in Saint-Nazaire and Bordeaux, the latter the only French U boat base inland of the coast, positioned as it was along the expansive Gironde River.

Coupled with this major installation was the presence in Lorient of another key element of the U-boat war Konteradmiral Dönitz, Head of the KriegsmarineU-boat arm since 1935, Dönitz lived and worked in a requisitioned chateau positioned near the entry to Lorient’s harbour, which included three separate villas for himself and his staff. Immediatley that France had surrendered Dönitz despatched staff officers to select a site for his headquarters. The Chateau du Ter was an inspired choice standing on the Western side of Le Ter River at Kerneval and facing the foreshore of Keroman with its precious submarine facilities. Here, as Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU, or, Commander-in-Chief U-boats), he ran the wolf packs that nearly strangled England’s Atlantic lifeline (Dönitz was forced against his will by his superior Raeder to move from there to Paris in May 1942, after the successful British commando raid on the port of Saint-NazaireWith British commandoes becoming bolder in their attacks, often as intent on capturing Germans for intelligence reasons as destroying installations, there was real fear that Dönitz would be a target for such a raid). The Kerneval nerve centre — christened “Berlin” by those within — became a veritable fortress with underground bunkers, artillery and machine-gun emplacements, an anti-tank ditch and continually increasing anti-aircraft installations. Indeed the first RAF bombs fell on Lorient’s Scorff River installations on 2nd September 1940.


Based on map from "Lorient" Fahrmbacher/Matthiae, Weißenburg, 1956

 

Saint Nazaire

The civilian port of Saint-Nazaire had been a stronghold of maritime industry for decades. Sprawling ship yards stretched East from the city, following the North bank of the mighty Loire River and scarring the flat landscape with the massive tools of its trade.

La Rochelle

Bordeaux

Toulon

 

 

THE BRITTANY CAMPAIGN

 

On July 21, 1944, the 212th Armored Field Artillery Battalion made its second landing on French soil -- second because it had participated in the MeuseArgonne and St. Mihiel engagements in World War I -- in the vicinity of St. Germain, a small town southeast of Cherbourg. Eight days later it was to taste its first combat in World War II. On July 27th,while the battalion was in its assembly area at Les Mesnils, word was received that the German Normandy line, which had been holding so tenaciously to St. Lo and the Lessay Periers Road, was suddenly disintegrating, and the division was alerted for movement the next day to exploit a break-through. A part of the division moved as planned, but congested traffic conditions held back the remaining forces, and the 212th did not move until the next day.


The first objective . . . high ground south of Sienne River.

At 0830 July 29, as part of Combat Command A, the battalion moved from its assembly area south through shattered La Haye-de-Puits and decayed Lessay to its first engagement near the vil- lage of Gratot, a few miles northwest of Coutances. Resistance on high ground across the Sienne River south of the village necessitated the occupation of positions, and at 1545 the first battalion round was fired. The high ground was taken just before dark that evening, but a bridge had to be installed over the river, so the battalion did not leave its positions until noon of the following d.iy. At 1225 that day, July 30, the march was resumed southward, by-passing Coutances on the west, through Montmartin-sur-Mer and Hautville-sur-Mer to Brehal. Brehal was reached late in the evening and positions were occupied for the night south of the town.

This day for the first time the men in the battalion saw a happy France, the liberated France of the break-through period who could enjoy her liberation genuinely from whole homes and virtually untouched towns and villages. What a contrast from destroyed upper Normandy with its thou- sands of homeless! Here enthusiastic "Vive L' Amerique"s supplanted sad "Bon Jour"s, waving and girlish laughter replaced wistful half-smiles: cognac and flowers were everywhere. In Mont- martin-sur-Mer, and particularly in Brehal, the festive spirit was in full evidence; the streets were filled with excited waving Frenchmen, American tanks and armored vehicles, and to complete the scene, disheveled, dejected German prisoners.


For the first time, happy Frenchmen . . . the column rolling through Montmartin-sur-Mer.

More traffic difficulties caused by the restrictions of the break-through corridor slowed the advance the following day, but the citadel of Avranches. already in the hands of the 4th Armored Division, was in view when the Battalion stopped for the night. Normandy had been spanned in three short days. But that was just the beginning. General Patton's four-word order sent the divi- sion on a real exploitation race: "Advance and take Brest." The division was now in the Third Army.

