La Pallice (also known as ''grand port maritime de La Rochelle'') is the commercial deep-water port of

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. Wi ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. During the Fall of France, on 19 June 1940, approximately 6,000

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

soldiers in exile under the command of

Stanisław Sosabowski Stanisław Franciszek Sosabowski CBE (; 8 May 1892 – 25 September 1967) was a Polish general in World War II. He fought in the Polish Campaign of 1939 and at the Battle of Arnhem (Netherlands) in 1944 as commander of the Polish 1st Indepen ...

arrived at La Pallice, from where they were evacuated to Great Britain - thus able to go on fighting till the end of the war. Under the

Nazi Occupation of France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

, La Pallice was used as a U-boat base () from October 1941 when the

3rd U-boat Flotilla The 3rd U-boat Flotilla (German ''3. Unterseebootsflottille''), also known as Lohs Flotilla, was the third operational U-boat unit in Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine''. Founded on 4 October 1937 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hans Eckermann ...

was moved there from its base in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

. La Pallice was subject to the

allied siege of La Rochelle The Allied siege of La Rochelle occurred during the Second World War in 1944–45, when Allied troops invaded France. La Rochelle was an important German naval base on the Atlantic for surface ships and submarines, from which U-boat campaigns wer ...

in 1944–45, which ended with the capitulation of Germany. The large submarine base built at that time still stands largely is not in use. It was used as a backdrop for the film ''

Das Boot ''Das Boot'' (, English: "The Boat") is a 1981 West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann. It has been exhibited both as ...

'' (1981) and '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981). La Pallice is equipped with oil unloading equipment, and mainly handles tropical wood. It is also the home of La Rochelle's fishing fleet, which was moved from the old harbour in the city centre during the 1980s.

References

External links

German submarine base in La Pallice
Buildings and structures in La Rochelle German Navy submarine bases Ports and harbours of France Transport in Nouvelle-Aquitaine {{CharenteMaritime-geo-stub