Ghostly 'U-Boat' off Brittany coast....

Walking early one morning - before the mist had burnt off - from my holiday house in Brittany, I rounded a corner and grabbed my camera to catch this image. Could it be the ghost of Prien, Kretschmer, Prochnow moving silently out from Lorient.....?



...or maybe just a pile of rocks at low tide ?

It made me do a double-take, anyhow

 

Wow, you do need the "Das Boot" theme music playing in the background on that post Martin!

 

yes it's a late mark XXIIXX without the 2cm cannon. Understand they were setting up a secret Kaffee Kiosk

 

Ahoi , bist du da Kamarad Bull?

 

....just wait 'til I download my Lorient holiday snaps.....

 

So you did go to Keroman after all!! Did you go to guidel as well?

 

Only Keroman - the most difficult WWII relic visit I have ever endured !

 

There heeeeeere...

 

Was it hard to get a ticket? I'm aware they only take small groups and you sometimes have to queue several hours in advance. Did you have a chance to visit the Dauphin class sub?

 

It was unbelievably badly organized and luckily there were some very angry French people queuing who got onto their mobile phones and called people with influence ( Sarkozy ? ) and eventually got things moving - but for a while there I thought a riot could be imminent complete with burning cars, riot shields and tear gas.....

It seems that Keroman III is cared for by a different organization to Keroman I ....sometimes KIII is open at 3 but today it is fully booked......but when we phoned you said just arrive 15 minutes early......it's not us, it's Cite de Lorient......so how do you know it's fully booked ?....wait by that little hut, someone may turn up by 5 but maybe not......wouldn't you just like to see the submarine Flore?......no, we want to see the U-Boat pens.....but you can see the submarine Flore.......thank you, we'll wait......it's open on Sunday.....we're back in London on Sunday......you can see the submarine Flore......we can only allow 19 people in......why only 19?......over there is the submarine Flore.....

At this stage the temptation to say '**** the submarine Flore !!!' was strong, but resisted.

We got there in the end but it's obvious that Cite de Lorient is possibly struggling a little as to how to present the era of Nazi occupation and I guess I can understand that.

 

Haha you must have loved the latin sense of organisation and the hot blood in their veins. I can imagine they started a real stink. I'm pretty sure they would have beat up the guides at least. Good for you some important kriegsmarine General was queuing with you and demanded to access to the penns.
the real reson is that the penns are overbooked like a charter company warehouses are rented to companies at Keroman 3 and when they have the priority . it's annoying but it's the only way to get money to maintain those huge building because nobody else is ready to pay for the costs. Otherwise they would have to close for security reasons (you may have noticed some nets to protect you from fallng stones for instance)

 

It did have it's lighter side....I couldn't resist snapping these two young French students during the 'long wait'.....rather sums it up, really !

 

That summs up the country Martin

Did the guide at least get you on the roof and chekcthe former Flack postions and show you the view accross the bay to Guidel. The KM offcier houses could be seen from there

 

No, we didn't get onto the roof which was a disappointment to me. But the guide was obviously very harrassed and just wanted to get it all over with. My copy of 'After The Battle' was invaluable so M. Jean-Paul Pallud was, in spirit, my guide......

 

Good to know that at least two of the 19 in your group had some WWII culture

 

I was kind of hoping for a good old fashioned ghost ship story.

 

When seeing this pic, it reminded me of the movie: The Russians are coming, The Russians Are Coming.

 

You need some guys shooting at it from atop a Ferris wheel with shotguns like in "1941".