Still as part of Combat Command A, the 212th left its Avranches positions at 1500 August 1, moving south through and past Avranches and then westward to cut the Brittany Peninsula in two. Nightfall found the battalion at Antrain after an uneventful day. Combourg, Tinteniac, Becherel and Quedelac sped by swiftly the next day, and the day after came St. Meen-la-grand and Mauron. The battalion itself did not reach Mauron on August 3, but took positions about two miles north of the town when resistance held up the advance of the column.

On the morning of August 4, the mission of Combat Command A was changed. and it was ordered north to assist Combat Command B in the capture of Dinan. By the time it had reached St. Jonen-de-Lisle, a distance of 10 miles, however, orders were received to drop the new mission and pursue again the original march to Brest. Accordingly the column retraced its steps to Mauron, then turned westward, and marched almost without stopping until 0400 the following morning.


French refugees moving to safety . . . a crossroad in Normandy.

After a rest until 1000 the march was resumed again and the battalion finally stopped in positions just south of La Fenillee. The two days had taken it through La Trinite-Porhoet, Pontivy, Guemane-Scorif and Courin, all filled with happy, waving Frenchmen, cognac and flowers; Landeleau with its Maquis warnings of Germans nearby; and Huelgoat, where the stiffest resistance thus far in the drive was met.

August 6 the combat command was held up all day by enemy forces on the high ground northwest of La Feuillee. At 1900, however, with by-passing over dusty side roads the main strategy, the march was resumed and the front door of Brest was the next stop. The battalion rolled all night the 6th, all day the 7th, and it was 0500 August 8 when it occupied positions a mile north of Gonesnon; a road sign at a nearby crossroad told "Nach Brest 10 Kilometers." In just ten days from Lessay the Brittany peninsula was severed end to end. And the battalion had suffered only four casualties:

Corporal Matthew J. Kalafsky, Headquarters Battery, was killed July 31 a mile north of St. Aubin des Preveux when his tank plunged 100 feet off a caved-in road; Cpl. Albert Bretton, Battery A, was seriously injured at Antrain the night of August 2 by a grenade directed at German snipers; and Lt. Harold P. McAnally and his driver Pfc. Joseph C. Brown, both of Headquarters Battery, were seriously injured in the early morning darkness of August 8 south of Plabennec when their peep collided with a six-by-six.

Brest itself was the next problem -- the prize of the dusty race. But the prize was not to be taken by the Sixth Armored Division. Some 40,000 Germans within the fortress so decided. And the division and the battalion saw some dark moments during the next few days. At 1000 August 8 the defenders of Brest opened up in earnest on Combat Command A, dropping mortars, artillery, and antitank shells in large concentrations on its positions. Some 500 rounds fell into the area within a short time, and the 212th suffered five casualties. Pfc. Russell H. Clement, Battery A, was killed instantly; Pfc. William C. Holder, Battery A, received serious wounds which resulted in his death three days later; Pvt. Hillery H. Bell, Battery A, Tec. 5 Russell E. Hergesell and Tec. 5 Lonnie Jones, Jr., Battery B, were all seriously wounded. By noon the battalion had displaced two miles to the north, and the remainder of the day was quiet. Another casualty was suffered, however, when late in the evening the battalion medical officer, Capt. Miles F. Ocasek, collapsed from a heart disorder.

At 0630, August 9, the division attack on Brest was begun. Combat Command A was to advance southeastward almost to the Elorn River and then enter Brest from the east. The battalion had not even left its positions, however, when the attack was called off; the defenses were deemed too strong for one armored division to crack. The wisdom of the decision was borne out grimly by the subsequent campaign to liquidate the city, which took three infantry divisions and a large array of special troops, including twenty non-divisional artillery battalions, twenty-three days of yard by yard fighting.

