The Saint-Nazaire Pocket ( de ,
Festung
''Festung'' is a generic German word for a fortress. Although it is not in common usage in English, it is used in a number of historical contexts involving German speakers:
* For historical fortresses in Austria, Germany or Switzerland
* As par ...
St. Nazaire, french: Poche de Saint-Nazaire) existed from August 1944 until 11 May 1945 and was formed by the withdrawal of German troops from Loire-Inférieure (now
Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique (; br, Liger-Atlantel; before 1957: ''Loire-Inférieure'', br, Liger-Izelañ, link=no) is a department in Pays de la Loire on the west coast of France, named after the river Loire and the Atlantic Ocean. It had a population o ...
) during the liberation of the department by the allied forces. It was centred around the port and the submarine base of
Saint-Nazaire
Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany.
The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean ...
and extended to the east as far as
Saint-Omer-de-Blain and from
La Roche-Bernard in the north to
Pornic
Pornic (; ''Pornizh'' in Breton, ''Port-Nitz'' in Gallo) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.
In 1973 the commune of Pornic absorbed the neighbouring municipalities of Sainte-Marie-sur-Mer and Clion-sur-Mer.
Popula ...
in the south.
Background
![US advance into Brittany](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/US_advance_into_Brittany.jpg)
After the
battle of Normandy
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norma ...
and
Operation Cobra
Operation Cobra was the codename for an Offensive (military), offensive launched by the United States First United States Army, First Army under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley seven weeks after the D-Day landings, during the Invasion of Norman ...
, the Allies quickly liberated the west of France during the first fortnight of August 1944 (
Rennes
Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...
on 6 August,
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
on the 12th,
Rezé
Rezé (; br, Reudied, Gallo: ''Rezae'') is a commune (municipality) and former bishopric in the Loire-Atlantique department in the Pays de la Loire region of western France. It is a southern suburb of Nantes.
It was also called ''Ratiate'' ...
on the 29th). Pockets of resistance however formed as German troops withdrew to the
Atlantic coastal ports of
Brest
Brest may refer to:
Places
*Brest, Belarus
**Brest Region
**Brest Airport
**Brest Fortress
* Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria
* Břest, Czech Republic
*Brest, France
** Arrondissement of Brest
**Brest Bretagne Airport
** Château de Brest
*Br ...
,
Lorient
Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France.
History
Prehistory and classical antiquity
Beginn ...
,
Saint-Nazaire
Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany.
The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean ...
,
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. With ...
and
Royan
Royan (; in the Saintongeais dialect; oc, Roian) is a commune and town in the south-west of France, in the department of Charente-Maritime in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Its inhabitants are known as ''Royannais'' and ''Royannaises''. Capi ...
.
The Germans wanted to retain these strategic areas and declared them "fortresses" ( de ,
Festung
''Festung'' is a generic German word for a fortress. Although it is not in common usage in English, it is used in a number of historical contexts involving German speakers:
* For historical fortresses in Austria, Germany or Switzerland
* As par ...
). On 31 July 1944, Hitler ordered his Generals
Jodl
Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl (; 10 May 1890 – 16 October 1946) was a German ''Generaloberst'' who served as the chief of the Operations Staff of the '' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' – the German Armed Forces High Command – throughout World ...
and
Warlimont to "defend them to the last man". The hope was that these could once again become significant footholds on the Atlantic in the event that the secret weapons (
Wunderwaffe
''Wunderwaffe'' () is German word meaning "wonder-weapon" and was a term assigned during World War II by Nazi Germany's propaganda ministry to some revolutionary "superweapons". Most of these weapons however remained prototypes, which either n ...
) would be developed in time to turn the war back in the Reich's favour.
Also denying the Allies these deep-water ports would hamper operations following the Normandy campaign. The Allies also favoured a mainly eastward advance of the offensive towards Germany. They however left troops to protect the edges of these pockets, assisted by the French army and by battalions of the
French Forces of the Interior
The French Forces of the Interior (french: Forces françaises de l'Intérieur) were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation ...
(FFI) and
Francs-Tireurs et Partisans
The ''Francs-tireurs et partisans français'' (FTPF), or commonly the ''Francs-tireurs et partisans'' (FTP), was an armed resistance organization created by leaders of the French Communist Party during World War II (1939–45). The communist par ...
(FTP).
The
Brest pocket fell on 18 September 1944 after hard fighting, the other four lasted until the surrender of the 8 May 1945, or shortly thereafter.
German defences
This particular pocket centered on the town and fortified submarine base of Saint-Nazaire but spread out further. North of the
Loire
The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...
