Citizendia

Commune of Saint-Nazaire

Harbor of Saint-Nazaire
Location
Coordinates47°16′50″N, 02°12′31″W
Administration
CountryFrance
RegionPays de la Loire
DepartmentLoire-Atlantique
(sous-préfecture)
ArrondissementSaint-Nazaire
CantonChief town of 3 cantons
IntercommunalityCARENE
MayorJoël-Guy Batteux
(2001-2008)
Statistics
Elevation0 m–47 m
(avg. A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. Wikipedia talkFeatured lists for an explanation of this and other inclusion tags below -->This list of countries, arranged alphabetically This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. France is divided into 26 regions or régions (in French of which 21 are in continental Metropolitan France, one is the island of Corsica, Pays de la Loire is one of the 26 Regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the late 20th century to serve as a zone of influence for its capital Nantes In the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies a department (département depaʁtǝmɑ̃ is an Administrative division Loire-Atlantique (formerly Loire-Inférieure) is a department on the west coast of France named after the Loire River and the Atlantic Subprefectures (sous-préfectures are the administrative towns of arrondissements in France that do not contain the prefecture for its department. The 100 French departments are divided into 342 arrondissements, which may be translated into English as districts. The arrondissement of Saint-Nazaire is an arrondissement of France located in the Loire-Atlantique département, in the Pays de la The cantons of France are territorial subdivisions of the French Republic's 341 arrondissements and 100 departments. The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. A mayor (from the Latin māior, meaning "greater" is a modern title used in many countries for the highest ranking officer in a municipal government The elevation of a Geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point often the mean sea level. 6 m)
Land area¹46. 79 km²
Population²
(1999)		65,874
 - Density1,408/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code44184/ 44600
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0. As of January 1, 2008, 64473140 people live in the French Republic. Population density (in agriculture standing stock and Standing crop) is a measurement of Population per unit area or unit volume The INSEE code is a numerical indexing code used by the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE to identify various entities including communes Postal codes were introduced in France in 1972, when La Poste introduced automated sorting. Square Kilometre ( US spelling square kilometer) symbol km2, is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of 386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. The square mile is an imperial and US unit of Area equal the area of a square of one statute mile. An estuary is a semi-enclosed Coastal body of Water with one or more Rivers or Streams flowing into it and with a free connection to the open
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once. C D E
France
For other uses, see Saint-Nazaire (disambiguation).

Saint-Nazaire (Breton: Sant-Nazer), is a town and commune in the Loire-Atlantique département of France, of which it is a sous-préfecture. The Breton language ( Brezhoneg) formerly often called Armoric or Armorican, is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. Loire-Atlantique (formerly Loire-Inférieure) is a department on the west coast of France named after the Loire River and the Atlantic In the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies a department (département depaʁtǝmɑ̃ is an Administrative division This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Subprefectures (sous-préfectures are the administrative towns of arrondissements in France that do not contain the prefecture for its department. It is a major harbour, on the right bank of the Loire River estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. A harbor or harbour (see spelling differences) or haven, is a place where ships may shelter from the Weather or are stored The Loire River (lwaʁ in French) is the longest River in France. An estuary is a semi-enclosed Coastal body of Water with one or more Rivers or Streams flowing into it and with a free connection to the open The town is at the south of the second major swamp in France "la Brière". A swamp is a Wetland featuring temporary or permanent inundation of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water Brière ( Ar Briwer in Breton) is the Marsh area to the north of the Loire Estuary at its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean. As such, it has a long tradition of fishing and shipbuilding. See also Shipbuilding (song. Shipbuilding is the construction of Ships It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a

Contents

History

The building of the French ocean liner SS Normandie in the 1930s required the construction of a massive new dock infrastructure. Origin The beginnings of Normandie can be traced to the Roaring Twenties when shipping companies started to look for new ships to replace the aging veterans On June 17, 1940 the port was swarming with British troops trying to escape from the advancing German army. Events 1462 - Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II ( The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. An estimated 9000 were embarked aboard the Clyde built troopship RMS Lancastria which was then attacked and sunk by German bombers, taking with her around 4000 victims. History Launched on the Clyde Scotland in 1920 as the Tyrrhenia for the Anchor Line a subsidiary of Cunard, the 16243  ton, 578  It is the worst disaster in British maritime history and the worst loss of life for British forces in the whole of World War 2. Churchill banned all news coverage of the disaster on learning of it and it remained largely forgotten by history. Following the surrender of France to German forces later in June 1940, the port immediately became a base of operations for the German Navy and was as such the target of Allied operations. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Kriegsmarine (English "War navy" was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945 during the Nazi regime superseding the In general allies are people groups or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose A heavily fortified U-boat submarine base was built shortly after occupation. U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word, itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot ( undersea boat) and refers A submarine base is a Military base that shelters Submarines and their personnel Its 9 m (30-ft) thick concrete ceiling was capable of withstanding almost any bomb in use at the time. The base still stands today, as its extremely sturdy construction makes demolition uneconomical.

The dry dock built for SS Normandie was the largest of its kind in western Europe at the time. A drydock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform Origin The beginnings of Normandie can be traced to the Roaring Twenties when shipping companies started to look for new ships to replace the aging veterans It was the only port capable of servicing the German battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz. A battleship is a large heavily armored Warship with a main battery consisting of the largest Calibre of Guns Battleships were Background Design of the ship started in the early 1930s following on from Germany's development of the ''Deutschland'' class cruisers and the ''Scharnhorst'' class Operational history This battleship was launched on 1 April 1939 and she was planned to be deployed in a manner similar to the ''Bismarck'', as a Commerce raider This gave the port a massive strategic importance to both the Axis Powers and the Allies during the Second World War. The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

On March 28, 1942, a force of 611 British Commandos launched a raid against the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire, codenamed Operation Chariot. Events 37 - Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The St Nazaire Raid (also called Operation Chariot) was a successful British seaborne attack on the heavily defended docks of St The commandos succeeded in destroying the Normandie dry dock, preventing its use by Germany during the war.

The U-boat threat to supply convoys across the Atlantic made Saint-Nazaire a constant target of Allied air forces. To minimize civilian casualties during air attacks, the Allies eventually devised a plan to force evacuation of the town. For three days in 1943, British and American aircraft dropped scores of leaflets warning the population of a planned firebombing raid. At the end of the third day, the raid came and burned the entire city to the ground. Casualties were light as most civilians had heeded the warning and fled to the safety of the countryside. Except for the self-contained submarine base, Saint-Nazaire remained abandoned until the end of the war.

After D-day and the liberation of France in 1944, German troops in Saint-Nazaire's submarine base refused to surrender and holed up (as did their counterparts in the La Rochelle and Lorient bases). D-Day may also refer to Decimal Day in the United Kingdom. D-Day is a term often used in Military parlance to denote This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. La Rochelle is a city in western France, and a Seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. Lorient, or L'Orient, (An Oriant is a commune and a Seaport in the Morbihan département, of Brittany. As the Germans could no longer conduct major submarine operations from the bases, Allied commanders simply bypassed these and focused their resources on the invasion of Germany. Saint-Nazaire and the other two German "pockets" remained under German control until the last day of the war.

The town was rebuilt in the late 1940s in a minimalist, somewhat drab style that belies the natural beauty of the area.

Economy

Cultural References

See also

External links

References

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