So the other weekend i went in an off the cuff trip to well to get away, myself and my friend Jo ended up in St Nazaire although not completely by accident i must admit it was some what planned.
St Nazaire is home to one of the largest dry docks in Europe and it was the scene in 1942 for "The greatest raid of all" where HMS Cambletown a 4 pipe DD was rammed into the dock gate to ensure Tirpitz could never use it indeed the mission was a success and it also holds one smaller fact more VC's were won here than any other battle since the VC inception.
A great documentary about it here presented by top gear's Jeremy Clarkson:
Now St Nazaire is home to the submarine pens built by the Germans but one pen caught our eye this pen contains the French submarine Espandon.
here what wikepedia says about the submarine:
Espadon was commissioned in 1960.
In 1961, as she served as a target for mock torpedo exercises, Espadon was hit by two inert torpedoes, damaging her propeller. She nevertheless managed to surface, but had to be towed to Toulon.
In September of the same year, while cruising underwater, Espadon collided with the submarine Laubie, sustaining extensive damage to her bow and to the front of her sail.
Torpedo room of Espadon
On 13 August 1963 a fire in the torpedo room wounded and intoxicated four sailors, one of whom later died of his wounds.
In May 1964, Espadon and Marsouin steamed under sea ice in the Norwegian Sea as far as 70° north.
Espadon undertook significant modifications from 1966 to 1968, notably upgrading her sonar, sail and rudders.
Espadon has been a museum ship at the "ville-port" of Saint-Nazaire in the German-built submarine base since 1987.
And here is some pictures of what she looks like today
(Be advised taking pictures inside the submarine is forbidden you can be removed from the submarine please don't ask how I did it):
FNS Espandon S637 by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
FNS Espandon S637 by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
FNS Espandon S637 by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
FNS Espandon S637 by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
This picture is on top of the pen that holds Espandon showing the Pens that used to contain U Boats
St Nazaire by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
While in St Nazaire we also came across two mistral class LPH these two are destined for Egypt and are named after two presidents:
1010 Gamel Abder Nasser
1020 Anwar Al-Sadat
These vessels were Built firstly for the Russian navy the Vessels have come on quite a bit and are almost ready for delivery.
St Nazaire by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
St Nazaire by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
St Nazaire by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
St Nazaire by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
Ok so after we left St Nazaire we headed off to Lorient home of the Type IX Uboats and also BDU.
One interesting fact is that the Chateau Kurneval is still used by the French navy to this day
At Lorient the Daphne class submarine sits inbetween the submarine Pens on a sledge which was used to move submarines between pens.
DSCN1840 by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
The two bulbs make the submarine look strikingly odd dont you think?
DSCN1943 by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
Another oddity the propeller ive never seen one like this before!
DSCN1918 by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
Aft to Forward looking down the length of the submarine
DSCN1881 by
Blair shaw, on Flickr
The control room
Bare in mind these submarines served from 1964 to 2010 ! they were quite well used however suffered many problems and two sank one of which has never been found.
This post will have another bit added when i charge my phone it feature a little de tour on our return back to England.
All pictures can be found by clicking the link in my signature and selecting the album you wish to view
To Be Continued....