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(4 - 4) Admiral Dönitz U-Boat Headquarters

In 1941 the Germans chose to construct one of their U-boat headquarters in France. In Keroman, a neighborhood of the town Lorient a German U-boat base was built. Between February 1941 and January 1942 three gigantic reinforced concrete structures were constructed on the Keroman peninsula. They are called K1, K2 and K3. In 1944 work began on a fourth structure. The base was capable of sheltering thirty submarines under cover. Although Lorient was heavily damaged by Allied bombing raids, this naval base survived through to the end of the war. Lorient was held until May 1945 by the Germans' Wehrmacht Heer regular army forces, though surrounded by the American Army; the Germans refused to surrender.