, the front line followed the left bank of the
Vilaine
The Vilaine (; br, Gwilen) is a river in Brittany, in the west of France. The river's source is in the Mayenne ''département'' (53), and it flows out into the Atlantic Ocean at Pénestin in the Morbihan ''département'' (56). It is 218 km ...
river, then the
Isac (the
Nantes-Brest canal), as far as the part of
Blain west of the canal; it then descended south-west to
Cordemais, passing between
Bouvron,
Fay-de-Bretagne and
Le Temple-de-Bretagne. South of the Loire, it included the municipalities of
Frossay,
Saint-Viaud,
Paimbœuf,
Arthon-en-Retz (La Sicaudais),
Saint-Père-en-Retz
Saint-Père-en-Retz (, literally ''Saint-Père in Retz''; br, Sant-Pêr-Raez) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. As of 2020 it has a population of 4,594.
Population
Notable people
* Francis Aupiais(1877-1945) ...
,
Saint-Brevin-les-Pins
Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (; also ; br, Sant-Brewenn) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.
It is known as the site of the serpent d'océan, a giant sea serpent sculpture by artist Huang Yong Ping.
Population
Histo ...
,
Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef
Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef (; br, Sant-Mikael-Keveger) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department
The following is a list of the 207 communes of the Loir ...
,
La Plaine-sur-Mer
La Plaine-sur-Mer (; br, Plaen-Raez) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department
The following is a list of the 207 communes of the Loire-Atlantique ...
,
Préfailles
Préfailles (; br, Pradvael) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department
The following is a list of the 207 communes of the Loire-Atlantique departm ...
,
Sainte-Marie-sur-Mer Sainte-Marie-sur-Mer ( br, Lokmaria-Pornizh) is a former commune in the Pays de Retz, situated in the Loire-Atlantique ''département'' and in the French région of Pays de la Loire. From 1973, it was absorbed by the neighbouring commune of Porn ...
and
Pornic
Pornic (; ''Pornizh'' in Breton, ''Port-Nitz'' in Gallo) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.
In 1973 the commune of Pornic absorbed the neighbouring municipalities of Sainte-Marie-sur-Mer and Clion-sur-Mer.
Popula ...
. The coastal defensive sector of the pocket stretched over approximately of coastline.
The Germans set up artillery batteries to defend the mouth of the Loire:
* A battery of two 240mm calibre guns of French origin was sited to the north at
Batz-sur-Mer
Batz-sur-Mer (, literally ''Batz on Sea''; br, Bourc'h-Baz) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.
The commune is situated on a former island that, until around the 9th century, was separate from the mainland at Gu ...
.
* A similar battery was located south of the Loire on the
Pointe Saint-Gildas.
* Between these two batteries were other more modest calibre guns, in particular at the with four 170mm guns and four 105mm guns, or, on the south shore, at Mindin and Pointeau in the commune of
Saint-Brevin-les-Pins
Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (; also ; br, Sant-Brewenn) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.
It is known as the site of the serpent d'océan, a giant sea serpent sculpture by artist Huang Yong Ping.
Population
Histo ...
.
* There were also
anti-aircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
defences comprising 80 large calibre pieces divided into about twenty batteries.
In total, the Germans had 700 guns of all kinds (fixed, mobile and anti-aircraft), with a higher density around the submarine base, the port facilities and the airfield.
Closer to Saint-Nazaire, there was a belt of anti-tank ditches. The perimeter started from Fort de l'Ève, then north, crossing Maisac, Trignac, then along the
Grande Brière marshes, Montoir-de-Bretagne until reaching the estuary coast at
Donges
Donges (; br, Donez) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in the region of Pays de la Loire, France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department
* Parc naturel régional de Brière
*André Bizette-Lindet
And ...
. South of the Loire, the belt described a circle from
Paimboeuf to the south of Saint-Brevin.
Altogether it is estimated that this pocket fortress had 28,000 German soldiers commanded by Aviation General . The submarine base remained under the command of Admiral .
Allied forces around the pocket
The isolation of the German forces was mainly entrusted to the units of the French Resistance:
* the under (General
Raymond Chomel),
*
FFI and
FTP
The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data ...
battalions from Nantes, Vendee etc. French Resistance units were mainly armed with small arms and captured 75mm and 105mm guns.
* These were supported by units of
the 94th US Infantry Division under
Maloney, divided between pockets in Lorient and Saint-Nazaire.
* At the end of December 1944 the 94th Division were relieved by the
66th US Infantry Division under
Kramer.
Civilians
The pocket also contained nearly 130,000 civilians. By October 1944, a large number of them (women and children) were allowed to leave the pocket, easing pressure on the Germans to feed them.
Other convoys were subsequently organized by the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
.
Trains left the pocket near Cordemais. A temporary truce was observed between the belligerents during their journey. The refugees, once in Allied controlled Nantes, were subject to a questioning at the premises of the
Lycée Georges Clemenceau, partly occupied by the American army.
Other inhabitants left the pocket by their own means, in particular on its eastern and southern limits: for example, some of the inhabitants of Fession (Saint-Omer-de-Blain) left their farms, under constant American mortar fire at the end of November 1944, and went east through the mined lines.