Instead of attacking as planned, the division was ordered north a few miles to assemble in the vicinity of Plouvien in preparation for a more deliberate advance on the submarine base; the 212th was given an area one mile northwest of Plouvien. But it never reached its area. A reconnaissance party accomplished its mission, but was turned back when the 266th German Infantry Division, retreating to Brest from St. Malo, hit the division rear from the north. Before the day was over the German Division was cut to bits with some very timely assistance by P-51 Mustangs, but the battalion settled for positions southwest of Plouvien. During the afternoon activity, Service Battery vehicles in the Division Trains area came under enemy artillery fire. One man was killed: Pfc. Clarence L. Adams, Service Battery; four were injured: S/Sgt. Albert R. Buttermore and Pfc. Joseph A. Pierce, Battery C, and Pvts. Ilmar J. Kaipio and Cleve Carroll, Service Battery; and 5 vehicles were destroyed. More.damage to battalion supplies was averted by the heroic action of battalion trains personnel. Two days later Lt. Woodrow W. Cobb and Pvt. Lee R. Nunley, Service Battery, and Pvt. John L. Strong, A Battery, were awarded Bronze Star Medals for their heroism.

August 10 was spent in reconnaissance for new positions south again and a little east of Plabennec, and in occupation of those positions after dark. The mission of the battalion was to support the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, who were now attached to the division to assist in the capture of Brest; the infantry was to take the outer defenses of the city, after which the division was to try once more to advance into it. On August 13, however, the mission of the division was changed from that of capturing Brest, for the reason mentioned before, to one of containing the enemy in Brest, Lorient, and Vannes. The battalion was assigned to Reserve Command, and the next day set out for Lorient.


Brittany's welcome to the Sixth . . . a street in Gourin.

Retracing its steps westward, it arrived late that afternoon at positions a mile north of Pont Scorff, which were to he home for the next two weeks. During the day, Combat Command B had been diverted from its Vannes mission and sent to the Lorient sector to replace Reserve Command, so it was as an element of Combat Command B that the 212th relieved a battalion of the Fourth Armored Division. Its mission was direct support of the 44th Armored Infantry Battalion, which had established a line of defense just south of Pont Scorif to contain the Germans in and around Lorient.

This Lorient sector during the battalion's two-week stay was in military terminology a quiet sector. But it was active enough to cause four casualties. During the first two days, the battalion established four observation posts. In the afternoon of August 18, one of them was subjected to surprise artillery fire and two members of the battalion survey section, which was manning the post, were seriously injured: Pvt. William C. Hodgen, and Pfc. William H. Gritt, both of Headquarters Battery. On August 21st, Captain Paul A. Graham, battery commander of C Battery, was seriously injured by a friendly rifleman as he manned another of the observation posts. The next day Lt. Anton A. Pritchard, then reconnaissance officer of A Battery, was injured in the leg by enemy mortar fire in the vicinity of Kergonnet church, south of Pont Scorff; the policy of having an artillery observer accompany infantry patrols was instituted on August 18, and it was on one of these missions that Lt. Pritchard was injured.


An M-7 in recoil . . . La Feuillee.

The battalion's pseudo-rest at Pont Scorff was terminated when it was ordered on August 28 to move with Combat Command B to the vicinity of Orleans, there to engage in maintenance operations preparatory to rejoining the "big war" that was now nearing the German border all along the line. The first day took the unit through Vannes and Rochefort to a bivouac just east of Redon. Angers passed the following day and the battalion stopped for the night at Bauge. Here on August 30 the combat command was sidetracked to investigate Free French reports that Germans were coming north across the Loire River at Saumur. The report proved ungrounded, and the next day saw the eastward march resumed to a bivouac five miles west of Orleans. As the column passed Beaugency on the Loire, the battalion commander's half track was hit and disabled by a small calibre anti-tank gun believed to be firing from the south side of the river; no one was injured. The next day, September 1, the last lap of the journey took the battalion through Orleans and Chateauneuf to a bivouac four miles southwest of Lorris, where it remained for almost two weeks in pursuit of an extensive maintenance program designed to fit it for further combat.


Camouflage at Pont Scorff.

The combat command was not completely out of the war, however, even in this assembly area. It had a mission of patrolling the north bank of the Loire River for a sixty mile stretch from Orleans east. One of the motorized patrols effected the official link-up of the Third and Seventh armies when it contacted a reconnaissance party of General Patch's army at Dijon on September 7. On September 9 the combat command, and the battalion with it, were alerted for movement south to offer token resistance to a group of 20,000 Germans who wanted to surrender "honorably." Their Commanding General agreed to outright surrender, but he feared that it might take a show of resistance to bring all his subjects into the fold. They were prevailed upon by other means, however, and the alert was called off the following day and maintenance was resumed.


Relaxation in Lorris woods...captured liquor.