Visit to Brest

[lesrae]

At the weekend I went to Brest to work on an RFA that's visiting there, I'd done a bit of reading up hoped to get a look at the u-boat pens there. It turned out I was very lucky, the ship I was on was berthed right next to the Clemenceau at the end of the western breakwater and so I had to walk right past the pens to get to the ship. But first - a beer!



Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos within the naval base (they get a bit twitchy about that and my French is too poor to argue my case succesfully) but walking so close to the pens was very impressive, I got a real feeling of history. The pens are starting to suffer from the elements and are being patched up, but they're still in use and there were a fair number of smaller patrol ships berther in and around them.

When walking around Brest I also visited the US memorial to the Naval Forces from WWI, I got photos of that - see below for the memorial and the commemorative plaques on the ground in front of it, sorry about the size but if I shrink them the text becomes difficult to read (excuse my feet too - pedicure required).