Between November 1944 and February 1945, the Germans gradually evacuated the surroundings of the eastern front of (Fession and Saint-Gabriel in Saint-Omer, other localities in Bouvron and Fay-de-Bretagne); where inhabitants were invited to fall back inside the pocket or to leave on trains organised by the Red Cross.
The details of these evacuations are detailed by Father François du Plessis de Grenédan (1921-2013),
Sulpician priest, son of the commander of the airship Dixmude, a chaplain of the FTP and FFI maquisards of the Saint-Nazaire Pocket (south, then north), worker-priest, in an interview book in 2007.
Military operations
Faced with fierce German resistance during the assault on Brest, the
Allied High Command decided not to attempt a similar assault on Saint-Nazaire.
After several raids launched in September and October against the FFI troops on the other side of the Vilaine river, the Germans carried out a new attack in the eastern sector at the beginning of November.
Apart from a small landing made in December at the in
Morbihan
Morbihan ( , ; br, Mor-Bihan ) is a department in the administrative region of Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan (''small sea'' in Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastli ...
, the most important operations were carried out in the
Pays de Retz
The Pays de Retz (; br, Bro-Raez, link=no; ) is a historical subregion of France that currently forms part of the Loire-Atlantique department, but which previously formed part of the Duchy of Brittany.
The area lies between the southern shore of ...
in the South Loire, where stretches of fertile land were useful for supplies.
The Germans seized
Frossay in October and at the end of December, following heavy fighting, the village of La Sicaudais. They were opposed by the 2nd Battalion FFI who ceded a stretch of nearly 100 km. The front stabilized thanks to the intervention of the
The Americans, for their part, dislodged the Germans from the , forcing them to return to the other side of the Nantes to Brest canal and seized the town of Blain.
In February 1945, thanks to secret agents inside the pocket fortress, the Resistance warned the Allies of an imminent German attack near the Nantes-Brest canal.
During the month of March, American artillery managed to sink several cargo ships which had shuttled between the pocket fortresses of Lorient and Saint-Nazaire, thus increasing supply problems for the Germans.
In April, the Germans redoubled their aggression and constantly harassed the Allied positions with their artillery. On 19 April skirmishes occurred between three Franco-American patrols and the Germans causing three deaths and more than twenty wounded (and the loss of three tanks) on the Allied side and the loss of 33 men (dead or wounded) on the German side (by this time, on the Western front, Anglo-American troops had already largely invaded Germany and reached the Elbe).
A prominent researcher, Rémy Desquesnes estimates the overall losses on the Allied side at 500 killed, wounded or prisoners.
Surrender
After the signing of the overall German surrender in Reims on 7 May 1945, the German command in Saint-Nazaire began negotiations with the French about the surrender of the city, seeking guarantees about the treatment of prisoners and threatening to sabotage the port if a agreement could not be not reached. The signing of the pocket surrender agreement took place in the house of Francis Moisan, at a place called "Les Sables" in Cordemais on 8 May 1945 .
The fighting was supposed to end from 00:1 May 9, 1945. The German command however refused to surrender the city to French troops. In the southern sector of the "pocket", hostilities continued until the morning of 11 May 1945. The final surrender ceremony took place at noon that day at the Grand Clos racecourse in Bouvron. During this ceremony, General Hans Junck handed his weapon to the American General Herman Frederick Kramer in the presence of General Chomel, the prefect of Loire-Inférieure, Alexandre Vincent, and French and American detachments. The German command did not give the order for the destruction of port facilities and the sinking of ships remaining in the harbour of Saint-Nazaire.
Commemoration
![Grand blockhaus, Batz-sur-Mer-4866](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Grand_blockhaus%2C_Batz-sur-Mer-4866.jpg)
A monument in the shape of a Lorraine cross was erected in 1949 in Bouvron to commemorate the signing of the surrender.
The Grand Blockhaus of Batz-sur-Mer has housed the museum of the Saint-Nazaire pocket since opening in 1997.
See also
*
Liberation of France
The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers of World War II, Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French R ...
*
Battle for Brittany
The battle for Brittany took place between August and October 1944. After the Allies broke out of Normandy in June 1944, Brittany became targeted for its well developed ports which the Allies intended to use, whilst also stopping their continu ...
*
Battle of Brest
*
Battle of Saint-Malo
The Battle of Saint-Malo was fought between Allied and German forces to control the French coastal town of Saint-Malo during World War II. The battle formed part of the Allied breakout across France and took place between 4 August and 2 September ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
* Ganz, A. Harding. "Questionable Objective: The Brittany Ports, 1944." ''Journal of Military History'' 59.1 (1995): 77-95.
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Nazaire Pocket
Battles of World War II involving the United States
Military operations of World War II involving Germany
Battles of World War II involving France
Encirclements in World War II
August 1944 events
1944 in France
1945 in France
History of Loire-Atlantique
Military history of Brittany